The following article describes our experience with Mac OS X from it's first appearance in public until our own release of a carbonized Mac OS X version of Black & Bleu™ (v4.0).
Based on the problems we continue to encounter with each update to Mac OS X and the almost as prolific CarbonLib shared library, we have reached a point where we can no longer afford to spend any more time chasing the moving target known as Aqua.
We have been able to make Black & Bleu™ work with some combinations of Mac OS X v10.n and CarbonLib v1.n but not every one of them. To our knowledge, there are now the following public versions of Mac OS X:
- Developer Release DP4
- Public Beta
- Final Candidate
- 10.0.0
- 10.0.1
- 10.0.2
- 10.0.3
- 10.0.4
- 10.1.0
- 10.1.1
- 10.1.2
- 10.1.3
- 10.1.4
- 10.1.5
and CarbonLib:
1.0
1.0.2
1.1.1
1.2..5
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
There are likely other versions of CarbonLib that have been released to the public but we don't have a copy of them.
That makes 14 versions of Mac OS X and 8 versions of CarbonLib. That is 112 combinations of the 2. It is not practical or realistic to test all of them and THEN try to come up with fixes and workarounds for the "broken" features that each combination produces.
We have now spent more time (and therefore money) working on a carbonized version of Black & Bleu™ than we did developing v1.0 of the product. And our customers have told us it wasn't worth it. If you disagree, let us know. But before you write, ask yourself the following question: "Would I pay an upgrade fee if the only new feature offered was 'Now Mac OS X native'?". Your answer could be quite revealing. Send your comments to: info@bleurose.com
Once we are satisfied that the underlying system architecture is stable and "finalized" (no B&B features "broken" by the new version that were previously working), we will again create a functional native (carbonized) and SUPPORTABLE version of Black & Bleu™ - not before.
Based on what follows, we still consider Mac OS X as "experimental". We will continue to describe Mac OS X as "experimental" until such time as a realistic way to back up all of the files on the computer becomes available. We define realistic as a method to copy the contents of all disks onto removable media and put the contents back again with nothing missing. The computer must be fully functional at the end of the process.
As of this writing (June, 2002) Apple (or through Apple's help, any non-Apple vendor) has failed to provide any way to reliably protect yourself from data loss when using Mac OS X. Several companies claim their product does. Reports from people who have tried these products suggest that the claims do not live up to reality.
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The Saga
In November 2000, we purchased a PowerBook G3 and dedicated it to Mac OS X. It has served as our test platform for converting Black & Bleu™ to run as a carbonized application under Mac OS X. We also purchased development tools that were described as suitable for Mac OS X development work.
As of July, 2001, the dedicated computer has been completely erased (low-level format) on 4 separate occasions as we worked with each release of Mac OS X that we received. These included:
1) Mac OS X Developer Release DP4
2) Mac OS X Public Beta
3) Mac OS X Final Candidate
4) Mac OS X 10.0.0
We "froze" our system at that point to support the first "official" (golden master) of Mac OS X.
For each update, we attempted to simply install the newer software over the top of the software on the system at the time. In each case, this failed. Problems we encountered included:
1) Completely unbootable system
2) Mac OS X would not boot although 9.1 would
2) After booting Mac OS X, Mac OS 9.1 was not bootable
3) Files in the Mac OS X System folder could not be removed but our developer tools required it
4) Developer tools would not work
Each of these failures took many hours (over several days) to diagnose and most of a full day to re-install everything.
We attempted to connect the system to our company Ethernet. That failed as well. Again, after many hours of troubleshooting we found that we could only establish a one-way connection from a machine running Mac OS 9.1 and the Mac OS X machine. This proved to be unworkable since we don't use Mac OS 9.1 routinely. Ultimately, we resorted to buying a ZIP disk for the Mac OS X machine. All of our file transfers were done using the ZIP disk.
The work of converting the application to the carbonized Mac OS X format was billed by Apple as "easy". We found that it was anything BUT easy.
The first hint of things to come was when we tried to create the carbonized form of Black & Bleu™ for the first time. Our development application indicated that over 1000 changes would be required before the application could be created.
Over the next 2 months, we made those changes. The day that the we succeeded in creating the fully carbonized application was supposed to be momentous. Instead, we found that nothing worked. Some windows were blank. Others caused the computer to cycle endlessly when you clicked on anything. Nothing "fit" into the space set aside for it in each of the windows. In short, it was a disaster.
Instead of having something ready for delivery to our beta testers, we had a mess. It was at this point that the REAL work began.
Apple was no help. The documentation describing the differences between Classic and Carbon forms of the Mac OS was almost non-existent. And what there was could only be obtained as web pages on Apple's Developer Web Site. This approach proved to be tedious, slow and a HUGE waste of time.
And when we found the "solution" to a problem, several times using that solution would only result in yet more problems because the feature (described as fully supported) would do nothing.
Eventually, we ran across a mailing list that was frequented by other developers attempting to do the "Carbon thing" just like us. Questions to the list would sometimes produce viable answers. Sometimes, the answer would be "That feature isn't finished yet".
This situation has resulted in our belief of the following statement:
"Mac OS X is not viable as a day-to-day operating system. Use it for NOTHING that you care about."
We have endlessly debated what to do with our "carbonized" version. Should we throw out all the work? Believe me, we were seriously tempted to. After all, Black & Bleu™ could be set up to work with the Mac OS 9 (classic) emulator which would allow it to be used while running Mac OS X. It just wouldn't have the Aqua "look and feel".
We finally decided to release it with a list of things that are not available instead since the "traditional" Mac OS 9 is still being shipped on new Macs.
Here is that list:
V4.n Features Unavailable in Mac OS X
1) Pasting text from the clipboard into any editable text box
2) Annotations
3) Examine File for Libraries
4) Analysis Requests
5) The "About ..." window
6) Browser Activation from web links
Each of these features works fine if you start your system with Mac OS 7.0 through 9.2.2. Unfortunately, due to Apple's premature release of a "Golden Master" to the public (Mac OS X 10.0 in March 2001), it is unlikely that we will be able to fix the problems listed above since it is our policy to deliver a complete product when we ship it. Requiring you to obtain additional files from Apple in order to use our software violates that policy. And you will need to obtain files from them as the problems with Mac OS X are ironed out.
In conclusion, after working through the issues associated with moving Mac applications from System 6 to Mac OS 7.0 and again from Mac OS 7 to Mac OS 8 (both major transitions for the Mac OS), we feel that the transition from Mac OS 9 to X has been "rushed to market" and handled very poorly. Mac OS X will become viable in the future - perhaps a year from now. But today, X is SO incomplete and buggy it is almost worthless for anything other than playing with a fancy interface. You should consider it a toy for now.
Recommendation
Erase your copy of Mac OS X from your computer and consider installing the version that is shipping from Apple when you have a actual way of backing up your files to external media and putting them back again intact.
