Is NWP Intel-Mac requirement in error?

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Bendrus
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Is NWP Intel-Mac requirement in error?

Post by Bendrus »

Most info and user comments elsewhere indicate that NWP 2.0.1 is a Universal App which works on both PPC and Intel Macs running OS X 10.4.11 or higher.

However, somewhere which I lost track of, and the following official offering indicate Intel only:

<http://nisus.com/free/pro.php>
Requirements:
- Mac OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger) or later.
- An Intel-based Mac.

Is this merely an oversight?
Or a hint that PPC support is being deprecated?
Is it recommended to postpone upgrading from NWP 1.3 till upgrading hardware to an Intel Mac?

Thanks
Ben Andrus
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martin
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Re: Is NWP Intel-Mac requirement in error?

Post by martin »

The situation is a little confusing. First, recall that there is NWP the application, and the 3rd party importer NWP uses to open .doc/DOCX files. NWP itself has been Universal (PPC and Intel) for a long time, and version 2.0.1 is also Universal. However, the importer is huge (250+ MB), so including both a PPC and Intel version is impractical. Thus, NWP has always shipped with either just an Intel or PPC version of the importer. Up until Lion, the PPC importer was effectively Universal because Rosetta could run PPC programs as necessary (though we made available a faster Intel-only version).

Starting with NWP 2.0.1 and 1.4.2, whose main goal was to provide Lion compatibility (which cannot be run on PPC machines), it seemed a sensible time to drop support for PPC. Thus, NWP 2.0.1 and 1.4.2 are labeled as Intel-only, and its importer will not run on PPC machines.

However, we've decided to produce one last PPC version of NWP. We don't have them available yet, but we expect to have PPC versions of NWP 2.0.1 and 1.4.2 ready by the end of this week. These will be the last PPC updates to NWP that we will offer.

Hopefully that explains it; let me know if you have any questions.
Lanx
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Re: Is NWP Intel-Mac requirement in error?

Post by Lanx »

Now I am confused, because I have upgraded NW Pro on my old Mac mini as soon as the upgrade to 2.0.1 was available. Since I have already worked with the application on my PPC Mac, I think I must have downloaded my Nisus Writer Pro from some Nisus server located in the near future ... :P

... or you have somehow found a way to execute Intel-only program code seamlessly on PPC. :wink:

I just wanted to point out: NWP 2.0.1 is already universal and not Intel-only.
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martin
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Re: Is NWP Intel-Mac requirement in error?

Post by martin »

No time-warping Nisus servers from the future are required to have NWP 2.0.1 run on PPC machines. NWP 2.0.1 itself is still Universal, and will run on PPC machines just fine for all tasks except importing binary ".doc" files, DOCX files, and ODT files. If you try to import one of those on your PPC machine, NWP will unfortunately crash. We'll have a PPC version of 2.0.1 that fixes that sometime later this week.
Bendrus
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Re: Is NWP Intel-Mac requirement in error?

Post by Bendrus »

Thank you Martin. That clarifies the situation quite a lot, explains some of the growing pains, and yet begs for a bit more clarity in the public image department, as in download options and descriptions.

That said, it sounds like it may be time to un-bundle NWP and the open-source translator, which may be inconvenient in some ways, but would be more convenient for download, clear what is happening: a universal NWP with associated links to download an optional PPC or Intel translator. Indeed there may be many who would opt to not bother with the translator. And NWP would not look so much like glut-ware at download time. :-)

Or do I misunderstand? :

Are you saying 2.0.1 is to be the last offering for translator support for PPC, but future NWP versions will still work fine on a PPC machine so long as one does not try to open .doc/DOCX documents? So that in effect, Nisus plans to abandon "official" PPC support merely due to the bundled translator?

Or is this gentle notice to PPC users to simply not plan on any further upgrades?

And finally, with the amount of significant new features of NWP 2 which so many PPC users seem eager to use, it is perplexing to read the indication that the main goal was Lion compatibility. Are PPC users considered that insignificant already?

Thanks,
Ben
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martin
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Re: Is NWP Intel-Mac requirement in error?

Post by martin »

Bendrus wrote:Or do I misunderstand?
I think you understand pretty well. But separating the importer and NWP isn't something we're going to do, even though it would make NWP look a lot sleeker (in terms of file size). Most users tend to need the file importer at some point or another.
Or is this gentle notice to PPC users to simply not plan on any further upgrades?
That is indeed the notice, though perhaps I should make it less gentle and more firm: NWP 2.0.1 and 1.4.2 are the last versions of Nisus Writer Pro that will support PPC. In fact, going forward we also plan to drop support for OSX 10.4 and 10.5. So, any NWP updates after 2.0.1 will require OSX 10.6 or later (and an Intel Mac). You're right that we need to communicate this with our customers (via our newsletter/etc).

That might disappoint some, but it really is a burden to support so many variants of OSX and processor architectures. There are many OSX and development/coding enhancements we've been wanting to use for some time, and it isn't a good use of our limited development resources to juggle compatibility for machines that were current 5-6 years ago.
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Re: Is NWP Intel-Mac requirement in error?

Post by martin »

We have ready a PPC version of NWP 2.0.1 and 1.4.2 on the version listing page. These PPC versions do not include the new and improved LibreOffice .doc/DOCX importer, and therefore won't include all the import enhancements found in the Intel version of NWP 2.0.1.
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