Is Apple working on a Carbon-like API for Win32?

Jump to First Reply
skipwileyskipwiley
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Since NeXT had the experience running Cocoa applications on several different platforms (NeXT, WinNT, Solaris) couldn't they do the opposite? What if Apple looked at the Win32 API and stripped out any code that called hardware directly, replace those calls with new ones and require the programmer to rewrite 10-20% of their code to achieve OSX compatibility from their Win32 native apps. Basically what Apple did with Carbon. Maybe call it Mocha!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    xoolxool Posts: 2,460member
    While nice in theory, this is practically impossible. Sorry.



    The best is Apple releasing WinCocoa, Cocoa apps that one develops on Macs but can be compiled to run on multiple platforms. The other realistic option is an integrated VPC layer that can integrate Windows apps into OS X (similar to Classic). Hell, microsoft is already doing this in Win XP for running older windows programs.



    Carbon worked because the underlying macintosh was the same, so the majority of the calls could be juggled in OS X. The Win32 API is the opposite and we're ignoring things like optimization and endien-ness.
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 2 of 3
    skipwileyskipwiley Posts: 8member
    [quote] Carbon worked because the underlying macintosh was the same, so the majority of the calls could be juggled in OS X. The Win32 API is the opposite and we're ignoring things like optimization and endien-ness. <hr></blockquote>



    Yes I am probably optimistic about 10-20% but aren't most of the API calls in any modern OS relatively platform independant in their precompiled state C, C+, etc.., isn't that why most POSIX compliant source code can be compiled to run on any platform that is POSIX compliant. My idea is for Apple to lessen the work required for Windows programmers to convert their Applications to OSX with the least amount of work. Optimization, Little Endian vs. Big Endian are concerns with compiled binaries, not so much with raw source code. Apple's "Mocha" Compiler would optimize and create a binary to run correctly on PowerPC without the Windows programmer necessarily needing to be concerned about those issues. I am not saying this would work for all applications but maybe stuff like Morpheus, CorelDraw, small shareware programs, etc...
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 3 of 3
    razzfazzrazzfazz Posts: 728member
    [quote]Originally posted by skipwiley:

    <strong>Optimization, Little Endian vs. Big Endian are concerns with compiled binaries, not so much with raw source code. Apple's "Mocha" Compiler would optimize and create a binary to run correctly on PowerPC without the Windows programmer necessarily needing to be concerned about those issues. I am not saying this would work for all applications but maybe stuff like Morpheus, CorelDraw, small shareware programs, etc...</strong><hr></blockquote>



    This usually works pretty well in the UNIX / POSIX camp, as everyone there seems to be keen on making their software platform-independent in the first place, or at least isolate platform-specific parts as far as possible.

    Since many windows programs were never intended to run on anything but Win/x86, I imagine developers were less reluctant to add speed via assembly-level optimizations and direct Win32-API-calls (i.e. no abstraction), at least in big apps like Corel etc.

    Shareware and smaller apps, on the other hand, have a pretty good chance of being written in Visual Basic or Delphi, which basically void any multi-platform capabilities.



    Bye,

    RazzFazz
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
Sign In or Register to comment.