macOS using xcode to port a closed source app

[wmmk]

hi,
im a mac newbie, programming newbie, etc. i was wondering if i could use xcode to port world book 2003 from windows to mac. if not, are there there any other ways to port closed source applications? can i use something like x11 to run windows apps on my mac mini G4? sorry if this a stupid question.

 

[therevolution]

First of all, no worries about being a newbie.

Basically, the answer is no. Without source code, you really can't do much of anything. Your only option for running a Windows app is to use something like VirtualPC or QEMU. Unfortunately, they tend to run pretty slow, but it's better than nothing.

X11 is a windowing system that is used primarily in Unix/Linux, so it's not useful for helping you run Windows apps.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

 

[wmmk]

first of all, thanks for being nice to newbies.
can i use darwine for anything but minesweeper, windows explorer, and notepad?

 

[caveman_uk]

It seems to be a popular misconception - that porting is easy. It's not. It's easier if you have source code but even then the original author may have assumed a number of things that, whilst may be true on his targetted OS/processor, aren't true on the one you want to target. Obviously it helps here if the original code was written with a view to being portable - often it isn't.

If you don't have the original source code then it's not really porting. It's completely rewriting the entire application from scratch (with the added complication that you have to abide by the design decisions the original authors may have made about file structures etc.)

 

[wmmk]

ok, thanks. now, i guess i know that porting isn't easy. so, can i use darwine, or am i out of luck? i can deal with the speed of emulation, but waiting to have xp on the virtual pentiumII 46Mhz in QEMU takes forever.is there anything like backwards rosetta with WINE (or DARWINE) built in? if not, is there any way to run windows software faster than boting up windows in an emulator?
thanks

 

[therevolution]

so, can i use darwine, or am i out of luck?

I don't know if Darwine will run World Book 2003 as I don't own it. The best way to find out is to try it yourself.

is there anything like backwards rosetta with WINE (or DARWINE) built in? if not, is there any way to run windows software faster than boting up windows in an emulator?

Nope. Intel Macs are more promising for being able to do this someday - whether through virtualization or Wine - but that won't help you on your Mac Mini G4.

 

[wmmk]

can i run windows apps in qemu without having to wait for the dang thing to boot up?

 

[therevolution]

Can you run Mac applications without having to wait for your Mac to boot up?

 

[portent]

If you want to run World Book, why not shell out for the excellent Mac version? US$60, and it'll run at full speed. Plus, you get the 2006 version.

 

[wmmk]

i guess i might just have to do that. is brittanica ($30) any good?

 

[Kingsly]

i guess i might just have to do that. is brittanica ($30) any good?

Wikipedia Is cheaper.

 

[WildCowboy]

Wikipedia Is cheaper.

We've been through this on his other thread on this topic.

 

[Eric5h5]

Wikipedia Is cheaper.

As long as you don't care about minor things like, oh, accuracy maybe. Even if it's correct on any given topic, you cannot rationally count on it to remain so.

--Eric

 

[grapes911]

As long as you don't care about minor things like, oh, accuracy maybe. Even if it's correct on any given topic, you cannot rationally count on it to remain so.

--Eric

There was just a recent (university) study on this. They discovered that wikipedia has just as many errors in it as the major encyclopedias. The only difference is that wikipedia errors are fixed when found and other encyclopedias have to wait for the next edition. I'll try to find the link.

Granted, other studies have shown that standard encyclopedias are more accurate, but these discrepancies only show me that neither can be that much better than the other.


EDIT: I'm not so sure it was sponsored by a university.

 

[wmmk]

i get wikipedia is great, but it just doesnt look good to professors as a citation

 

[wmmk]

anybody know how i can use xcode to combine qemu and darwine?

 

[therevolution]

anybody know how i can use xcode to combine qemu and darwine?

You say you're a newbie to programming, so I'll try to answer with an analogy: that's a bit like walking into the Home Depot and asking "anybody know how I can build a skyscraper?" No one's going to be able to give you step by step instructions on how to do something like that. Plus, if it was easy enough to tell you on this forum how to go about creating it, it would already exist.

It's great to have a goal in mind, but you're going to need to spend some time learning programming in-depth before you'll be able to build something complex like that. You don't even say *how* you want to combine them, which says that you don't really know what's involved. I don't mean to discourage you from programming... just providing a reality check. If you want to be able to do things like this in the future, start learning now, but start with something much smaller.

 

[wmmk]

well, ive already written hello world apps in java, carbon, and cocoa!
i dont know, maybe this really be harder than i thought. therevolution, thanks for the reality check, i guess i needed it. i thought for a while anout how i'd like to go about combining qemu and darwine.
i'd like to use qemu to create a virtual pc (.qvm file), than use the code for that specific virtual pc in a qemu player plugin that i would write for darwine. this my sound limited, but with qemu, one could make as many virtual pc's as they wished, tghen send them to darwine. is this relatively sane?

 

[therevolution]

To be honest, I don't know if that's sane or not. I've never used qemu or darwine, much less looked at the code for them. You'll get a better answer by finding the forums and/or mailing lists for those projects and asking there.

 

[Kingsly]

Sorry, I had to say it...

thanks for the reality check, i guess i needed it.

Don't worry, Democrats need reality checks every now and again.

If all you've written is "Hello world" apps, I would stay as far away from this kind of coding and leave it to the professionals at Microsoft or Darwine.

 

[blackstone]

i get wikipedia is great, but it just doesnt look good to professors as a citation

A citation to an encyclopedia isn't exactly impressive either.

 

[Eric5h5]

There was just a recent (university) study on this. They discovered that wikipedia has just as many errors in it as the major encyclopedias. The only difference is that wikipedia errors are fixed when found and other encyclopedias have to wait for the next edition.

Wikipedia entries are routinely broken as often as they are fixed. The idea would work great if the world was populated entirely by intelligent, knowledgable, honest people, but alas that is far from being the case. There's never been a legitimate study showing Wikipedia to be even remotely as accurate as a real encyclopedia. (Not only that, but some of the stuff I've seen is really quite badly written, leaving aside the question of accuracy.)

--Eric

 

[iMeowbot]

EDIT: I'm not so sure it was sponsored by a university.

It was a claim made by the editorial staff of Nature, not a peer reviewed study. Britannica called BS on it big time.

 

[superbovine]

well, ive already written hello world apps in java, carbon, and cocoa!
i dont know, maybe this really be harder than i thought. therevolution, thanks for the reality check, i guess i needed it. i thought for a while anout how i'd like to go about combining qemu and darwine.
i'd like to use qemu to create a virtual pc (.qvm file), than use the code for that specific virtual pc in a qemu player plugin that i would write for darwine. this my sound limited, but with qemu, one could make as many virtual pc's as they wished, tghen send them to darwine. is this relatively sane?

I think you need to start finding programs that are Mac that will replace your windows programs. Mac has about everything you need expect games and some other examples from the engineering field that i can think of off the top of my head. all you have to do is ask google.com and it will tell you the answer. why run a windows emulator when you can run a native mac programs faster and better. this is a second post, I've seen about running windows programs on your mac. Just get the mac software that will do the same thing, leave windows behind.

Second, I would try gaining and understanding of a complier and basic computer architecture if you are interested coding. You need to understand the basic then you won't ask these seemingly innocent yet naive questions.