Digital Workshop

Maybe it's asking for snow in the middle of the summer... but will there ever be a kind of Opus to make programs that run on Mac computers.
No not on a mac with intel processor running windows but the real thing.

Grtz

Ad

IMHO -- Extremely unlikely.

Paul

I also would love a Mac Version of Opus. There are many schools which only have Macintosh computers in their classrooms. It is pity that they cannot be catered for.

SA

Extremely unlikely? sounds heavy...

are there programs like opus for MAC?


Ad

I can think of several cross platform applications similar to Opus, but this isn't the right place to discuss them.
Another point to mention is that making cross platform applications is usually not as easy as it looks.

Paul

I have been able to cater for MAC clients by producing opus flash files embedded in html that way, Safari, the native browser for MAC can execute the file because it uses the flash plugin.
Limited what it can be done but with a little imagination can be rewarding.
Happy New Year for everybody!

LOL, doesn't look like it'll happen.

Only option is to create a SWF and them supply that for end user. As with everyone I would like to see Mac export too, but think it would be expensive to implement.

The only way that might come about is that the Opus user base grows off the shores of the UK. So tell everyone about Opus.

IMHO, working through a browser is not cross platform -- there are too many restrictions working through a Flash plugin.
The only companies that have true multi-platform software started on platforms with a smaller market share (Mac, Linux) and produced a Windows version to gain access to a larger market share.
No-one goes the other way.

Paul

IMHO Paul's is right, but I also think that it's a mute point. The future is virtual machines. The current hardware far exceeds the needs of the average user and even those make use of their multi-cores don't run at full throttle constantly.

VM technology allows one hardware platform to run multiple systems in the same way as Office or Opus. Mac OS runs Vista, Vista can run Mac OS and even Linux runs Window.

Today's hardware makes the process simple and the painstaking slowness of past generation emulators (who's tried to run a PlayStation on PC?) have long since gone.

With the click of mouse, you can launch any OS from your desktop, allocate a couple of GB of RAM and a few processors and you have a second independent machine. If you have a dual monitor set-up, the machines can run parallel to each other and the technology allows you link the machines from basic drag and drop to much more advanced configurations. The technology is constantly breaking new milestones, even DX is now supported.

Obviously, technology like this is unlikely to be norm for the average user, but like all thing IT it will become simpler and simpler until the end user simply clicks a program and selects run as windows..mac..linux or maybe the giant OS companies will build it transparently into the system...?

It must be Friday,

Mack

Mack, your discussion takes me back to the days of REAL computers. Namely, the late, great Amiga. IMHO still the finest OS of all time.

At ARCO Interactive Technology Transfer Group in 1995 we had an Amiga with a complete Windows PC and a full Mac running smoothly and transparently...and simultaneously. You could exchange text, images, etc via the clipboard functions between OS's easily and each had it's native drive space.

That great Ami OS simply treated each one as a separate task. When they went down (as they still do) the Ami would simply clean up the mess and let you re-launch.

I've finally decided neither MS nor Apple will ever catch up to those days in my lifetime. I credit the Amiga OS with my success in software development as I am constantly challenging my programmers to do things beyond the curve...at least they think so. Most are simply things we did easily over a decade ago made difficult by the triumphant predatory tactics of the current bloated and archaic OS.

As to relevance to this thread, Opus is part of the key as it's extraordinary flexibility and rich tool set allow us to do things that provide a serious "wow" factor you won't get with the few remaining serious authoring tools.

While I have a few things I'd like to see Opus implement, Opus IS my wishlist to make Windows look half competent.

TGIO...Thank God it's Opus!

Dave

Sorry Dave,

Have to disagree. Real Computers take me back to my TI-99-4A (1981). There was no OS, you had to program everything using Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.

Check out the raw power of this machine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_TI-99/4A

Mack

Lordy, Mack, I certainly remember the Trash 80. Besides the impossible key board, one bump and the floppy drive would separate and you were done.

While not in a class with the Amiga, I've also said the C-64 was quite possibly the most cost effective computer of all time. At 75 bucks, it did 90% of what any modern home user needs to do and I recall that when I hit the power switch, it was ready to word process before I could get my hands to the keyboard.

The Big Lie has been so ingrained in the past generation or two that nobody actually remembers responsive computers. Heck, I'd even mention DOS as in that category. I learned AutoCAD on a dual floppy XT and I did not have anywhere the wait time I have now simply pulling up a bleeding directory.

At the time Commodore committed suicide, we were working on a VR version of the large scale offshore oil platform we'd built. We had to port it to Windows which was required a full year to simply get it to work...and then we had to reduce the video to half size mpg1 and have an API written by Paul Allen's programmers to allow multiple, simultaneous sounds that were child's play on the Amiga.

Our tests showed the full VR with all rendered 3D objects ran smoothly and glitch free.

Windows couldn't run it at all and today that ported simulation is STILL at the cutting edge and has not been replaced or improved upon.

And Windows still can't even run video smoothly. VR is now farther away than it was 15 years ago, with most products having disappeared and almost no discussion of it.

Computers now have hundreds of times the processing power and spend the vast majority of it simply running our archaic OS. I can't believe sometimes how long I spent waiting for a simple directory to display. If the Apollo moon lander had these things it would be a pile of rubble instead of Tranquility Base with "Initializing Folders for Root Display" burned into the screen.

Apologies for the rant, and this is not the appropriate place for it, but what I do today is so far from what we envisioned in the heady days before monopoly it makes me said.

If it weren't for Opus, I'd just give up. Maybe that atones a bit...

Dave

Amen! Although for the first time since I started using PCs, I actually have a development machine that could be considered responsive and I think W7 might even make those nasty directory browsing blues seem better.

Although beside the obvious anti-virus which just kills file reading speed, I also discovered recently that the NTFS last access date stamp can make directory reading sluggish

But you're right, there is overkill of bad design both in terms of hardware and software - although I think perhaps designers are becoming more efficient.

The original bolting together of processors or graphics cards or the dreadful Vista WDDM which thankful have made way for better more efficient solutions.

But there is still the ethos that 'my machine is slow' so you need a faster processor or eight cores with 20GB of memory or similar insane specification that most consumers simply will not make use of over the life of machine and encourage software developers to produce resource hungry applications.

I know in recent years Opus has had a few issues with things like Vista, but to it's credit, it does produce solid well founded applications that still run on a range of hardware and OSs.

Mack

...as you guys say. The PC architecture we wound up with was designed for word processing and spreadsheets. Before MS moved to destroy the competition except for Apple (kept as a token defense against monopoly charges) we had a variety of machines for different purposes...horses for courses.

Worst issue for multimedia is the lack of a raster-based OS. There's no substitute for color cycling, sprites, blitters, etc.

Most powerful thing we have is a dual processor T7400, 8gb RAM and 10k drives. It's still slower than I am.

Anyway, 'tis a poor workman indeed who blames his tools, I suppose!

Cheers,
Dave

Personally, I blame the universal watchmaker. Why did she not foresee the coming of the triple monitor set-up and bless us with the third eye?

Most powerful thing we have is the any key Doh!

Mack