Loud ramblings of a Software Artisan

A question I hear often is "why can't I run MacOS X on a PC?" "But Darwin is Open Source, people can make it run on a standard PC?", etc.

It won't! Read about binary protection or how Apple do build into the system a protection system for key binaries of the system.

You don't get that with Free Software.

+1: Informative

Dear Lazyweb,

I need something more recent and less broken than gcc-3.3 on MacOS X 10.3.9^[1]. Apple is (un-)kind enough to no provide updated compiler. Their latest development tools always need the latest OS. I don't care of the bells and whistles, all I need is a C++ compiler (with Objective-C++ support).

So let's start being hardcore.

From the DevToolsAugust2006 release, I downloaded gcc-5363 that contains gcc-4.0.1. It did build fine (almost). I actually need to re-run the install using sudo prior really installing. See the README.Apple.

Then I grabbed gcc_select-58 to select gcc-4 as a default. Worked fine.

But I'm missing the libstdc++. That is where I'm lost. There is libstdcxx-11 and libstdcxx_SUPanWheat-10. Both fail as they insist on configuring for Darwin 8 (10.4). WTF? I found no way to override that.

Anybody has a clue?

Update 09/15: I found out how to build it, but I just discovered that I needed a new linker because once again Apple decided to change the command-line options of the linker, like they changed XCode at each and every release. Off course the linker does not build on a stock 10.3.9 as it miss some headers. *sigh*

Tim Bray point out that Apple release the documentation for developer around iWork, their office software suite including Keynote 2, the presentation software and Pages, the DTP/word processing software.

The documentation states:

This document does not describe the complete XML schema for either Pages 1.x or Keynote 2.x. The complete XML schema for both applications is not available and will not be made public.

Wow. I love so much openness. Keynote 1.0 had an open format, but not Keynote 2.0. OK it is XML so more readable than binary files, but it is still lot of work to reverse engineer.

That remind me when I requested Apple the AppleWorks file format documentation. The reason why they didn't want to provide it is "we don't want people to write buggy documents that would crash our software", which is the opposite from Macromedia about flash b.s. (read on, I got it as a comment).

Now people brought the debate in the mailing list. Apple product manager reply is awesome:

We're not trying to sell iWork to CIOs and government agencies that are pursuing long-term document archival strategies a la Office XML. We're selling it to consumers and creative professionals who want Apple's legendary ease-of-use and innovation.

So because you are not a fortune 500 or a government you are not allowed to recover your data later? So much for the lost manuscript of some famous (to be) author (Jules Verne for example whose manuscript written in the 19th centure was found and publish in the mid 90's of the 20th century), etc.

Sorry Apple, but you are making yourself ridiculous. Even more than Microsoft, because in that case you don't have a de-facto monopoly associated to a vendor lock in.

As I mentionned before, Apple released WebKit as an open source project. WebKit is much more than WebCore, as it also contains all the MacOS X specific rendering code for the HTML engine that is KHTML. I was enjoying to have a look at the code as it would should me how to achieve a fast text renderer on MacOS X like I need for AbiWord (currently, AbiWord text renderer is really buggy on MacOS X).

So I took a deep breath and dug into the code. I'm getting depressed.

First it looks like there is not one true way to render text as they have 2 methods to draw text with 2 different cases that they determine with shouldUseATSU() based on the content of the text run. From what I can say (comments are really sparse), it depends of the Unicode chars to be rendered. But they have a switch back when alwaysUseATSU is set to YES that makes ATSU being used all the time. I wonder if Safari doesn't set it all the time using the "private API". But why? Is using CoreGraphics directly way faster but much more limited? That what I'll try to figure out.

At one point I thought about using CoreGraphics, but in 10.2, the API do not allow to draw non ASCII char, or you have to get CGGlyph, which seems to be uneasy, and the font selection does not seems to be doable from a Cocoa NSFont as there is not method to get a CGFontRef from a NSFont. All the searches on google point to an undocumented method from NSFont, but as always, avoid that is it might break in future releases.

