Mac Front Ends=Dead

**westcoastrocks** · 07-24-2007, 01:05 AM

So I really wish I could add to any mac front end. But I have no talents in that field whatsoever. I feel that the mac front ends are dead. That leaves me with a semi-functional Carputer. As far as Amp has come along it would not seem like a crazy idea that a few things could be improved on without a crazy amount of effort. I know that I would be really happy if some programmers did that. Hell I would even contribute $ for it if it worked.

So what do ya say guys? PC Front ends are kicking are butts! I really don't want to (and can't) Spend 115$ for windows vista and another 80$ for parallels just to get a functioning Front end.

Any ideas?

**pepsibobby** · 07-24-2007, 07:42 PM

its because we are a smaller croud

**westcoastrocks** · 07-25-2007, 01:06 AM

Yeah I know that we are. But we are more powerful muhahahaha. Has anyone had any lcuk with a mac front end? All links to mac front ends on this site end up dead it seems.

**2k1Toaster** · 07-25-2007, 01:13 AM

Not to start a mac vs. pc thing here (or even mac vs. pc vs. linux god forbid) but when you use a frontend, the underlying OS is completely irrelevant. I see XP for like a second before RR loads up and my music is there. If you want to be uber cool change the boot screen to OSX boot screen and change the windows chime to OSX chime. It really doesnt matter. A frontend is designed to cover up the OS, so why not choose the best front end regardless of OS. And I hate to break it to you, but since the mac went intel, they arent so special anymore...

If there was a really cool linux frontend, then I would switch to linux. why? because it doesnt matter what is underneath! And dont say security flaws and not-reliable. I have had a BSOD once maybe twice in a year and I am a delivery driver (6 hours a day in my car). And both times were when I was running on flaky cheapo memory to begin with. Put in better RAM, and stable as a rock.

I dont want to sound mean, or anything, but really my question is what difference does the OS make if the entire purpose of a frontend is to cover it up anyways!

Of course if you have a pre-intel mac, then I guess you are screwed...

**pepsibobby** · 07-25-2007, 04:37 PM

guess i am screwed...

**2k1Toaster** · 07-25-2007, 04:57 PM

Originally Posted by pepsibobby

guess i am screwed...

PPC macs are awesome for certain tasks. You just have to use what has already been developed since even mac will be (or have they already?) abandon the PPC processor. So if you arent happy with the selection of frontends, then you are on your own. That is what I meant in my own little way.

**GoHybrid** · 07-25-2007, 05:10 PM

if you program something in your favorite visual studio language, what is involved in porting it to OSX? Maybe i'm dating myself here but as i understood it, a compiler just takes your high level language and turns it into the appropriate machine code. Especially now that Macs use Intel CPUs, isn't there a compiler that will compile your code for use with OSX?

maybe i shouldn't talk about what i don't know, but i'd like to understand.

**2k1Toaster** · 07-25-2007, 05:34 PM

.NET is based on a CLI so it can be ported to pretty much any OS that supports one. OSX has one.

Here is a "how-to" to port Visual Studio to OSX: http://mac.sillydog.org/dev/visual_studio.php

**GoHybrid** · 07-26-2007, 02:59 AM

that's pretty slick. looks like i need to get back into programming....

**AnandP83** · 07-26-2007, 02:46 PM

From my experiences with the mono project, its good for basic non-gui ports. and well, a car front end is the polar opposite of that. It's getting better though, but if you have a mac, download XCode, and start tooling around with it.. Cocoa and Carbon are easily learned with some time. If that not your cup of tea, stick to windows.