[fpc-pascal] Re: Porting Discussion

[Richard Ward]

>> What I am curious about is why are people porting programs from other
>> platforms to the Mac?
>
> Simply because there is demand. Most of what is said goes for direct  
> sales
> to mac people, which is often not the case for these ported  
> software. It is
> a distinction that I somewhat miss in these discussions.
>
> It is about selling your windows/Linux software that wants a  
> "solution" for the
> one demented mac user that maintains the companies newsletter (and  
> which the
> helpdesk was already glad to be able to wane from classic Mac OS,  
> let alone
> move to something "horrible" as Windows).

----

I have known a few demented Mac users (of various subtypes) in my time  
(including myself,) but have never met one so powerful as described as  
to initiate an entire development project like that.  I surmise the  
situation described is a mixed computing environment.   I have been in  
such a situation but it developed into two camps where they were both  
self sufficient entities.   I suppose one could have a totally mixed  
corporate environment but one side usually wins out with the Macs  
usually being the ousted camp - if the company is not a graphics  
design firm.  I had thought all these battles were long finished in  
corporate America, but I guess not.

As a long time (and solely) Mac user, I have wanted a few things (not  
many) from the Windows world but didn't seem to have a problem living  
without them.  Only until very recently when there was something I  
really NEEDED to do for business purposes that only was available on  
Windows (a very small custom safety questionaire application required  
by a customer), I went to Circuit City and bought a cheap PC for  
$350.   The other way to go would have been to install emulation  
software on a new Mac but buying the intel hardware was/is cheaper  
than the emulator/new mac and there are fewer potential problems and  
learning curves.   Actually, I didn't have to do either and could have  
traveled 1,600 miles to take a one hour safety orientation in the  
plant but figured economically I'd be ahead.   That computer has had  
about 4 hours of use and 3 of those hours was in trying to get the  
windows application to work on my "fully configured" PC.  I don't even  
like to fool with the UNIX command line on my mac....  heh