So I had a look at WebKit, and they use WKGetCGFontFromNSFont. Perfect. I look closely and realise that this function is in a damn libWebKitSystemInterface.a binary ! Yes. No API for a much needed feature, and when Apple's open source code actually need it, it is in a damn closed binary library...

Now getting the metrics fast. Same thing. Private function in the binary library.

Why can't Apple release this APIs ? Question about how to do that has been asked for years on various mailing list with Apple engineer always responding the same B.S.. With this they demonstrate that these APIs are usefull, so why do they have to be kept secret? I can't use a binary library like that for AbiWord.

I filed bug 4257530 for that, without any hope.

And years ago, there was an attempt of a lawsuit to Microsoft for the use of unpublished Windows APIs to stiffle the one bit of competition they can't stand for...

What ? Steve Jobs claims that the Pentium is faster after claiming that the PowerPC was faster ?

The link says it all

XCode is really annoying me. I think I'll switch back to autoconf for building AbiWord on MacOS X. At least I will have the flexibility I need.

I feel like completely demotivated by Apple and MacOS X. First they make barely possible to support older OS release with newer hardware. Then I realize that lot of core APIs are only available in newer OS release, like CoreGraphics. I'm not talking about new features, but APIs of existing things.

But then some people, including some Apple engineers, come and say "why do you want to support AbiWord on 10.2 while the current version is 10.4 ?".

• First I don't have 10.4 because I don't have that much money to throw into an OS upgrade. And despite having had that machine in February, I haven't had any discount offer to upgrade. Not really incentive.
• Second, I'm not alone, there are a lot of people that still use 10.2 or even before. I'd love to support 10.1, but technically it is not possible. 10.2 however is OK, API-wise. Then come the problem of building for 10.2. We have older fink, that work for the dependencies, but when you try to use the SDK for 10.2 as XCode allow, then you are out of luck as it fails (see bug 8971).
• Third, I don't want to sponsor the upgrade push made by Apple towards MacOS X.

Some Anynoymous Coward also proposed the "compatibility lab" from Apple. Sure thing, if he want to pay for the access and the trip, because the closest location is Cupertino, California, and one need be ADC Select of ADC Premier member to access, or to get an asset from someone else (see info page). Remember, AbiWord is run by volunteers. But that is slightly overkill as all I need is a machine to load 10.2. Someone else suggested PearPC, I must say I tried that, but it was no fast on my PIII 1GHz.

Perhaps should I just follow Ulrich Drepper advice and focus on Linux (and GNOME) instead of trying to satisfy a minority. Yes, for me MacOS X become a minority. Its users seems to not care at all about Free Software, and its developers are not into the philosophy as we haven't had any developer on AbiWord beside FJF and I (and I must note one simple patch I got once from someone else). With Apple not helping, because they consider you have to pay big bucks to be a developer, as the ADC Online does provide virtually nothing, it is not encouraging.

So now what shall I do ? Continue the 2 Mac centric project I'm working on: AbiWord and Gtk for MacOS X ? Pass on and focus on other GNOME centric code ? I don't know. Perhaps I'm just having a moment of grumpiness. I was happy to see Apple releasing WebCore, but the more I think, the more I suspect it to be a smoke screen to appease developers, as nothing towards providing help to support open source project has been done, at least in the case of AbiWord, and given the state of OpenOffice, they probably don't care (but since Sun is behind I can eventually get the reason).

I see some objections like "Apple ported FireFox to Intel". Sure thing, they needed a demo and a major application for that purpose, so they couldn't have a better candidate than a big open source application that runs on Mac. They could have selection AbiWord, but it is not that popular, and in fact I don't care. It is all smoke and mirrors.

And like my rant is not finished, there are some people that ask me to drop my work on the port of Gtk on MacOS X because they want to do it. I'm just about to commit what I have done in GNOME CVS for sharing... that's what I prefer.

Robert X Cringely speculate in his latest column about a possible Apple / Intel merger. He actually has good arguments even if everything looks like pure speculation. If that file, we can still try to sell GNOME and other free operating systems as a replacement for Intel strategy.

Worth reading even to have a good laugh.

