The announcement
RReplace v1.24 is the last version to support the following versions of Mac OS X:
- Mac OS X 10.2 "Jaguar"
- Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther"
- Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger"
Versions of RReplace released after v1.24 will continue to be Universal Binaries (supporting PPC and Intel hardware) and will support these versions of Mac OS X:
- Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard"
- Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard"
- Future versions of Mac OS X.
When this change occurs users of Jaguar, Panther and Tiger will be directed to this page.
Questions and answers
Q. How many users is this likely to impact?
Judging from the numbers we're seeing in web logs, this should have minimal impact on users of our software, registered or unregistered. Most people downloading our software are already running Leopard or above.
Q. I'm impacted by this. What should I do?
You really have two choices here. You can:
- Use RReplace 1.24 on your old Mac OS X, unsupported:
Download RReplace 1.24 for Mac OS X 10.2-10.4 (Jaguar, Panther & Tiger)
- Update your Mac OS to Leopard (PPC or Intel Macs) or Snow Leopard (Intel Macs only):
We'd strongly recommend updating your OS to ensure it's current: not just for RReplace's sake but to ensure your system benefits from Apple's security updates.
A core internal package RReplace uses (Tk) is migrating from the Carbon API to the Cocoa API, in its shortly to be released v8.6. When it emerges from beta, we'll be updating to use it.
Overall, the change is a good thing for these reasons:
- Apple has left Carbon to stagnate for many years, while Cocoa is Apple's golden child. Migration to Cocoa ensures RReplace's long-term future on the platform. Well, at least until Apple brings in something else :)
- Cocoa has been getting performance improvements Carbon hasn't. Interfaces should be snappier with Cocoa.
- These changes to Tk have allowed other developers to produce other packages which use Cocoa to greatly improve platform nativeness on Mac.
While I love to see my apps support previous OS versions as much as possible, this is one of those times where it can't be done without holding back the majority of users on modern Mac OS X versions.
Q. Does RReplace 1.24 have all the features of later versions?
No. There are some new features planned for RReplace after version 1.24, that go beyond simply taking advantage of the Cocoa API. It's too early to mention them right now though.