How much work will need to go into modifying Mac software?
It will depend a lot on the program. Programs written entirely using Apple’s Cocoa frameworks will generally come over quickly. Programs originally on OS 9, which largely use the Carbon development system, will require more work. Programs that directly address the processor, or that take advantage of Velocity Engine, will need lots of tweaks. Still, most developers we’ve spoken with to are fairly positive that moving to Intel won’t be a huge impediment for them — meaning they’ll be able to make Intel-ready versions of their programs fairly rapidly. Owing to its NextStep/OpenStep heritage, Mac OS X has been designed from day one as a cross-platform operating system. That means that programmers have been encouraged to write programs that talk to various frameworks that are built by Apple and are abstracted from specific hardware. That’s a good thing, because when there’s a big change — like, say, moving from PowerPC to Intel — the burden of compatibility falls on the Apple engineers resp
