Programming Editor for MAC ?

[1968neil]

I know this has been asked in the past......

Will the programming editor ever be made for Mac computers ?
My PC died a while back and i only have a MAC now and have no plan to move back to a Microsoft based machine due to the amount of rubbish tat comes pre-installed.
I eventually got fed up with driver issues and the like.

I have an old laptop that i can use but being able to use the MAC would be a big bonus.

Regards
Neil

 

[Eng460]

Have a look at the software downloads on the main Picaxe site under “getting started”. It says Mac users should use Axpad.

I started my grandson on Picaxe some years ago, and he was using a Mac. I seem to recall that it worked very well. It seems to be still available.

Eng460

 

[Flenser]

Another option you can checkout is Visual Studio Code http://www.picaxe.com/Software/Third-Party/Visual-Studio-Code/ on the RevEd site.
I haven't had a look at using it but as it has a modern IDE perhaps it will satisfy your requirement for being able to code and program PICAXEs from the Mac.
The downloads of the command line compilers at http://www.picaxe.com/Software/Drivers/PICAXE-Compilers/#download offers the same version v3.1 for both Windows and Mac Intel.
A check of PE v6.1.0.0 shows it includes version v4.0 (beta) of the Windows compilers. so only having v3.1 of the PICAXE compliers will be one of the trade-offs you would have to make for using this on Mac instead of PE on Windows.

 

[tmfkam]

Any of the "Mac" options are likely to only work on pre Catalina Macs.

A real pity that the software for macOS has not been popular enough for Rev.Ed to justify engineering a more up to date version. I've said before that one of the reasons I started with PicAxe was the cross platform capability. If I was looking now, I would try the Mac software, find it didn't work, then move on.

I know that any investment in time and money needs to be justified by the likely financial returns. I understand that. Profits need to be made, people need to be paid. But from my perspective, it does still seem a shame.

As a "solution" you could run Windows in VirtualBox? A copy of Windows 10 can be installed in VirtualBox but not licenced making this a "free" option. Not licencing Windows puts some restrictions on what can and can't be done, though for the time I spend using it I haven't remotely found myself reaching for a wallet to pony up for a licence.

I have also installed a copy of macOS Sierra in VirtualBox, that runs most Mac software well enough. I have not yet tried programming a PicAxe from the virtualized macOS so can't promise that works.

 

[hippy]

Any of the "Mac" options are likely to only work on pre Catalina Macs

Indeed. It is disappointing that Apple took the unilateral decision to prevent 32-bit programs from running at all. If it were not for Apple's decision all software that worked on Mac's would have carried on working just as it had before. It is a decision which has not only affected PICAXE software.

 

[Flenser]

tmkfam,

You said:

Any of the "Mac" options are likely to only work on pre Catalina Macs

Visual Studio Code is an open source project that "runs on the macOS, Linux, and Windows". RevEd did not write, or maintain, this app and the download link for VS Code on the RevEd site sends you to the site code.vsstudio.com where you can download the latest version, so I would expect it to work.

RevEd did write the "PICAXE extension for VS Code" that you need to download but these are text configuration files for VS Code which you need to install on any OS that you want to use VS Code to program PICAXE chips. i.e. You install exactly the same extensions on Windows, Linux and MacOS. The nature of these text configuration files is such that the MacOS version will proabably never matter.

The MacOS versions of the RevEd command line compliers that need to be downloaded are command line executables. I don't know whether or not they work with post-Catalina Macs. You would need to test these to find that out.

 

[tmfkam]

tmkfam,

You said:

Visual Studio Code is an open source project that "runs on the macOS, Linux, and Windows". RevEd did not write, or maintain, this app and the download link for VS Code on the RevEd site sends you to the site code.vsstudio.com where you can download the latest version, so I would expect it to work.

The MacOS versions of the RevEd command line compliers that need to be downloaded are command line executables. I don't know whether or not they work with post-Catalina Macs. You would need to test these to find that out.

You are right, I wasn't specific in my statement. I don't doubt that the Visual Studio Code works correctly. I would worry about whether the command line compilers run though.

If the command line compilers do work, a lighter installation option would be to incorporate them into Geany. An open source editor.

Setting these things up on the Mac are not trivial and require lots of patience. It is still a shame that the "Official" Mac software has not been updated by Rev.Ed.

 

[1968neil]

Indeed. It is disappointing that Apple took the unilateral decision to prevent 32-bit programs from running at all. If it were not for Apple's decision all software that worked on Mac's would have carried on working just as it had before. It is a decision which has not only affected PICAXE software.

Shame, would be so handy.......

Regards
Neil