Goldenseal and Macintosh 64-Bit

The current version of Goldenseal is a 32-bit app that will not run on Mac OS 10.16 (Catalina), Mac OS 11.0 (Big Sur), Mac OS 12.0 (Monterey) or future Mac OS versions. They require 64-bit apps.

Goldenseal for Macintosh does run on OS 10.15 (Mojave), and anything earlier.

32-Bit Options

All Macs produced before Sept 2019 can run 32-bit software. Macs launched after that date require 64-bit apps, and can't run the current version of Goldenseal. To use Goldenseal, you will need to use OS 10.15 (Mojave) or earlier.

Here are the options:

If you have an older Mac kicking around, run Goldenseal on that.
If not, there are cheap ones on eBay. We suggest a Mac Mini or a MacBook. Anything with an Intel chip (2007 or later) will have satisfactory memory and speed.
Switch to Goldenseal for Windows. Microsoft is much better at backwards compatibility for its software.

If your computer is able to run OS 10.15 Mojave but you currently have a newer OS version, here are the options:

Install OS 10.15 (Mojave) on an external SSD, and run Goldenseal from that.
Partition your internal drive, and install OS 10.15 (Mojave) on one partition.

Goldenseal 64-Bit

We started work on a 64-bit update in 2014. It is a major rewrite called TurtleSoft Pro.

It turned out to be a much bigger project than we expected. It is still not complete. If you wish to view the gory details, check the TurtleSoft blog.

Most of our difficulties were with Apple's Cocoa library and the Objective-C language that it uses. In 2019 we finally gave up on that, and planned to go Windows-only. However the current Microsoft development tools also do not work well for C++ projects. Microsoft plans to change that, but their new app tools are still not ready and may never be.

We tried out the Qt framework in 2020. It's cross-platform, compatible with our existing C++ code, and fairly easy to use. Progress is going well. We expect that Turtle Pro will finally happen with it. It will build versions for both Mac and Windows.

As of November 2022, we are doing final testing, making support videos and updating the website. Best guess for completion: Spring 2023.

TurtleSoft and Macintosh

TurtleSoft started out Macintosh-only in 1987. Since then, Apple has migrated through:

Four different programming languages (Pascal, C++, Objective-C and Swift)
Four GUI libraries (Toolbox, Carbon, Cocoa, SwiftUI)
Four CPU chips (Motorola 68000, PowerPC, Intel, Apple M1).

Every change has needed more programming time than the prior one.

Most of our competitors died off long ago, in one of the earlier transitions. Ours isn't the only software that didn't make it to 64-bit in time.

If you want to keep software like ours available on Macintosh, please let Apple know that small developers like us can't afford to rewrite every few years. Our market isn't big enough. We need code that lasts decades without major overhauls. Windows provides that. The Mac currently doesn't.

Qt will provide us with a working Mac version that probably will last for the next decade or so. However, the QT Company is a billion-dollar fish swimming in a sea of trillion-dollar sharks. Some day it probably will be swallowed. Much as we'd like to avoid yet another rewrite, Qt probably won't be a permanent solution.