Apple Intel Marriage and ArchiCad?

[Anonymous]

Hi,
Any though on this news and effect of it on Archicad?
Thanks,
Joseph

[Thomas Holm]

It should make it easier to port the proccessor-intensive routines between Windows and OSX platforms. At first, GS won't have to re-port the rest, thanks to Rosetta. Later, they won't have to port as much as now, making it easier to maintain both platforms.

[TomWaltz]

It's not THAT big a deal.... the operating system and compilers deal more with the processor.

As long as Codewarrior is updated to compile for the Intel processor, Graphisoft should not have much to worry about.

[TomWaltz]

It's not THAT big a deal.... the operating system and compilers deal more with the processor.

As long as Codewarrior is updated to compile for the Intel processor, Graphisoft should not have much to worry about.

[Thomas Holm]

Well, now I've read a little of this:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/universal_binary/universal_binary.pdf

and I'm not so sure it's as easy as I thought before.

I expect Archicad 10/Mac to be PPC-only just like now. It's too late in the development process to change anything that basic.

Then, I think Graphisoft will have to re-plan AC11. This is of course an opportunity for them to rid themselves of a lot of old Mac code, that has been slowing the platform down. I'd guess they'll try to keep all the basic processor-specific code identical on Win and OSX, just having separate code trees for parts (GUI etc) that interact with the O/S.

This would mean that AC11 will be Intel-only, but available for both Windows and Mac.

I think the transition will hurt us Mac users for a while. GS will now probably not bother to port any of the now Wintel-only add-ons for AC10/Mac.

I do hope, and think, that the current Archicad/mac user base is big enough to keep them working with Mac/intel for AC11 and on. In the long run, it will of course make it easier to keep developing for two O/Ss.

And as I see it, a Mac will still be a Mac as long as it has MacOSX, wether it runs on an Intel or an IBM processor. Fewer viruses, easier handling and administration, and less crashes, are reasons enough to go on using Macs.

[Dwight]

Apple Intel Marriage = Death to Microsoft Windows.

[Anonymous]

I'm having "issues" with my new G5.

Wonder if anyone else shares my newfound concerns with Apple for releasing 10.4 too early.

This G5 worked great for two weeks. Fast renderings etc. with 5GB RAM, though not as snap/snap as I'd thought it might be as compared to my old G4. I love the 256MB video RAM compared to just 64MB on two monitors before.

Anyway, seems the entire Hard Drive filled up in the first two weeks, ...all 250GB of it. Since I've not been reborn a speed demon, I was pretty sure something bad was happening. Then the poor machine got too full even to boot.

I've clean-reinstalled just the Tiger, no Apps yet. But may go back to Panther as my Apps were doing just fine with it. (I'm using our trusty G4 for this note.)

We'd been using the G4 as an office server linking a Dell PC to my G5 through it, and setting the G4 to backup to an Iomega external drive every four hours using the Iomega software. It feels as if the backup might have gone into the G5 instead though, somehow, at the rate of 40GB every day.

Ideas anyone? Common problem with Tiger, 10.4.1 perhaps?

[Dwight]

I know what you mean. Now that computers are plateauing, nothing "snaps" anymore.

New computer owner slogan :"Gee, the new operating system doesn't slow the new machine down as much as I thought it would..."

Am on G5 2.0x2.

Other than the new large search engine disk journal files, no mystery "Filling up" hard drive issues. Perhaps you should check your BitTorrent. Those movies can add up. joke.

If the drive filled up... what were those files?

[__archiben]

Jay wrote:
Anyway, seems the entire Hard Drive filled up in the first two weeks, ...all 250GB of it. Since I've not been reborn a speed demon, I was pretty sure something bad was happening. Then the poor machine got too full even to boot.

i'm on a powerbook G4 with tiger installed. nothing getting too full here. you need to find out just what those files were, as dwight suggested. off the top of my head i can think of two things:

1. logs. did you have any third-party file-sharing apps (eg sharepoints) that are set to create detailed activity logs. or backup logs? etc . . .

2. temporary files not being deleted: everytime i start my computer these days there is something in the trash that hasn't been deleted by the system when it should've. it's called 'recovered files' or something. never emptying your trash would probably help the detritus build up. that or your permissions have been screwed up and some apps aren't able to delete the files they need to when they quit . . .

let us know if you find out more.

by the way - this should've probably been posted to separate topic of its own in this 'hardware' forum . . .

~/archiben

[Ralph Wessel]

Jay wrote:
Anyway, seems the entire Hard Drive filled up in the first two weeks, ...all 250GB of it. Since I've not been reborn a speed demon, I was pretty sure something bad was happening. Then the poor machine got too full even to boot.

