Geeking Out

Stupid System Tricks

What happens when you compile and install the GNU version of GCC on OS X? I got it to compile, but I'm scared to install it for fear of breaking xcode or something.

Backwards compatibility

Ellen is running OS 9 only. She doesn't dual boot. This is an entirely logical descision for a person who has a large base of installed software. Why should you run out and buy a new version of ProTools or Quark just because someone decreed that your operating system is passe? the corollary of this though, means getting new software is not possible.

It turns out that the Java Just Intonation Calculator (software useful for tuning the Long String Instrument) is not compatible with OS 9. This is because the versions of Java that Apple has released for OS 9 do not contain all of the features that I (and previous developers) chose to incorporate when writing the JJiCalc software. OS 9 doesn't ship with Swing. The version of Swing that you can download doesn't have the kind of audio support that's required. The JDK 1.1.8 contains now depreciated method names. It's an ugly world on os 9.

So I learned how to compile java backwards compatibly. (javac -target 1.1 foo.java) But, there's no way to run a jar file on os 9. If, in your code, you call Vector.get(int), well, that's a priblem. You need to use Vector.elementAt(int). You would need to, say, find and replace all the get methods and replace them with elementAt. You would need to find all of the Double.parseDouble(String) and replace them with Double.valueOf(String).doubleValue(). You would need to find an OS 9 compatible audio engine. You would need to all your text editting on Os X because Os 9 would not want to open your documents. Nor would javac on Os 9 want to compile them.

The solution would be ugly. you would have to use your osx box to cross-compile for os 9 to run the semi-native audio libraries. You would need to recall long-lost release engineering knowledge. you would be truly hacking.

so if anyone wants to run the Java Just Intonation Calculator on OS 9, contact me, I've got the binaries.

still a hacker. b00-yeah.