Whither JW and TG?

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motet
Posts: 8225
Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2016 8:33 pm
Finale Version: 2014.5,2011,2005,27
Operating System: Windows

Post by motet » Tue Jun 23, 2020 7:52 pm

Apple has announced that the next generation of Macs will have a different processor (ARM instead of Intel). Not only will users who buy those need to upgrade to the latest version of Finale (and everything else), but all plug-ins will need to be recompiled for the new processor.

This raises concerns for Mac users of third-party plug-ins such as the JW plug-ins and TG Tools. I don't think there's been any action from either of them for several years, though they did adapt to the 64-bit change-over (though did Jari ever get around to updating all of them?). Anyone in touch with either of them?

Robert Patterson says on the JW Lua forum on Facebook
JW Lua has proven to be an amazing tool. It has enabled some incredible innovations like Jan Angermüller's Perfect Layout and the Finale Jetstream Controller. Such innovations keep Finale relevant in the face of competition that keeps getting hotter. For this reason, Apple's Big Sur announcement yesterday should be extremely concerning to us. It places the current version of JW Lua at end of life. Even if we can figure out a way to load unsigned plugins in what apparently will be "macOS 11", they will not make the transition to ARM without being rebuilt.

With the rewrite of document preferences in Finale 26.2, Finale has begun to leave the current JW Lua behind. But Apple's Big Sur announcement has accelerated the calendar.
JW Lua hasn't been updated since September 2017.


BuonTempi
Posts: 1297
Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 8:59 am
Finale Version: Finale 27
Operating System: Mac

Post by BuonTempi » Tue Jun 23, 2020 9:28 pm

Apple's showcase demonstrated Rosetta 2, an emulation layer that will run Intel code, including plug-ins, on the new ARM hardware. Interestingly, the code will be translated at installation, rather than at execution.
Undoubtedly, it won't be perfect, but Apple seem to be throwing the kitchen sink at this change, and they've got a lot more resources and experience than they had for Motorola to PPC, PPC to Intel, Classic Mac to OS X, and even 32-bit to 64-bit.

There was also some interesting virtualization technology featured, running Intel Linux on ARM; it's unclear whether this is a part of the OS and whether you could run older versions of MacOS inside.

But this is of course the problem with dependency on plug-ins: it's another bit of code, maintained by someone else (who, in the case of JW, offers them for free and works on them in spare time). And it abrogates the app developer from the responsibility of providing those functions.

Frankly, I'd be more concerned about whether MM can recompile....

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motet
Posts: 8225
Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2016 8:33 pm
Finale Version: 2014.5,2011,2005,27
Operating System: Windows

Post by motet » Tue Jun 23, 2020 10:29 pm

BuonTempi wrote:
Tue Jun 23, 2020 9:28 pm
Undoubtedly, it won't be perfect...
Aye, there's the rub. The plug-ins need to be rebuilt and tested on the new platform.

BuonTempi
Posts: 1297
Joined: Fri Aug 20, 2010 8:59 am
Finale Version: Finale 27
Operating System: Mac

Post by BuonTempi » Wed Jun 24, 2020 8:29 am

I meant the emulation won't be perfect. I dare say recompiled code, once built, will be very smooth.

I bought an Intel iMac in 2006, and couldn't install Finale 2005 on it, because MM's authentication code was PPC code running in emulation, and wouldn't work properly.

I had to buy Finale 2007 just to fix it, as the authorization software had since been ported to Intel. Naturally, Apple fixed the bug in the emulator in an update, but only many months later.

Modern compilers and libraries are much more flexible than earlier, less abstract implementations.

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