On 6/12/05, Jima <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Sun, 12 Jun 2005, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote: > > On Sun, Jun 12, 2005 at 09:13:53AM -0400, Eric Dunbar wrote: > > > 2. "Fat binary" tools come on the market that will compile an app for > > > i86 and generate a fat binary that will run under both Windows and OS > > > X (and, when that happens, Linux may come along for the ride so that > > > would be good for Linux). > > > > Probably not Linux. MacOS is built on a BSD kernel which is almost > > linux compatible but won't run the same binaries, plus a windowing > > system (Aqua) that does not run on linux and is NOT open source. > > > > Linux binaries could easily be accomdated with a translation layer that > > would translate Linux calls to BSD calls, such a layer exisits for > > (under linux) for x86 Solaris directly and the binary standard of x86 UNIX. > > Err, actually, FreeBSD (at least) already has such a translation layer. > I used it to "run" Linux in a chroot environment on a FreeBSD box in 2001 > or so. Nice idea, but the developers beat you to it. :)
I think the future for Mac OS X apps is in fat binaries. Emulation/translation layers are good for those "must have" apps but commercial developers who have a name to preserve will not want to rely on something as weak as WINE. I guess time will tell what the solution will be, but I think by 2007 we may see apps that "just run" on Windows and Mac OS X, all in the same binary. Same thing with Linux and Mac OS X apps. There's little difference between Mac OS X and Linux on the lower levels so all you have to do is have a "fat binary" for the GUI functions. Again, X11 integration with OS X is just too weak for pros to stake their name on so I think they'd rather go the dual binary route. Time will tell. Apps have a long and successful history of "fat binaries" on Mac OS so it's not like it's an untested development method. Eric. _______________________________________________ yellowdog-general mailing list [email protected] http://lists.terrasoftsolutions.com/mailman/listinfo/yellowdog-general HINT: to Google archives, try '<keywords> site:terrasoftsolutions.com'
