Dear readers, McNeel Staff, I am sorry if this questions seems a bit provocative but for quite a while I have been having thoughts/concerns if Rhino 6 for Mac will be released even before Rhino 7 for Windows will step out of the locker.
It was said that bringing both versions on par will be aimed at, but seeing Rhino 7 WIPs pop up in such a frequent manner, not even sure if there are so many updates for mac, I am right now getting the impression that the mac version will be lagging behind for ever.
It also has been said that development for the windows version will be “slowed” down till the mac version has evolved to a certain point, I am really not getting that impression.
Is there any verdict or plan regarding this issue?
Whenever you see a Rhino 7 WIP published it has all work in also that goes daily into getting Rhino 6 for Mac ready for release.
As with the Rhino 7 WIP there are weekly releases of the Rhino 6 WIP for Mac - sometimes they are held back if a crucial problem is found just prior to the publish moment.
Much of the feature body of the Windows version is now also in that Mac version. Sure, there is still some way to go, but we are getting closer every day.
You’ll just have to do some proper testing to see what is in and what isn’t, but you can rest assured that a lot of work is being done daily in the Mac version, even if it doesn’t visually show.
Yes! How do I know? I don’t. However, besides it being a stated goal, anything to the contrary would be illogical, since great effort has been expended towards a revamp of development elements related to parity, as well as other modernizations. It’s simply being fleshed out under the moniker of Mac 6 and Win 7, as indicated.
We will ship V6 for Mac before V7 for Windows. Each developer’s priority is to work on Mac V6 issues first and with V7 issues coming in second. That said, there are several developers who don’t have any Mac issues to work on (and they are not the appropriate people to work on Mac issues.)
Will V7 for Mac and Windows ship on the same day? That would be nice and I would consider it a goal, but I don’t think we need to delay the shipping on one platform while we wait for the other platform to be completed.
that is not what i have expressed or at least not what i have meant.
it was written that mac will have priority and if thats the case as you describe, then i would also be happy to have them on par soon.
Same functionality is certainly a goal. Because of the differences in the OS’s, and the differences in how Mac and Windows users prefer to work, they will never be identical.
I doubt the third-party plug-ins available will ever be the same.
As to same release date, that’s a goal too, but I have a question.
If one is ready for release and the other is not, what service would it do for our users to hold back the release of the finished one while we wait for the other to be finished?
To be fair, there are many applications out there which look exactly the same on Mac and on Windows. Other than a different mouse pointer and a different system-depending GUI for file handling, they are absolutely on par, in GUI and functionality and that also for more than a decade, some even for more than 2 decades.
I dont mind so much if that option regarding GUI is omitted due to whatever reasons you may have, even though I would prefer very much having it look and feel the exact same way and even if its in Rhino 8 when you maybe decide to skin both packages more contemporarily and most of all equal.
Still, having the exact same functionality is definitely a priority and that plugins are limping behind or are non existent is unfortunately also due to the big difference in Mac and Windows Rhino. I am not blaming anybody there thats a long process, I can imagine.
The reason I ask those questions is because we have many small features that are still missing from Rhino for Mac that exist in Rhino for Windows and we have to prioritize our development. If those features are not preventing people from getting their work done, we tend to reprioritize those issues further down the list.
For example, we have not yet implemented the WebBrowser or the Calculator commands in Rhino for Mac. As far as I know, I nobody has said they were missing those features or it was preventing a workflow so they have fallen down the priority list.
This is why I asked what on par means to you, because - in my experience - it means different things to different people.
ehm sorry Dan, but are you guys just waiting till somebody, especially on the mac platform is going to come in here and do all clean up work and comment on which function is still missing? i am not sure if its the users jobs to do that for you. also i should point out as a reminder how thin the frequency is here regarding mac. a hand full of people at best who show up more or less regularly. many do not register here and yes i know more using a mac Rhino outside then in here.
yes i missed the calculator occasionally because i know its available on windows, but its not my job do come and beg and complain as stated above, also because the ride was really not easy for us mac users till this moment and still isnt finished.
i am motivated to have good running mac version and still there are so many bugs in the last non wip version of mac that i still dont know if that is ever going to be finished. and no i am not going to point them all out because i dont have so much time to run here and post it instead of trying to get my work done. also i am hoping that the version 6 will be far better in those regards.
so excuse me again when i react a little snobbish towards such suggestive questions.
Then you fundamentally don’t understand how we approach software development. I’m sorry that our customer involvement in Rhino development doesn’t work for you. If customers don’t tell us what is important, how will we know what to prioritize?
It seems we aren’t a good fit for your sensibilities.
Just based on the ratio of Windows to Mac developers available, I think it’s a safe guess that Mac Rhino will always trail slightly behind Windows.
As was stated earlier, a lot of the V6 development was to reduce the lag by making the code platform independent.
The goal is to get them close together but reality says we’ll never quite get there.
following the development i know all that. i am not here to role down and to justify forever. and i am not asking you guys to justify any details, that certainly is not what the topic was meant for.
i am not sure what that is again, more shy off tactics?
