Month: October 2015

After 3 days of hacking frenzy, Goldenseal source code compiles again as a 64-bit app.  We had to remove all of the screen drawing code, but that is obsolete and will be replaced, anyhow.

We then removed all the AppleEvents code: a mid-1990s system that Apple developed, made essential, and then abandoned when they jumped to OS X.  Fortunately, we didn’t use it for anything, and it wasn’t important in any of the frameworks.

This is a bit like going into an old house, removing the old plaster, and deciding what to do next.  The framing is solid, and there is a lot of good design to be proud of.

Coincidentally, on weekends I am rehabbing the house in Spencer NY where Turtlesoft first began. Mostly doing electrical work, but now I’m thinking it might be worth gutting that place too!  It would sure make wiring easier.  Then again, all that blown-in cellulose insulation would be a real pain.

Dennis Kolva
Programming Director
Turtle Creek Software

We are still waiting for a decision from a couple of contractors, but got impatient and started work on the conversion ourselves.   It’s a lot like doing a major rehab on an old house, and we are currently at the “gut and demolish” stage.

To start, we’ve upped the compiler to require 64-bit code, and are tearing out any old code that it breaks.  Some of it is important stuff that we will need to replace later, but 95% is early-2000s stuff in the PowerPlant framework, that we never even used.

We started prototyping Goldenseal in 1991, and this is at least the 3rd major “gut and rehab” we’ve done on it (plus a dozen or so smaller rebuilds).   Our own code rarely needs much work, but we rely on libraries from Apple and other sources, and those frequently becomes obsolete.  Tearing out the old stuff is like taking a tour through Apple’s abandoned technologies from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s.

It’s possible we will just take it to completion in-house.

Dennis Kolva
Programming Director
Turtle Creek Software

We have been taking extra time choosing a contractor, this time around.  We’ve talked with several people that sound good, but have pretty much narrowed it down to 2 candidates.  One is US based and will do a Cocoa update for Mac only.  The other will do a QT-based update for both Mac and Windows.

Once the choice is made, it will probably take 3 or 4 months to complete the work.