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Apple Win32 to OS X Porting Guide

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the now-there's-an-idea dept.

BoomerSooner writes "Apple has released a Win32 to Mac OS X Porting Guide for C/C++ developers. This Guide is to get you started porting an existing procedural Win32 application written in C or C++ to Mac OS X. It looks like Apple is getting a bit more aggressive toward Microsoft."

4 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I just ... by mirko · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Well, most Mac have not had floppy drive for a while, and you can use any (understand : "Logitech" ;-) USB 2 button wheel mouse under OSX.

    --
    Trolling using another account since 2005.
  2. Re:How about OS X to x86 Linux porting guide? by BitHive · · Score: 2, Redundant

    Man, I'd hate to be your kids.

  3. Re:Step 2 uncovered! by g4dget · · Score: 1, Redundant
    So did I. Linux probably already has many more total users than OS X (in addition to number of installations, many Windows and OS X users log into Linux systems remotely), although if you take OS 9 into account, it may be a toss-up.

    And even IDC thinks Linux will surpass Macintosh on the desktop in 2003 or 2004 (here).

  4. Re:Step 2 uncovered! by g4dget · · Score: 1, Redundant
    Please. Until you can waltz into the average computer store and have a decent selection of Linux games and applications sitting on the shelves, Linux will never be a mainstream desktop OS that Joe Sixpack wants to use. The average person does not want to download and compile software written by a bunch of dudes they never heard of, they want to slip in a nice installer CD with a name like "Adobe" on it.

    Linux does one better: you buy it, and it comes with all the applications most people would ever want to use preinstalled. If they want something that didn't ship with the machine, installing it is usually no harder than clicking on a button.

    The idea of paying lots of money for boxed software at a computer store is so outdated. And the fact that Macintosh is built around that model is going to hurt it badly.

    This isn't theoretical: trying to get some decent card games and puzzles for my parents' OS X machine has been a major chore. Most stuff only runs in classic. The selection of OS X native software is pretty limited, and it's not cheap either. My parents were asking me: why can't we just run all those Linux games? Well, sorry, they don't run on OS X. And even after you track stuff down, installing it on OS X is confusing for the average user: drag this here, drag that there, click here to let me do this, click there to let me do that, etc. Many of the games I ended up with giving them for OS X were ports of free Linux games.

    The for-pay, boxed software model that Macintosh is built around is inherently more cumbersome than the Linux model, even if you are willing to get nickled and dimed for every tiny application.

    but for the average, lazy consumer who wants a computer but decides they don't want Microsoft telling them what they can and can't run on it, a system running OS X is the only true alternative.

    Microsoft has lots of influence on Apple, and Apple won't be able to get out of DRM: they are too small and too economically vulnerable.