Mac OS?

[Sannos]

Hi,

I thought I read on the Paizo message boards, that you are developing a MAC OS version. Is this correct?

Sannos

[chiefweasel]

Don't know but cant you run Windows applications on the Mac?

[Sannos]

Originally Posted by lonewolf-rob

Correct. We're actively developing a native version for the Mac. Our target is to have it out in the late Fall timeframe. We still have a long ways to go in getting everything properly ported, so we'll keep everyone apprised as we hit major milestones.

In the meantime, Mac users can also run Hero Lab easily within any of the various virtualization products, such as Fusion, Parallels, and Virtual Box. If you already have the need to run other Windows applications, Hero Lab runs smoothly in a virtual machine.

I saw the quoted post on Paizo message board last night and I wanted to verified it here.

BTW chiefweasel you can run Windows applications on Mac OS. Either through a Viriul machine or dual boot with boot camp.

[smalenberg]

So, will I need to buy a separate license for my Macbook, or since I'm only using 1 Windows license, will I be able to install it on my Mac with the second license?

[rob]

Originally Posted by smalenberg

So, will I need to buy a separate license for my Macbook, or since I'm only using 1 Windows license, will I be able to install it on my Mac with the second license?

The goal is to have both Mac and Windows licenses be interchangeable, and that's theoretically possible with how everything works. However, we haven't reached the point in the porting process where we can verify this will work in practice. That's going to occur late in the overall process.

[Robbie]

Running Windows programs is quite possible on a Mac (via a virtual machine such as VMWare or Parallels) or perhaps an emulator.

But no matter how many times that is said, there's no substitute in my opinion for native applications, and for that reason I'm very excited about a 'pure' Mac version.

[mvp]

Subscribing.

[Caliber42]

Any word on when more details on this will be available? Hero Lab is THE only Windows platform program that I use and I can't justify dropping more money on a virtual desktop program.

My Crossover free trial just expired so I'm more interested in this now than ever. Any information would be fantastic.

-Cal

[FifthWanderer]

I can't speak for LW, but as someone who's trained in software development...

The problem is, depending on what language HL is written in, porting it to a Mac may involve literally recreating the code from scratch! Applications like Hero Lab can be very dependent on the system architecture they're written on. LWD is faced with the problem of a) learning the Mac OS; b) maybe learning another programming language c) porting the code over to that OS & language. This on top of their already crowded development schedule.

They're a small shop and have a lot on their plate. Have patience, everyone.

Side note, Colen: Have you looked at a RealBasic? It's a tool for cross-platform development that compiles to native code on Windows, Mac and Linux. I haven't used it myself, but I've heard good things about it.

[rob]

Quick update....

We've got a veteran Mac developer working on the port. He's currently working on the nastiest part of the overall process. We're a little behind where we wanted to be, but it looks like we'll have something ready for Beta testing in early 2011. A formal release depends on how smoothly the Beta goes.

Both Hero Lab and Army Builder are written entirely in C++. However, from the very beginning, we isolated all platform-specific code into a few modules, so the rest of the product is entirely platform-neutral. Those few modules are what are currently being ported, and we're at about the half-way point in the overall process. The gotcha is that the differences between Windows and Mac and major, so those modules have to be essentially re-written from scratch, and that's a big chunk of work.

For those of you who are experienced developers, Hero Lab and Army Builder share a significant amount of code, but there are more than 500,000 lines of source code between the two. So this is quite an undertaking.