Hello:
I rarely make torrents. I do not have the bandwidth to actually seed a torrent properly and I don't think its fair to others to do a half-assed job of it. That said, a really good all over Mac Client which included a good torrent maker would b outstanding.
Your programmer iw precisely right when he says he does not have time to learn a new program and OS. It show he's got some standards and understands some basic things about Operating Systems and porting – which is a lot more than I can say for others who think they are the best thing sine pink ink and turn out pond-scum ports from other OS's.
Yes, a Linux port will likely work. There is enough in common because they OS X and Linux are both UNIX OS's. The problem is not in the guts of the program, its in the user interface. To be a succesfull Mac OS X GUI programmer you have got to have run the system yoursleff and understand on a conceptual basis what makes A Mac loook and feel like a Mac. It isn't just that it has a one button mouse and a thing called a Finder.
When you find a good Mac program, even one programming an networking protocol like bittorrnet, it will look,, feell, and act like it belongs nowhere else but on a Mac. Mac users get to be funny about things Mac-ish. Things Windows users don't think matter, matter a great deal to us, and most Windows programmers don't understand the way we think.
I'll give you a good example. Microsoft Office has a Windows Version and a Mac Version. They LOOK very much alike. A Windows Office user will not feel out of place using Office on a Mac. But the similarity ends there. Office for Macintosh was witting from the ground up as a completely different program. The Windows version and theh Macintosh version share NO code. This isn't a port, its a complete and total re-write. That's the reason that Office for Macintosh hs been the success story it is. The Macintosh division of Microsft is one of its biggest money (profit) makers. The reason is that the Mac division knows how to write a good Macintosh Application.
They aren't perfect and they've scrwed up. Mac users let them know in spades ... and its the reaons why you won't find Office 97 for Macintosh --- in was withdrawn and sccraped. Office '98 for Mac on the other hand was a resounding success.
Rather no Mac version and make do with what torrent programs exist than yet another bad port from some other OS. BTW. Azureus/Vuez written in Java is not a bad program on Macintosh. In fact its a surprisingly good one. It works out of the box. As a new user I ahd no troulbe setting it up and it is still my favourite torrnet program for Mac. Transmission which is Native Mac OS X (that is written in Objective-C) gave me ntoing but probblems and ground my system practically to a halt. I'm only now giving it a second chance after the programmer (who seems to be very committed to making this work) did some extensive revisions. We'll wait and see how well it performs.
BTW. Although SUN writtes Java for Llinux and for Windows, it does not write Java for Macintosh. Apple told SUN they preferred to write their own version of the Java Virtual Machine. That's why Mac Users don't download Java from SUN. Apple writes Java for themselves and does it to SUN's standards which is why they have never been sued by SUN over their Java implementation like Microsoft was. Apple programers write Java to SUN's specifications. It works well just the way i works on Windows or on Linux.
cheers,
RimmerDawg