There is a known problem with a third party device driver (Macally iShock game controller) which can fill your hard drive. Take a look at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300893

Could this be the cause of your problem?

[Anonymous]

Thanks to all.

Ben, thanks for hints. Tried 'em. Found nothing there. Oh well.

By the way, I submitted the same note under the frantic thread "Computer to fail, Please help." Guess you guys ignored that thread. Gotta go where the readers are, but you're right, my notes here are off-topic and I do feel guilty about it, sorry.

Ralph, through AppleCare I tried to find giant files using instructions like the one in the link you posted. Thank you. But, though the "disk full" message was unequivocal, I couldn't find any overstuffed files using: GO> /var/log .

Hmmm.

Anyway since not even Dwight, who has probably worn out the Tiger by now, has issues with it, maybe I'll just stick with 10.4.1 and keep my fingers crossed. I'll add Apps one by one this time instead of just dumping 40 gigs from my G4 right onto my G5, ...the easy way, ...with Firewire. (Instant backup.) Something probably went wrong in that operation.

Thanks again for the hints, and the sense that Macs still rule. I was beginning to be a doubter. You should see my new intern motor on his Dell laptop. He's a confirmed PC user. But this 2.7 Dual renders faster.

The PC interface to 9.0 seems just a little bit advanced compared to the Macs. Have you guys noticed that?

[Dwight]

If I could just get my keyboard to not stop working after I have twelve applications open. Restart.

That is a new issue with 10.4.1


AAAAAAaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

[Aussie John]

10.4.2 will be here soon

[Aussie John]

back On topic-from what i have read Code warrior is the worse case senario and needs a lot of rewrite.

Is that what ArchiCAD is written in? I hope it is in Xcode.

Apparently Apple has been discouraging use of Codewarrior for last five years. I have a sneaking suspicion Archicad on Mac is not going to be an easy transition. Someone please tell me otherwise. Also it will be very disappointing if Universal Binaries are not used as the PPC mac will become lemons.

I also hope in the near future, GS can chime in as to their intentions.

[__archiben]

Aussie wrote:
... as the PPC mac will become lemons.

especially if apple aren't really interested in existing mac users . . .

~/archiben

[Aussie John]

~/archiben wrote:
especially if apple aren't really interested in existing mac users . . .

~/archiben

Actually I think Apple will support PPC for a while. It seems there main apps are already written for universal binaries. What matters though if the developers dont. It would be a pain to have an office with one new intel mac and rest PPC if GS has only written the latest version for intel code. Its very tricky to run two versions of archicad in one office.

[Thomas Holm]

John, as I wrote above, I don't think GS will maintain universal binaries for very long. I think the present Archicad9/Plotmaker/Mac still is largely made using Codewarrior and also still contains some old Quickdraw code. I would guess AC 10 is due late this year or early 2006 and I do hope that they have read Apple's lips and got rid of Quickdraw - which would help if they decide to make some universal binaries.

But in the following version (presumably AC11) Graphisoft would probably aim to rationalize their programming by unifying the codebase as much as possible, using identical Intel-specific libraries for processor-intensive parts of both the Windows and OSX versions wherever feasible. I'd say this would mean no PPC version of AC11. But now we´re talking 2008 or later. No big problem for us as I see it. If we want to keep current performance-wise, we'll have to upgrade our machines anyway by that time.

Archicad presently needs to utilize multi-threading and other newer techniques that are not yet implemented. This issue concerns both OSs. Unifying on Intel will make it easier for Graphisoft.

These articles do throw some light on the issues:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/11/technology/11apple.html?
http://arstechnica.com/columns/mac/mac-20050608.ars/1
_________________

[Anonymous]

good info

http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2436

[Aussie John]

Thomas wrote:
But now we´re talking 2008 or later. No big problem for us as I see it. If we want to keep current performance-wise, we'll have to upgrade our machines anyway by that time.

That is awkward if you have to buy a new machine (Intel) and GS is still PPC.

[Thomas Holm]

Well, yes. But I would guess that by that time the Rosetta translation, which will work with most OSX apps (remember Archicad is neither 64bit or Altivec), will be fast enough to let you run AC in emulation. If the "roadmaps" indicate any truths, the processors then should be fast enough to let you run it at something like the speed you get today on a PPC machine. This should be fast enough for most tasks. maybe not advanced rendering.

But I don't think AC/Mac will be PPC only by 2007-8. If so, that means that they've killed off the Mac version completely! And I still believe Graphisoft's Mac user base is too big to ignore.

What I said is I think they will stop developing for PPC as soon as it's convenient to do so. And that I think this means no PPC version of AC11.

Still, I'm only guessing. I'm not a beta tester, and under no NDAs.