(I planned to post this before Slashdot did, but the post went to oblivion as I probably close the tab before saving)

Apple did what I wouldn't believe: opening WebKit, not just the source. They is even a bug reporter based on Bugzilla, and they provide the source of the WebKit, the part that was not open sourced before.

Thank you Apple!

Source: David Hyatt

I think I'm having a good laugh. I don't know if it is because they had the gun pointed to the head or just that everybody, including me, said it wouldn't happen, but Apple decided to switch to Intel processors. They'll deliver SDK to developers starting today (but USD$999), and plan to finish transition by the end of 2007. The other funny thing is that they'll provide Intel C/C++ compiler (what about Objective-C) perhaps to avoid having Microsoft using the GNU C Compiler and have people make fun of them with that :-) Let's hope they didn't drop GCC at the same time.

So what about free software with that ? It is clear that open source project can show reactivity by providing Intel builds of their software as soon as they can, unlike proprietary vendors that may take some time (remember how long it took for Adobe to provide Photoshop native on PPC ?).

How long before Linux run on this hardware ? I suspect you'll be able to have Intel based hardware with a decent firmware, but don't expect it to be cheap. And don't expect to be able to run MacOS X on the same PC as you can run Windows. I myself am happy to have made the choice of GNU/Linux and GNOME.

As I told in an earlier post, MacOS X 10.4 aka Tiger feature Jabber compatibilty in iChat. I found the Jabber FAQ on MacOS X Tiger for those who want to make the switch. I'd really love to see the Mac users switcher over to Jabber.

Note that you don't need MacOS X 10.4 to connect to Jabber. There are a lot of Jabber client on Mac.

I talked recently about KHTML and Apple issues, where KHTML express their concern about reintegrating Apple change to KHTML and how uneasy it was.

Dave Hyatt, feeling much obliged, replied to restart the dialog. KHTML clarified what they wanted. I personally doubt they ever get the bug database shared, as even inside Apple R&D staff the bug database access is restricted. I remember to have entered a bug about some project, I couldn't even read it after because I had no privileges. Some other seems to be doable, but for the same reason, I don't see Apple committing directly to KHTML source control, and I don't see Apple sharing the CVS of their KHTML directly for the same practical confidentiality implications.

Wait and see...

Some people wonder if I am a switcher. Hell no. I'm in fact and unswitcher, really. I have been use Linux as a workstation at work since march 1997, with a notable exception, and have switched my PowerComputing Mac clone to Linux, permanently, around 2001. My PowerBook G3 that I bought in September 2000, to port AbiWord has moved to Linux in February 2004, because I had access to an iMac to continue AbiWord development.

But what is that MacMini you have ? It is a workstation to maintain AbiWord on MacOS X. I only use it to compile test and use, and beside Project Builder and Terminal, the only other app running all the time is Camino, because it is just needed for Bugzilla. I'm not using Safari, because the bug I reported in 2003 to Apple hasn't been fixed... so it still doesn't work with bugzilla. Everything else including photo work, is done on the Linux machine. And when I need mail, I just use Thunderbird. Why ? Because I can't stand a mailer that can't thread. Apple Mail.app can't (they just do some "grouping") on 10.3.

The other thing that I miss is the Gtk based open source application I'm using, like Dia, Gimp, etc, for which I haven't found a free replacement. And my slide scanner is not supported om MacOS X either by the manufacturer... (it cost me 600 EUR at that time).

So yeah, even though I use MacOS X and do some development on MacOS X it is only for the sole purpose of reaching a wider audience with open source software. My daily personnal use of computer is still on Linux: browsing, e-mai, chat, photo, etc. And I'm not gonna switch back: my freedom is so important.

Opening a MacMini is a real pain, even after reading instructions and with the right tool.

But now MacOS X can breathe with 1GB of RAM and I can really dig into development without too much pain. With 256MB MacOS X is barely usable

I'm working at fixing bug in AbiWord, but I spend more time waiting for the machine that actual fixing. 30sec to start AbiWord in the debugger is simply too much. MacOS X development using XCode and the debugger in 256MB of RAM is just too painful. I wonder how I could do it on my PowerBook. I really need to get a 1GB DIMM for my MacMini.