[PD] Building externals on OSX

[Martin Peach]

On 2013-10-22 13:14, Jonathan Wilkes wrote:
> On 10/21/2013 09:38 PM, Dan Wilcox wrote:
>> Errr. That's not so easy. You need the 10.5 SDK which you can only get
>> with a *really* old version of Xcode which you probably can't install
>> on anything newer than OSX 10.6. It's possible to put older SDK's
>> themselves into the "right place" but, for something as old as the
>> 10.5 SDK, it may not even work anymore. The only reliabel way to use
>> an old machine with 10.5 or 10.6 and an old version of Xcode, probably
>> Xcode 3.something.
>>
>> IMHO, at this point, it's best to drop support for PPC for new
>> versions of pd. The *vast vast vast* majority of OSX users have moved
>> on at this point.
>
> Just to make sure I understand: if someone has an old PPC Mac, they cannot
> run stuff compiled for i386 or x86_64.  There is no compatibility-mode
> or anything
> they can use to run the software.  Is this correct?
>
> Also, do you have any references for the claim that the vast majority of OSX
> users have moved away from PPC?  I find Jobs' claim that Apple doesn't ship
> junk to generally be true, and combined with their development model the
> unfortunate result would seem to be that poor people still using their once
> sleek and sexy devices are ignored along with their now ugly, unprofitable
> devices.
>

I think Apple hardware has a MTBF of about 3 years; their business model 
relies on customers junking the old model at ever increasing rates and 
buying the new one. The old one after all never quite worked properly 
because they sold it before it was ready. I have a bunch of old Macs 
around here that mostly won't start up anymore. Usually the hard drive 
or the power supply fails.
Good luck replacing either.
I'm pissed because I've lost a lot of my work that way and with the 
constant incompatibility from one version of MacOS to the next not to 
mention the uninteroperability with any other OS.
So anyway PPC is obsolete and such a machine trying to run a new version 
of any software would probably choke on it anyway.
And OSX on PPC was really slow, system9 worked better.
I think the best thing is to not upgrade at all and try to keep it 
running the old software while not stressing the hardware in any way.


Martin