Why don’t vex make a RobotC for Macs/OSX systems? Don’t get it…lol
dunno
Insert Apple joke here…
Ok, real answer is probably that there simply isn’t enough demand to justify the cost of porting the software over to OSx and all the future maintenance that goes with it.
Personally I would prefer that they make Robot C for Linux so that even outdated crappy computers that schools have lying around could be booted up with Linux for free and be put in robotics labs. Cheap alternative for schools in terms of computer costs. A bonus of that would be that I assume if they can make it run well for Linux that is wouldn’t take much, if any, work to get it to run on OSx.
Apple has a reputation of “walling” up their OSes in an attempt to prevent viruses. Even though the “walls” are weaker on OSX, I think this is part of the problem.
However, at the last tournament my team attended, the hosts had multiple macs running windows. You could simply install an emulator for windows and install RobotC on that.
I believe this isn’t quite as straight forward for the non techy. Correct me if I’m wrong, but when using Parallels or some such Windows emulator on OSx you will likely have driver issues for things such as the wireless programming dongle while using RobotC.
That’s a cute joke. I believe you meant “make more money”. (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself)
It would be nice 
However not enough schools have computers running OS X and don’t have at least an old crappy windows computer to really justify supporting a version of Robot C on OS X.
Im sort of wondering what you mean here. The reason OS X is a lot more resistant to getting malware is because their are so many more computers and networks on windows computers that malware developers generally go for the easier path of developing Windows Malware. I would also argue that changes to OSX like Rootless may be annoying, but make it a LOT harder to take over a computer running OSX.
In terms of running it on OS X. I have tried and had very little success in this area. You could run PROS or ConVex, or you can fore fit the ability to download your programs onto your robot and run RobotC under either a virtual machine or under wine (crossover works nicely). I have not had a chance to test JPearmans OS X cortex driver but apparently some people have had some success with that. Also take a look at the referenced thread where JPearman discusses this exact subject.
OSX support is a wish list item, however, there are significant business and technical issues to overcome.
ROBOTC runs well under VMware and also Parallels, I use ROBOTC almost exclusively in VMware emulation, usually with Windows 7. The majority of development is also done using Visual Studio running under VMware.
Has anyone figured out a way to winebottle RobotC?
Without program download support. But winebottler was my first thought, had a few issues with it but at least got it running. Can’t remember how though.
To add to James’ comment; we have a series of guides for setting up and configuring ROBOTC for use with a VMWare or Parallels VM.
VEX Cortex VM Guide: http://help.robotc.net/WebHelpVEX/index.htm#Resources/topics/Getting_Started/Virtual_Machine/Parallels/Connecting_to_the_Cortex.htm
Lol that defeats the purpose of buyin g a Mac .
Not Really. There are great programs for Macs plus the hardware can be really good too.
ROBOTC (I’m guessing) has a crapton of Win32 calls, to at least draw it’s GUI elements, of which there are many. In addition to that Windows treats device access fairly differently than in Unix environments.
What could be done is to completely rewrite large portions of the code into say a Qt environment that supports multiplatform GUI generation.
Even so, going multiplatform essentially increases the level of support needed by an order of magnitude.
A fully multiplatform, WIndows, Linux, OS X ROBOTC would be amazing, but consider that we’re not just talking about ROBOTC for VEX, we’re also talking about the other versions of the product, such as the LEGO NXT version, etc.
This would be a considerable effort and would need to be justified in some way, either by a large demand or a cash incentive.
PROS on the other hand is written in Java, on top of Eclipse and Java is natively multiplatform.
Also, if a new Cortex is released at worlds (or at least announced) then the game could change significantly, we have to assume that the ROBOTC guys have the new Cortex and have been busy working on making that work. I can speculate that they may have even had input on the design and specifications of the new brain (based on pieces of information I really can’t talk about).
if u wanna buy a mac, you want the build quality and the osx system. WIndows takes up so much storage and slo af
Windows 10 will run quite well with 2 GB of ram. El Capitan barely runs with 4 GB.
Windows 10 64 bit requires about 11GB of disk space after install (about 3.5 before the install). El Capitan required a 6GB download just for the update. I cannot find specs for how large that is after install, but presumably much larger than 11GB.
Therefore, both of your statements are factually incorrect. (That is common from Apple Fans)
your statements are not true. I’m not saying mac is better, but why would you wanna install windows after buying a mac? Just buy like a Dell XPS then
You could run parallels and get windows and what ever version of osx you want…
You claim my statements are not true. Please show me evidence?? Because I actually researched the numbers I posted. (I also manage our school network, which has both windows and apple desktops … so I have real experience with this … every day)
Personally, I agree that installing windows on a mac is a silly thing to do. I would prefer a Dell XPS over a Mac with Windows. But everyone has their own tastes.
I’m using RobotC through Parallels without any problems. Didn’t even have to do anything special, just installed RobotC (it installed the drivers automatically), plugged in the programming cable, and downloaded successfully on the first try.