Wisdom software for MAC

[chad@thefirewithin.ca]

Hi I have a Wisdom and would be very interested in your findings concerning the mac software please. I am going on a big trip to Thailand and would love to track the dives on my Mac.

 

[Sherwood SCUBA rep.]

I will keep everyone posted. The software engineers are reviewing and testing some of the information provided in the forum. As soon as I hear anything concrete. I will advise everyone.

 

[bperrybap]

I will keep everyone posted. The software engineers are reviewing and testing some of the information provided in the forum. As soon as I hear anything concrete. I will advise everyone.

As alternative to a full blown port to Linux or MacOS, you should have your s/w
guys look at what modifications would be necessary to run the application under
Wine/DarWine.

Wine/DarWine allow MS windows applications to run on Linux and MACOS.
In some cases the applications run unmodified
(your's doesn't, I tried - GUI comes up but it can't open the database),
The modifications to correct this will be substantially less than a full
native port to these other operating systems.

Once done, the same program and install package could install and run on all 3 OS's.

This would probably be your quickest and easiest way to market with a nearly native solution
that does not require the end user to purchase and install a licensed
copy of Windows and use some sort of VM package like Parallels, or Virtualbox.

--- bill

 

[scubadiver888]

As alternative to a full blown port to Linux or MacOS, you should have your s/w
guys look at what modifications would be necessary to run the application under
Wine/DarWine.

Wine/DarWine allow MS windows applications to run on Linux and MACOS.
In some cases the applications run unmodified
(your's doesn't, I tried - GUI comes up but it can't open the database),
The modifications to correct this will be substantially less than a full
native port to these other operating systems.

Once done, the same program and install package could install and run on all 3 OS's.

This would probably be your quickest and easiest way to market with a nearly native solution
that does not require the end user to purchase and install a licensed
copy of Windows and use some sort of VM package like Parallels, or Virtualbox.

--- bill

I've developed software originally for Windows using Visual C++ which worked with unique hardware (JTAG/cell phone development boards). One of the major cell phone manufacturers was using UNIX. Some had the bright idea to use Wine. We never worked out all the bugs and the 'UNIX' release was over a year behind the Windows release. In the end we gave up and switched to developing plugins for Eclipse, i.e. using a Java solution.

 

[AndyDragon]

Ewwwww....for the love of Pete, don't EVER switch to Java. The last thing we need is a UI that looks terrible on ALL platforms. I've yet to see a Java application that is both performant and looks nice on Windows, Mac and Linux. I still say the best cross-platform development is .NET/Mono with separate UI facades, WPF for Windows, GTK# for Linux and MonoObjC for OSX. All the business logic and data access is common code behind the facade. The nice thing is that the stuff behind the facade only needs to be compiled once and works everywhere unless you step beyond nice, managed code and start P/Invoking everywhere. Then you have cross platform backend and nice looking facade on all platforms.

 

[scubadiver888]

Ewwwww....for the love of Pete, don't EVER switch to Java. The last thing we need is a UI that looks terrible on ALL platforms. I've yet to see a Java application that is both performant and looks nice on Windows, Mac and Linux. I still say the best cross-platform development is .NET/Mono with separate UI facades, WPF for Windows, GTK# for Linux and MonoObjC for OSX. All the business logic and data access is common code behind the facade. The nice thing is that the stuff behind the facade only needs to be compiled once and works everywhere unless you step beyond nice, managed code and start P/Invoking everywhere. Then you have cross platform backend and nice looking facade on all platforms.

Matter of opinion I guess. If someone gave me a Java application and it worked I'd be fine with that. Case in point, Eclipse is a Java application. Open Office is a Java application. These are, in my opinion, fine pieces of software.

I currently develop Java and .NET applications. When something goes wrong with the Java applications it is usually pretty easy to figure out. When something goes wrong with the .NET application we usually have to resort to trying 'stuff' until it works. This is mostly because we can get the source code for the Java libraries and step into to figure out why even the JVM is doing what it is doing. Is the .NET framework open source now?

Bottom line, for me the functionality of an application and its maintainability is paramount. The look and feel is secondary. It is important but secondary.

 

[AndyDragon]

Well, I'm a strong believer that you use the best tool/language/platform/OS for the job. I don't believe in platform evangelical wars, so I apologize if I made it seem that way, my response was more tongue-in-cheek than attach. I think Java works great for back ends, open services, etc., I just think there are better options for xplat UI development.

As for open vs closed source...Mono is open source and there is Reflector for anything else, but we each use what we feel most comfortable with.

 

[scubadiver888]

Well, I'm a strong believer that you use the best tool/language/platform/OS for the job. I don't believe in platform evangelical wars, so I apologize if I made it seem that way, my response was more tongue-in-cheek than attach. I think Java works great for back ends, open services, etc., I just think there are better options for xplat UI development.

As for open vs closed source...Mono is open source and there is Reflector for anything else, but we each use what we feel most comfortable with.

I guess when I heard .NET I thought more headaches. I'm still not convinced this is the right tool for the job. I too believe in the best tool/language/platform for the job. I don't think you can dictate the OS for a mass market product. This whole conversation is about the fact that Sherwood software only works on Windows and they are ignoring a large segment of the dive community.

I know why I like Java (with a little C) for this application. Sherwood is not a software company. The software is not what they are selling. They probably want to put the least amount of effort into it as it is really something they see as a give away. The real product is the dive computer.

So cost needs to be cheap. Java is free. It is open source (right down to the actual JVM, compiler, etc.). There are plenty of free development environments (Eclipse, NetBeans, etc.). The language is mature and I don't see support for it disappearing in the next 10 years (I'm hoping to be using my dive computer for at least 5 and might like to resell it). The application is not something you use for 8 hours a day. It doesn't have to be uber-pretty. It needs to log my dives and print out the information in a nice logbook format.

You had me thinking maybe the Mono/.NET solution has merit but then you started talking about maintain three separate interfaces (more work for a utility program). I guess I see this application not as something like PhotoShop (an incredibly powerful tool that people will spend hours using) but as one of those utility programs companies write for internal use only. It is needed for the operation to run smoothly but it is not seen as contributing to the bottom line.

I guess in the end, who ever Sherwood contracts to write the software will pick whatever tool/language/platform they are comfortable with.

Darrell

P.S. I'm going to look into development tools for Mono/.NET, this might be viable for other projects in the future. Thanks.