Re: MacOS X installation

[Marcus G. Daniels]

>>>>> "JX" == jxiao  <address@hidden> writes:

JX> We are currently in the process of trying to migrate SWARM
JX> onto the new MacOS X platform.  Much porting issues surfaced
JX> shortly after, such as missing library components etc.

JX> Our attempt at simply build the non-GUI SWARM did not venture
JX> well either.

The version of GCC on MacOS X Public Beta is non-standard and broken
in a number of ways.  For example, it doesn't handle nested functions
at all, and has trouble with some of the call construction routines
in libobjc.  Further, they use a different Objective C runtime library
than the GNU system does, and Swarm relies on the GNU system in a deep way.

The Apple compiler guy says they are working on merging with the FSF
sources, but I'm skeptical that these changes will make it into the
release of MacOSX or even the release of GCC 3.0.  Although GCC on LinuxPPC
works fine, Apple doesn't use the GNU linker or assembler and it
requires a different GCC backend.

It is possible to build Swarm on MacOSX, but requires installing X11
and disabling a lot of code in Swarm.  It isn't worth it now.

Like Apple says: Think Different.  Gratuitously.

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