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Re: 64-bit Carbon

Hi,

Jerry wrote:

I'm one of the niche people who need 64-bit - we deal with 200+Gb
images all day. We're using a cross-platform toolkit to run on Mac,
Windows and Linux, The Mac stuff is all Carbon-based and this is
going to be a real blow and will probably spell the end for our
product on the Mac. The other platforms already have 64 bit versions
- we've just been waiting for 64 bit support on the Mac. I suspect
the Mac version of our app is probably just going to fade away.
There's no chance we're going to switch toolkits.

I'm in pretty much the same boat. Our product is a landscape visualisation/renderer app. We can hit the 32 bit address space limit with ease. We need 64 bit support, and have been hanging out for Leopard with 64 bit Carbon support since that was announced. We also have a cross platform application framework, and all the Mac stuff is Carbon. I've already started on the Mac side of things with removing the last stuff which was said to be unsupported in 64 bit Carbon previously. Having to reimplement all the platform specific stuff in Cocoa is going to be a serious problem, even if it's only due to the time needed. We're only a small company, it would be a major setback. Rearchitecting the app into a 32 bit GUI and 64 bit backend would be just as bad and probably worse, and a major issue is that we wouldn't need to do that for the Windows version and so it would be a huge black mark against the Mac version. It basically wouldn't happen.

I'm happy with the idea of needing to mix more Cocoa/Obj-C into my mainly Carbon codebase in the future, based on Apple only seeming to be adding Obj-C APIs for new stuff going forward. I was happy with the changes I would need to make because 64 bit Carbon removed a bunch of legacy stuff. To potentially have the rug pulled out from under me entirely in this manner is very distressing though. I was intending to have a 64 bit Mac version of our app ready to go for Leopard's release, but if there is no 64 bit Carbon I can't even begin to think when we might be able to do that. I'm positive we'll have a Windows 64 bit version available long before it happens though.

Sometimes as a Mac developer I feel like Apple is working against me rather than working with me in delivering apps for the Mac. I'm not talking about things like the Carbon or Intel transitions, those were pretty straightforward from my perspective. However more and more things seem to need to be done on Apple's terms and there is little flexibility. I understand that Apple have put the emphasis on Cocoa from the beginning of OS X, but Cocoa has never offered anything compelling to me as a long time C++ Mac developer, and particularly as someone who has for a long time been involved in cross platform projects. What parts of Cocoa I have wanted to take advantage of I have been able to access from my Carbon app, which is cool. I guess I should've read between the lines more and had less faith that Carbon was still going to be a feasible API going forward. Ah, well, time to go and quiz my Dev Relations guy, I guess an ADC Select membership has to be good for something...

Regards,

Jo Meder
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