[TenTec] mac os X

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Wed, Jul 27, 2005 at 09:07:45AM -0500, Byron J. Watts wrote:
> yes i partially agree with you, a cheap PC might have to suffice for the 
> time being.  i'm running windows xp home here and i MUCH prefer mac 
> osX.  it's by far the best thing out there, so i'd like to toss my 2 
> cents worth in here in support of mac control software via USB or Firewire.

Mac OsX is BSD Unix (called Darwin) with a fancy graphical user
interface (called Aqua) on top of it. Except for the device names, a
command line Linux program can be ported easily to run on Os X. GUI
programs are a little harder, X windows is available for Os X (it's an
install option) and since Panther (10.3) X windows run on the desktop
along with aqua windows.

I've never accessed the sound hardware outside of an application program,
so I can't discuss that. I do know that it is not compatible with the
sound hardware in a PC in that the Mac hardware only works at certain
sample rates (11,22,44.1 kHz) while a PC sound card will work at any 
sample rate.  If there was demand for it, someone would modify a 
regular BSD PCI or USB sound card driver to work on Darwin.

Since the OS part is open source (aqua is not), if people have not started
writing a compatibility layer for X86 Linux programs to run on X86 MacOS,
they will soon. There already is a project called DarWINE which is porting
WINE a windows compatibility layer. 

The real problem with MacOS and rig control is lack of RS-232 ports and
lack of customers. There is an excellent program called (I think)
MultiMode for the Mac. It uses a serial port to control the transmitter.

Although I personally hate the language, it might behoove someone to 
write a control program in Java. Then it would, with minor modifications,
(for the serial port configuration) on almost any platform.

Another possibility would be to write it in Python running under a web
server. Free web servers are available for almost all modern computers.
Then you could access it via a web browser with a nice GUI either
at the computer, or anywhere in the world you can connect to it from.
Add a Skype interface for the audio, and you have worldwide remote
operation.


Geoff.
-- 
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