[Pythonmac-SIG] MacPython 2.3 - Carbon only?
Nathan Heagy
nathan@vividworks.com
Fri, 4 Jan 2002 13:53:48 -0600 (CST)
Fair enough. Also very interesting. Sounds like you are using Python's RAD
properties well.
While there is a big difference in time between 3 years and 6 years in
terms of technology both are very old. For certain halving the minimum age
of supported OSes would not cut you off from half your potential
customers. Please don't get angry with me for pressing the issue, I am
mearly curious. Do you know how many of your customers use these older
versions of your OSes?
Also the issue is complicated by the trends of Macintosh users. PC users
tend to accept that a 3 year old OS is obsolete. To compound that PC
developers already have a larger audience so they do not feel as much
pressure to reach all of their potential customers. Mac users tend to
expect their machines to be supported longer.
Just as when Apple started using PowerPC CPUs something similar is
occuring now with the transition to OS X. For the next few years Mac OSes
will be obsolete earlier than the generations before them.
Nathan
On Fri, 4 Jan 2002, Magladry, Stephen wrote:
> Our cross platform code is already under development. Our first title is to
> be released in about nine months. True 2.3 wouldn't be usable for us at that
> time, but this engine will be reused many times, maybe even concurrently
> with this first project. So a release three months after the release of 2.3
> wouldn't be totally out of the question. That would make 8.6 not even 3 and
> a half years old. Our current support of System 7.5.5, released in August
> 1996, makes our support go back almost 6 years. 3 and a half years, even 4
> years, is considerably shorter that 6 years.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nathan Heagy [mailto:nathan@vividworks.com]
> Sent: Friday, January 04, 2002 11:17 AM
> To: Magladry, Stephen
> Cc: 'Jack Jansen'; pythonmac-sig@python.org
> Subject: RE: [Pythonmac-SIG] MacPython 2.3 - Carbon
> only?
>
> > 1. MacPython wouldn't run on 8.5 anymore
> (for 8.1 MacPython
> > 2.2 is the last release anyway), and on 8.6 you would need
> to manually
> > install CarbonLib.
>
> I stand corrected. Since I do think that Carbon is the right
> way to go let
> me then say this: while, "8.6 is only about 2 and a half
> years old," that
> is only right now. Python 2.3 will probably not be released
> for nine
> months judging from 2.1's release. Add to that the
> development time for a
> kids' game - perhaps a year - and at that point 8.6 will be
> nearly five
> years old.
>
> Nathan
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Nathan Heagy
> [mailto:nathan@vividworks.com]
> > Sent: Friday, January 04, 2002 11:03 AM
> > To: Magladry, Stephen
> > Cc: 'Jack Jansen';
> pythonmac-sig@python.org
> > Subject: RE: [Pythonmac-SIG]
> MacPython 2.3 - Carbon
> > only?
> >
> > I think that this only limits what platform
> can be used for
> > development. I
> > expect to be corrected if I'm wrong however.
> >
> > Nathan
> >
> >
> >
> > On Fri, 4 Jan 2002, Magladry, Stephen wrote:
> >
> > > I guess I'll be a voice of dissention. I
> work for a game
> > company writing
> > > kids software. We try to keep our min
> specs as broad as
> > possible. As a point
> > > of reference, our current min specs is
> 7.5.5. In our up
> > coming games we plan
> > > to use Python. A requirement of 8.6 cuts
> into our
> > potential market. Also,
> > > 8.6 is only about 2 and a half years old.
> > >
> > > True we can just stay with 2.2, but there
> may be some
> > feature in 2.3 that we
> > > may really want to use. At that time, we
> would be stuck
> > between a rock
> > > (wanting the new feature) and a hard place
> (Having our min
> > spec jump up).
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Jack Jansen
> [mailto:jack@oratrix.nl]
> > > Sent: Thursday, January
> 03, 2002 2:47 PM
> > > To:
> pythonmac-sig@python.org
> > > Subject:
> [Pythonmac-SIG] MacPython
> > 2.3 - Carbon only?
> > >
> > > Folks,
> > > I'm toying with the idea of
> making MacPython
> > 2.3
> > > Carbon-only, as this
> > > would save a lot of
> development effort. And
> > there are a lot
> > > of things
> > > I'd like to do, for one
> thing I would like
> > all our MacPython
> > > goodies
> > > to run natively in
> MachoPython by the time
> > 2.3 is released.
> > >
> > > There are two drawbacks to
> this plan:
> > > 1. MacPython wouldn't run on
> 8.5 anymore
> > (for 8.1 MacPython
> > > 2.2 is the
> > > last release anyway), and on
> 8.6 you would
> > need to manually
> > > install
> > > CarbonLib.
> > > 2. Tkinter is going to be a
> problem, but I
> > think it is a
> > > solvable
> > > problem (it is possible to
> load
> > InterfaceLib-based code into
> > > a
> > > CarbonLib-based main
> program).
> > >
> > > What do people think?
> > > --
> > > Jack Jansen |
> ++++ stop the
> > execution of Mumia
> > > Abu-Jamal ++++
> > > Jack.Jansen@oratrix.com |
> ++++ if you agree
> > copy these lines
> > > to your sig ++++
> > > www.cwi.nl/~jack |
> ++++ see
> > > http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/ ++++
> > >
> > >
> > >
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> >
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