My program doesn't work on PPC

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Warner(Posted 2008) [#1]
I can't get my application to run on a PPC Mac.
Because I don't own a Macintosh, someone else compiled my program for me.
On the MacBook, the program does run, that is the Intel version.
But on the eMacs and iMacs the program refuses to run. (PPC)

It does start up, and a BlitzMax logo flashes in the Doc, but then it dissapears again.

Does anybody have -any- idea what the problem might be? I hope it is something obvious that I (being a PC user) don't know.

I've uploaded my program (+source) here:
http://urahost.com/download.php?file=548776
The executable (.app) is under the \examples subdirectory.


Winni(Posted 2008) [#2]
That is because BlitzMax does not compile Universal Binaries. The OS X/Intel version only compiles native code for Intel Macs, and the OS X/PowerPC version compiles only for PowerPC Macs.

Somewhere hidden very deep in this forum is a "how to" for creating Universal Binaries, and you will need both a PowerPC and an Intel Mac to do so.


Winni(Posted 2008) [#3]
The executables "editor" and "runtime" of your ZIP are identified as PowerPC on my system.

So what do you need exactly?


Warner(Posted 2008) [#4]
I have both a PPC and an Intel version.
On the macbooks, the intel version runs, but when I try that one on the emacs and imacs, it doesn't. It then says: executable might be damaged. And when I run the executable file inside the App folder, I get a more specific error: "wrong cpu type in executable".

So then I tried the PPC version, but when I did, it behaves as I described above: a logo jumps in the doc, and then dissapears again, and the application doesn't run.
That is strange, right ?
So what I would like, is somebody with a PPC Mac to test this program and see if it does the same thing there too.


Winni(Posted 2008) [#5]
The Intel versions cannot run an PowerPC Macs. The PowerPC versions can run on an Intel Mac because of "Rosetta"; it's built into the Intel versions of OS X and translates PowerPC code to the Intel instruction set. There is no such thing on PowerPC OS X for Intel code, though.

I had the editor running on my PowerBook G4, and it seemed ok (since I don't know what it does or how to use it, but the editor window was there with icons and all and I could type text). The "runtime" program disappeared immediately after I double clicked it; jumping icon in dock, then gone. But I don't know how to use that one either, so maybe that's what it should do when you don't do anything else with it?

But maybe you have one of the classical endian problems in your code which causes the program to crash; PowerPC CPUs use a different byte order than Intel processors.


Warner(Posted 2008) [#6]
That sounds like what it is supposed to do. Thank you for the help. I logged myself out, and wasn't able to log in again, so that is why I reply so late. I will check for any Endian issues.
I also forgot to look which OS (sub)version is installed on the machines. I'll check that as well next thursday.