RE: Adobe Certified Newsletter -- notice about FrameMaker

[Bill Briggs <web@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 8:06 AM -0500 7/19/05, Stevens, Ananda \(GE Healthcare\) wrote:
>  >> This newsletter came from Adobe, and is entitled
> > >  "FrameMaker Lives!" (see the first link on the page near the
> graphic).
>
> >  Wake me up when the announcement says FrameMaker on Mac OS X ships.
> >  As far as I'm concerned, FrameMaker is dead.
>
> Actually, at this point I have slightly more hope for Frame on Mac OS X
> than I've had in years. Apple's decision to go with Intel chips should
> make cross-compiling somewhat easier.

 Hmmm. The processor really isn't an issue here. FrameMaker ran on 
many processors in the past. Even the basic UNIX APIs in OS X 
shouldn't have been a problem. I suspect that Adobe could have had an 
Xwindows version of FrameMaker running on the Mac fairly easily, but 
Mac users would want a real Mac application with an Aqua interface, 
etc. That part of the porting process and the print services were the 
big expense items. I don't see the processor swap as affecting this. 
I *HOPE* you're right, but I don't think that's the case.


> However, if Adobe does NOT do a cross-compile of whatever current
> version of FrameMaker exists when Apple switches to Intel, then Frame on
> OS X will be not only dead, but buried. Word is you won't be able to run
> Classic on an Intel chip.

 You are correct. Once Classic is no longer supported, FrameMaker is 
in the grave. But even Classic could be supported on Intel, if Apple 
decided to do it. Back in about 1996 there was the so-called "Star 
Trek" project that had Classic Mac OS running on Intel. There was 
also a group of guys in Switzerland who ported it to an Intel mobo a 
few years back. If I recall correctly there were only 6 guys and they 
did it in something like two or three months - it was a ridiculously 
small amount of time. So technologically it's entirely feasible. The 
big question is whether Steve Jobs mandates that it be so. My gut 
feeling is that he wants to leave Classic behind, but there may be 
some pressure from the user base. It's hard to call, but if I were a 
betting man I'd say that Classic will die once the Intel based 
systems ship. I guess time will tell.

- web

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