Given all the attention today on the announcement of Macs on Intel, a few questions arise:
Does Nisus feel a de javu experience similar to the "now it's OpenDoc, now it's not" events of the 1990's?
Will that change have a significant impact on NWE development?
Will Rosetta 'solve" most of the problems?
Mac on Intel - NWE?
Mac on Intel - NWE?
MBP 2.4 GHz, OS X 10.5.6
NWP 1.2, Mellel 2.6, iWork 08
NWP 1.2, Mellel 2.6, iWork 08
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If it's cocoa it has to be done with Apple's Developer Tools. So it should be tweakable. Whatever in the Steve Jobs that means.MikeKazlow wrote:Cocoa isn't sufficient for ease of translation. Xcode code = relatively simple, Metroworks code = real work. At least thats what I've read. We will need to see what Nisus says about what they use and what they say they need to do.
Hi:
We've just started looking at this issue, but here is what we know so far:
First off, your existing copies of Nisus Writer Express (and any future versions we have out by then) should just work out of the box because of Rosetta. The biggest drawback to Rosetta is that it can be slow for some types of applications. Our word processor, however, should generally run just fine.
Nisus Writer Express is mostly Cocoa and its built in Xcode. Only the older applications, such as Microsoft Office and maybe Adobe are still built in Metrowerks. There are a few parts of our applications that are not pure Cocoa; we have some code that we used from Nisus Writer Classic and we have a component from an open source project that we support that helps us read Word documents. We don't expect these to be huge, monstrous projects, but they will take some time to adapt.
Compared to switching programming interfaces, such as the switching from Mac OS Classic to OpenDoc or to Cocoa, switching processors is not that big of a deal. This is especially true since we are using Cocoa. One interesting point of trivia, by the way: had we decided to try to port Nisus Writer Classic several years ago, this switch would be a very big deal and we would probably be faced with having to start over on Cocoa anyway. So I think we definitely made the right choice in choosing Cocoa three years ago.
In short, it will be some time before anyone is going to need an Intel-based version of Nisus Writer Express. We are planning for this transition, however, and we will make the shift around the time Intel boxes become available.
-Charles
We've just started looking at this issue, but here is what we know so far:
First off, your existing copies of Nisus Writer Express (and any future versions we have out by then) should just work out of the box because of Rosetta. The biggest drawback to Rosetta is that it can be slow for some types of applications. Our word processor, however, should generally run just fine.
Nisus Writer Express is mostly Cocoa and its built in Xcode. Only the older applications, such as Microsoft Office and maybe Adobe are still built in Metrowerks. There are a few parts of our applications that are not pure Cocoa; we have some code that we used from Nisus Writer Classic and we have a component from an open source project that we support that helps us read Word documents. We don't expect these to be huge, monstrous projects, but they will take some time to adapt.
Compared to switching programming interfaces, such as the switching from Mac OS Classic to OpenDoc or to Cocoa, switching processors is not that big of a deal. This is especially true since we are using Cocoa. One interesting point of trivia, by the way: had we decided to try to port Nisus Writer Classic several years ago, this switch would be a very big deal and we would probably be faced with having to start over on Cocoa anyway. So I think we definitely made the right choice in choosing Cocoa three years ago.
In short, it will be some time before anyone is going to need an Intel-based version of Nisus Writer Express. We are planning for this transition, however, and we will make the shift around the time Intel boxes become available.
-Charles
Charles Jolley
Nisus Software, Inc.
Nisus Software, Inc.
Charles, thanks for taking the time to explain the issues related to NWE and the Intel move. It is very much appreciated.
Thanks again, Charles.
That is good to know.charles wrote: First off, your existing copies of Nisus Writer Express (and any future versions we have out by then) should just work out of the box because of Rosetta. The biggest drawback to Rosetta is that it can be slow for some types of applications. Our word processor, however, should generally run just fine.
The wisdom of your choice is vindicated. Congratulations and well-done!!Nisus Writer Express is mostly Cocoa and its built in Xcode. Only the older applications, such as Microsoft Office and maybe Adobe are still built in Metrowerks. There are a few parts of our applications that are not pure Cocoa; we have some code that we used from Nisus Writer Classic and we have a component from an open source project that we support that helps us read Word documents. We don't expect these to be huge, monstrous projects, but they will take some time to adapt.
Compared to switching programming interfaces, such as the switching from Mac OS Classic to OpenDoc or to Cocoa, switching processors is not that big of a deal. This is especially true since we are using Cocoa. One interesting point of trivia, by the way: had we decided to try to port Nisus Writer Classic several years ago, this switch would be a very big deal and we would probably be faced with having to start over on Cocoa anyway. So I think we definitely made the right choice in choosing Cocoa three years ago.
Nisus' forward thinking on the Cocoa decision will pay dividends for years to come.In short, it will be some time before anyone is going to need an Intel-based version of Nisus Writer Express. We are planning for this transition, however, and we will make the shift around the time Intel boxes become available.
Thanks again, Charles.
MBP 2.4 GHz, OS X 10.5.6
NWP 1.2, Mellel 2.6, iWork 08
NWP 1.2, Mellel 2.6, iWork 08