testing for multi platforms

General
1

Hi
Considering that the average Joe has only one PC with only 1 OS, I was wondering how do you usually test yr creations for the other two OS : Cocoa and Mac

Do you install emulators ?
Do you ask yr friends with different OS to try your apps ?
Do u go to MacStores and use their computers to test you app, just pretending to be regular customer ?
Do you go to the public libraries where they usually have Linux cos it’s cheap and try to see if your app for Cocoa runs on a 15years old version of Linux ??

thanks

2

a) I program in a Native OSX environment
b) I have a older MAC running WIN7 under Bootcamp on my LAN
c) I could not care less about Linux

3

You can install and use the real OS in virtualized environments (not emulators), so you can test them there.

Consider having a Mac (a Mac mini does the job perfectly, I have one and use it). Install virtual machines for Windows and Linux.

If you want the Windows route, get a good Windows machine and install virtual machines for OSX and Linux.

I don’t know how savvy an average Joe needs to be to accomplish this, but a savvy one can do it.

Having dedicated bootable partitions for some close to the metal tests is sometimes desired (Bootcamp/rEFInd/Grub etc depending on the system).

4

My main machine is a MBPro, so I try to keep that up to date. I have a Dell that I bought on eBay several years ago for about $300. It still runs Win7 fine. I can use remote debugger to test my apps on Win with it. Like Dave, i dont do Linux. You must have your own machines. Farming your app out to friends is very unreliable.

5

JFYI: Mac and Cocoa aren’t OS’s. Windows, Linux and MacOS are. Currently the Mac OS is version 10 and is called OS X, sometimes we write it as OSX for convenience. Cocoa is a framework of OS X, a set of API’s your apps use to interact with the OS.

6

I have VMWare here installed with a couple of Windows and Linux versions.

7

I would suggest that before testing on another platform, one usually need to generate the build on that other platform. Because each platform behaves differently in terms of control dimensions, in spite of very god efforts from Xojo, generating an executable for Mac on a PC or the other way around will always produce executables with small GUI defects. Let alone the way fonts differ between platforms.

In your example, I would strongly advise a used Mac which lets you run the IDE natively, so you can tweak your software to get the best result for Cocoa or Carbon, and run the program. I personally use a Mac for OS X, and a hardware PC for Windows and Linux.

Not that a VM could not do, but on top of the fact that a VM usually brings down OS X to a crawl, the very feel of the hardware, which includes keyboard, mouse and screen behavior, is important to optimize. It also seems that PC VM on a Mac never quite show the flicker that happens on a hardware PC, as VM publishers use the Mac particular display improvements. As people who develop principally on Windows with Xojo know all too well, it is paramount to optimize against flicker : how are you going to do that if a well intentioned but overprotective VM shields you from it ?

8

[quote=113271:@Horacio Vilches]Hi
Considering that the average Joe has only one PC with only 1 OS, I was wondering how do you usually test yr creations for the other two OS : Cocoa and Mac

Do you install emulators ?
Do you ask yr friends with different OS to try your apps ?
Do u go to MacStores and use their computers to test you app, just pretending to be regular customer ?
Do you go to the public libraries where they usually have Linux cos it’s cheap and try to see if your app for Cocoa runs on a 15years old version of Linux ??

thanks[/quote]

  1. use a mac
  2. run parallels with as many VM’s as you want to test (I have about 10 I think paul is up to 15 or so)
9

Not here. I often have 2 or 3 running at the same time on my MBP
That way I can change something in OS X and then immediately test it on Windows 7 and Linux since they all have access to the same local working copy
Very handy

10

[quote=113305:@Norman Palardy]Not here. I often have 2 or 3 running at the same time on my MBP
That way I can change something in OS X and then immediately test it on Windows 7 and Linux since they all have access to the same local working copy
Very handy[/quote]

Fine. But the absence of flicker remains.

11

The VM’s do run on a fully double buffered OS and it is harder, but not impossible, to get the flickering.
I do see it on the VM’s from time to time.

The hardest thing to test on a VM is stuff that requires actual hardware like dongles etc.

12

With the understanding that OS X, Windows, and Linux are just three of the platforms we support sith RS / Xojo, my Company (TOLIS Group) supports somewhere around 24 different platforms and nothing beats native systems. Having said that, my main dev system is a Retina Mac Book Pro with 8GB and a Thunderbolt-attached Sonnet Echo Express Pro II with a 16TB SAS array. I use the latest version of VMWare Fusion for Windows and OS X versions as well as Virtual Box for Linux and other Unixes.

This has provided me with a very successful environment for developing for Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris X86, and a few embedded custom OSes.

Luckily, we have a lab full of everything from old SunOS IPX and Original pizza boxes as well as servers and workstations from HP, IBM, SGI, and other retired systems to provide what I need. Of course, we also have Windows systems back to 3.11 for Workgroups on Intel, PPC, and Itanium processors, OS X back to 10.1, and multitude of Linux back to RH 3.0.3 (the infamous Halloween release).

Using virtual machine emulators makes it easy for the bulk of my coding work, but nothing beats a real system for true testing.

13

EBay is a wonder for testing on other platforms. Plus, you’ve always got to dumb it down to an old computer with an old operating system. Up until recently, a windows app had to work on XP. An apple app needs to work back to whatever OS apple still supports.

14

Apple supports the current and last release … so 10.9 and 10.8 at this point in time.

15

I have a client who is a coach at Stanford University. A few years ago (maybe more) he still had a power pro apple. His genius Stanford athletes couldn’t figger out that he didn’t have an Intel machine :-). Yes, I’ve been teasing him ever since. He’s finally replaced his puter.

Thanks for the update. Which is 10.8? White Tiger? (Yes I’m a windows guy … engineer/lawyer).

16

Why ? HOW ? Whats up with Ebay I dont get it

17

Like Norman, I’ve use MBPro with 16 GB RAM and 500 GB SSD., Mac OS up to date and running Parallels and several Windows, Linux and Mavericks virtual machines. I make full HD image every weekend, keep every version for 3 weeks, and make daily incremental backups of my data on a NAS.
For tuning for different OS’s I use Xojo remote debugging which is very handy.
The only disadvantage of working with VM’s I see is what Norman said, programming against specific hardware like dongles, machine-controllers etc. Most of the times you get it working via Parallels, but it’s good to test on the specific hardware you’re developing for. Even this can be don via remote debugging.

18

You can buy just about any type and vintage of computer on eBay. Therefore, if you need to test on a PPC G3 Blueberry iMac, you can find one there for sale.

19

[quote=113271:@Horacio Vilches]Hi
Considering that the average Joe has only one PC with only 1 OS, I was wondering how do you usually test yr creations for the other two OS : Cocoa and Mac

Do you install emulators ?
Do you ask yr friends with different OS to try your apps ?
Do u go to MacStores and use their computers to test you app, just pretending to be regular customer ?
Do you go to the public libraries where they usually have Linux cos it’s cheap and try to see if your app for Cocoa runs on a 15years old version of Linux ??

thanks[/quote]

on my laptop (Mac), I run Fusion with test vms. Mac/Win/Lin (yes I have a Mac test vm). [ I do most of my testing while not at the home office so they get tested via the VMs]

I have a Windows machine at the home office.
I have more than 1 linux machine at the home office.
I have a ton of macs at the home office.

and all this changes regularly.

20

OK. Kind of an expensive way to test tho…