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March 05, 2006
MacIntel Compatibility Issues
Looks like i am not the only person who has run into problems with compatibility.
[Found at MacMegasite...]
Although this is the second time Mac users have switched processors, one particular issue with the Intel transition can impact many applications.
When we switched CPUs the first time, from 680x0 to PowerPC, it was possible for applications to mix code for both processors using the magic of the Code Fragment Manager. This means a native application like PhotoShop could still use 68K plug-ins.
However, it isn't possible to mix Intel & PowerPC code in the same application. If you need to use non-native plug-ins, you're forced to run the entire application under Rosetta. Of course if the application is Intel-only, you're out of luck.
Another place this can cause problems is with shared libraries, as I discovered when I tried to use SourceOffsite on my new iMac Core Duo. SourceOffsite is still PowerPC, but it depends on GTK and several other libraries, which are Intel native. In many cases you can work around it by installing PowerPC versions of the libraries in a separate directory and using the environment variables DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH and DYLD_FALLBACK_LIBRARY_PATH to trick it into looking for the libraries in a different location.
Posted by Ozguru at March 5, 2006 06:00 AM
