What's Up with the Power PC only code?

[sth]

I know that NI has moved on and is not supporting PPC anymore.  However they still issue NIDAQmxBase and VISA with universal code in the applications so some of us with elderly hardware can take advantage of newer drivers and bug fixes.  Thanks to those teams!!  This is a great help and I really appreciate these universal builds.

But it is interesting that many of the utilities are released in PPC code ONLY.   This is fine for my elderly hardware but the newer hardware then needs emulators installed (Rosetta).  Notably with the 488.2 drivers, EthernetConfig, Firmware Update and of course NISpy and The Driver Wizard are all PPC only.  All built with a variety of runtime system versions as well.

Is this just a sign of corporate schizophrenia?  Lack of QA?  Or is it the usual, it isn't a bug, it's a feature and it will be fixed in the next release anyway.  But maybe the 488.2 driver folks can get some code/scripts for building universal applications from VISA folks? 

[Steven_T]

Hello Scott,

Thanks for helping us remember the situation with the NI-488.2 utilities.  We had previously thought that running the utilities from Rosetta was a 'good' work-around that most Mac users would use.  However I see your point that native binaries would be ideal since Rosetta does not come on the Mac by default.

I have filed a Corrective Action Request for this item.  I don't know when it will happen, but it is something that we can keep track of.

Thanks,

Steven T.

Message Edited by Steven T on 12-01-2009 05:29 PM

[sth]

Steven,

Can you post the CAR # so it can be tracked and finally resolved?  With the latest release Rosetta is  an "optional" install.  I do it by default and had not noticed until helping someone who had just updated.  When opening the NI applications it then prompts for the extra step of installing Rosetta.  Not a horribly big deal, but certainly something to put on the list to be fixed.

Thanks,

-sth