Aperture Universal Binary Update in March (Crossgrade)

All bug fixes will be based on the Universal Binary
version.

What is the basis of this statement, there is no comment to match this and I am sure the audience here would be pleased to know.

What is the basis of this statement, there is no
comment to match this and I am sure the audience here
would be pleased to know.

It's actually a very reasonable statement - the way Universal binaries and development works, Apple would have to go out of thier way to provide different binaries for both Intel and PPC Macs. Indeed the very term "Universal Binary" is built around the binary being usable on both PPC and Intel macs - using the same code base, and thus the same bugs will be fixed.

That is not to say there may not be some Intel specific bugs, though probably not very many.

I also take this to be good news. As Customers we don't want code development to be more difficult that it needs to be. However one question i do have is will we see the Universal release include improvements/debug code from that of the current PPC 1.01 release ?

This might be what your inferring, just want to be clear. If its true then the Universal release next month will be a step ahead of 1.01.

I also take this to be good news. As Customers we
don't want code development to be more difficult that
it needs to be. However one question i do have is
will we see the Universal release include
improvements/debug code from that of the current PPC
1.01 release ?

This might be what your inferring, just want to be
clear. If its true then the Universal release next
month will be a step ahead of 1.01.

Yes - think of it this way, the software not running on Intel is a bug of sorts as well. So they take the updates done already, fix what areas need Intel specific support, and then add other new features around that as well.

Going forward as features are added and bugs corrected, the fixes for the Intel platform will just stay in place, and they will test newer builds on both platforms to make sure they do not break aspects of the Intel support while fixing other issues.

This makes sense. One other question around binaries that i've not found answered is this.

Will the Universal release mean the current PPC version will not show any performance degredation ? OK stop laughing everyone. Its just my thinking of how Apple releases Universal binaries and does it mean the PPC code gets changed ? If so are there any downsides. Perhaps its a question for March !

Any performance optimizations specific to the G5 can stay in the code, they just have to have an Intel equivalent written. For example, when writing multi-platform code you can do things like

#if _ppc_
DoG5OptimizedThing();
#else if _i386_
DoX86OptimizedThing();
#endif

The "Universal Binary" is actually just two completely different executables packaged into one file. Each one can be as optimized for the platform as you want. With that said, it's easier as a developer if most of your code compiles for both target platforms.

I'm hoping that with the release of the universal binary we will be up to version 1.0.2 for both platforms. Since Apple has to go through a testing cycle for this release anyway they might as well include any new bug fixes and feature enhancements.

Dual 1.8 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3) 1GB RAM, Sony Artisan Monitor, Sony HC-1 HD Camera

Sean,

To be tedious and mega-picky, if Apple took the 1.01 Aperture code and dumped it into a Universal version as you suggest, the current PPC would not have to execute the 'IF' statements and therefore may execute faster. However we are of course hoping 1.02 or even 1.1 is what gets released and will include PPC improvements to wipe out any Universal Binary overhead/branching stuff.

That's not the way things work.

The "if" statements are not really in the code itself. They are statements to the precompiler. All code that's not relevant is stripped out by the precompiler before the "main" compiler even sees the code. As such, the executable doesn't even HAVE these "if" statements in the final code itself.

This makes sense. One other question around binaries
that i've not found answered is this.

Will the Universal release mean the current PPC
version will not show any performance degredation ?
OK stop laughing everyone. Its just my thinking of
how Apple releases Universal binaries and does it
mean the PPC code gets changed ? If so are there any
downsides. Perhaps its a question for March !

The question has already been answered, but I just wanted to note that you shouldn't feel any shame in asking that question! I have seen the same thought come up in a number of places, it's a very natural question to ask as with Rosetta around for the Intel chip it's easy to get confused and think there may be a "reverse Rosetta" for the PPC when they do come out with an Intel binary (not the case, no such thing!).

So, do not worry everyone - Universal Binaries are universal in the sense that you get a the real program for both systems, that does not have to run through any kind of emulator or other transformation technology.

One other thing to add to the whole "IFDEF" discussion is that Apple has actually done alot of work like that for developers - if you are doing something that may be different between the Intel and PPC chips, there are a number of Apple libraries that do the right thing for you depending on the chip you are running on. That way your code doesn't actually have to have a lot of IFDEF's in it, you just have what looks like pretty much the same code that compiles to both the PPC and Intel automatically at the same time.