WinBottler - Turn your Windows apps into Apple ones

[Antonio Linares]

A free utility to build a OSX application for Apple from your Windows app:

Una utilidad gratuita que construye una aplicación para Apple a partir de tu aplicación Windows:

http://winebottler.kronenberg.org/

[Massimo Linossi]

Very nice.
But with this one, there are different applications for running a Windows one on OSX.
It is very difficult to realize what is the best choice for working and then for giving
the application to the customer.
Antonio, with all the Apple that are coming inside the offices, to have a FW for OSX
maybe is a good opportunity, not only for the developers, but for Fivetech too.

[Antonio Linares]

Massimo,

We have FiveMac, but not all Windows programmers are willing to learn the OSX API

[Massimo Linossi]

If you are serching for one that want to learn it, with a little help from the master, here I am.

[Antonio Linares]

Waiting for Apple presentation tomorrow and to know what potential market there may be for the Apple tablet...

[Massimo Linossi]

Me too.
With a friend of mine, we are also looking at the new MacBoook Pro.
All these machines are really fantastic.

[Massimo Linossi]

Here is the Apple special Event.
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/1001q3f8hhr/event/index.html

[Massimo Linossi]

Hi Antonio.
What do you think about this product ?
http://www.airplaysdk.com

[Antonio Linares]

Massimo,

It seems quite interesting, though I don't like their licensing model based on the business's annual turn-over (revenue), balancing cost against level of support.

Also, I would like to review their SDK to see how easy or complex is to use it.

[Antonio Linares]

Nowadays there are a bunch of these SDK's: Titanium Appcelerator, Phonegap (free, opensource), Rhodes, Alchemo you name it. They all promise a bright new world. However, the common problem with all of these SDK is that

1) you get very dependent on the SDK and their bugs (especially a concern if its not open source
2) you cannot use the newest features of the platform and have to wait for the SDK to catch up with their dev.
3) Most of these SDK's are in their infancy still. you have to deal with an additional layer of bugs

So I guess it really depends on your project. I would never use it for a strategic product or an app that couldn't be coded in Objective C within a few weeks.

That said these SDK certainly have their place. For example if you code in C++ for Symbian anyways, to go for Airplay is less of a decision, than when you code for J2ME for example.

Regarding J2ME: Nowadays there is LWUIT which enables you to write very compelling apps for a mirrad of devices in Java. So if you just want to target Symbian, Blackberry and Windows Mobile you might just as well take the well-known road of J2ME, without having the need to certify your program, which you would for a SYS Symbian file...

[Massimo Linossi]

Is in Fivemac the possibility to use the classes like Report, Print and Image ?
And what is the price of this product ?
Thanks Antonio.
Massimo.

[Antonio Linares]

Massimo,

The problem with FiveMac is that there are very few users, so it evolves very slowly

Actually Class TImage is implemented, but there are no Class TPrinter and TReport yet. We could easily implement them.

FiveMac price is 130 euros.

[Massimo Linossi]

Hi Antonio.
Can you say what are the classes that are already implemented in FIveMac ?
And for Report and Print, what could be the release time ?
I'm telling you this 'cause I have a customer asking me to develop a procedure
for 5 Imacs. And the only system I can use, for making almost everything, is
Realbasic, or Filemaker. The first one is a good product. The second one is nice,
but you can't do a lot of things.
If is possible, I would prefer to use FWH.
Thanks a lot.
Massimo.

[Antonio Linares]

Massimo,

Classes:
browse.prg, btnbmp.prg, button.prg, checkbox.prg, combobox.prg, control.prg, database.prg, dialog.prg, folder.prg, folditem.prg, get.prg, image.prg, menu.prg, menuitem.prg, mget.prg, pdmenu.prg, progres.prg, radio.prg, radmenu.prg, say.prg, toolbar.prg, toolbtn.prg, window.prg

functions:
or.c, strtoken.c, colors.prg

"winapi" level:
browses.m, buttons.m, dialogs.m, images.m. menus.m, mgets.m, msgs.m, progress.m, timers.m, toolbars.m, windows.m

m files are implemented in objective-c which can be mixed with C. Objective-c is an extension of language C.

[Massimo Linossi]

And what about the possibility of printing, with reports or print class ?
In this new project I must make a lot of reports, for statistic and administrative
purposes. If you think that you can add these classes, I can start with Fivemac
tomorrow.