PeteThayer
Senior Member
Posts:347
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| 29 Aug 2009 08:49 PM |
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Our Mac version 3.9.8.1 works great on OS X 10.3.9 through 10.5.8
Installing Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) causes the program to stop working.
We are working on a solution. If you run into this, please click the button on your Mac screen that sends Apple the error message.
You may want to wait for OS X 10.6.1 or wait for us to find a solution. I will provide a progress report here every few days.
Snow Leopard was released yesterday.
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Peter W. Thayer, President
Thayer Birding Software
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PeteThayer
Senior Member
Posts:347
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| 02 Sep 2009 07:53 PM |
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Our chief programmer said that the problem is in the way Snow Leopard treats ".nib" files.
nib is a file extension and stands for NeXTSTEP Interface Builder. These are files that contain graphical resources used by the application and basically tell the program where to place all the buttoms and boxes on a computer screen.
So far there does not appear to be an easy solution to this problem with Snow Leopard.
Do NOT install Snow Leopard if you have a Mac version of our software and you want to be able to use it in the future.
As soon as we (or Apple) have a solution, we will let you know. We are hearing of hundreds of other programs that are also unable to run using Snow Leopard -- including some HP printers. |
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Peter W. Thayer, President
Thayer Birding Software
ThayerBirding.com
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PeteThayer
Senior Member
Posts:347
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| 09 Sep 2009 07:47 PM |
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The problems with Snow Leopard are buried deep within the new "library" that ships with Snow Leopard. We cannot make simple coding changes to our program to make it work.
There are syntax differences and a host of other issues involved.
We will be waiting a few weeks to see if Apple makes any immediate changes -- we were certainly not alone in having Snow Leopard crash out program.
Our programmers are looking into the time it would take to create a Mac disc to run on Snow Leopard. There are hundreds and hundreds of places in our code that will need to be changed. We are almost certain that a simple download will not fix the problem.
I will let you know in a few weeks what the situation is. For now, it is pretty clear that we will not have anything that runs on Snow Leopard for the next few months.
Our current Mac version 3.9.8.1 runs perfectly on the Operating systems listed on the box -- Panther 10.3.9, Tiger 10.4 and Leopard 10.5.
The moral here is: Be very careful when installing new operating systems on your computer -- they often cause many other software programs to "break" and it can take months or years to fix them.
[Having said that, we believe the new Windows 7 due out on October 22nd will not cause any problems with our Windows version. We have done testing on the beta and pre-release versions and everything seems to work fine. Nothing can go wrong...go wrong...go wrong!] |
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Peter W. Thayer, President
Thayer Birding Software
ThayerBirding.com
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macbrdr
New Member
Posts:1
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| 15 Sep 2009 03:32 PM |
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Any indication whether 10.6.1 improves things? I've been holding off updating because I really enjoy your program but these posts sound pretty pessimistic. I wondered when the gold version was not released for mac whether development for the mac was really continuing.
Any news? |
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WiscWhooper
New Member
Posts:1
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| 16 Sep 2009 09:09 PM |
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Your comment that you will "not have anything that runs on Snow Leopard for the next few months -- if ever" is troubling. Does this mean you're considering walking away from your customers who use Mac? |
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PeteThayer
Senior Member
Posts:347
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| 20 Sep 2009 12:03 AM |
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It is going to take weeks of programming to fix this. We are waiting a week or two to see what Apple does.
If I had to make a wild guess at this time, I would expect to have a new disc ready around Thanksgiving that will run on OS X 10.6
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Peter W. Thayer, President
Thayer Birding Software
ThayerBirding.com
WildBirds.com
OnlineNatureMall.com
BackyardBirds.com |
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PeteThayer
Senior Member
Posts:347
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| 23 Sep 2009 07:40 PM |
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I received this note an hour ago from Tim Krein at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology concerning the Raven Lite program and Snow Leopard...
We're working on making a version of Raven Lite available for Snow Leopard, but customers will have to update to the latest Raven Lite level before upgrading to Snow Leopard because the application will not launch without the updates. If they do not update Raven Lite first, then they will need to reinstall Raven Lite with the latest updates (because the only way to get updates is from a running Raven Lite program). I'm trying to get a build done today and sent into test before heading out on a few days of vacation. When I get back early next week, I hope that we have updates and an installer that we can post to the public.
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When Thayer Birding Software releases a new Mac disc that works with Snow Leopard, we will include the new Raven Lite module as well. This is not expected to happen before Thanksgiving. |
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Peter W. Thayer, President
Thayer Birding Software
ThayerBirding.com
WildBirds.com
OnlineNatureMall.com
BackyardBirds.com |
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jdourte
New Member
Posts:1
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| 24 Sep 2009 04:09 PM |
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Thanks for the updates. Good to hear there's progress |
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PeteThayer
Senior Member
Posts:347
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| 05 Oct 2009 04:17 PM |
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 Thayer Birding Software will be Snow Leopard compatible around the end of November. The program had to be re-written to be compatible with the new Snow Leopard and it will require a new disc.
The new Mac disc will be version 3.9.9. It will run on Tiger (OS X 10.4), Leopard (OS X 10.5) and Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6). It will not run on Panther (10.3.9).
Current Mac versions (prior to the new 3.9.9) listed the system requirements on the box and included Panther, Tiger and Leopard. Snow Leopard was not included, since it did not exist when the earlier versions of our software were produced.
The price for the new Mac version 3.9.9 will remain at $84.95 for Birds of North America, $49.95 for Birds of My State (pick any state, province or region) and $64.95 for Birds of Canada.
For those who need to swap a Mac v3.9.8 disc (or earlier) for the new Mac v3.9.9 disc, there is a flat $20 charge that includes shipping. Stay informed by signing-up for the free newsletter:
Thayer Birding Software eNewsletter
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The Raven Lite program lets you see pictures of a bird's voice. Cornell now has a free update on their web site for those using Snow Leopard. You will need to get this free update and install it before you install Snow Leopard:
Raven Web Site
However, the new Thayer v3.9.9 will have a separate installation for Raven Lite that will work with Snow Leopard.
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Peter W. Thayer, President
Thayer Birding Software
ThayerBirding.com
WildBirds.com
OnlineNatureMall.com
BackyardBirds.com |
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PeteThayer
Senior Member
Posts:347
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| 21 Oct 2009 02:04 PM |
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As of October 20th, things are moving along as I had hoped with the Snow Leopard project. Our programmers are making a lot of progress, but it is very tedious work! They are still expecting to have a Mac disc that runs on Snow Leopard by the end of November.
Right now, most of the features that you would access directly from the main FieldGuide screen work under OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). |
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Peter W. Thayer, President
Thayer Birding Software
ThayerBirding.com
WildBirds.com
OnlineNatureMall.com
BackyardBirds.com |
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allison_r
New Member
Posts:1
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| 02 Nov 2009 01:26 AM |
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Is there any way to pull my list of sightings out of the program? I'm concerned about losing the data in an upgrade, I'd like to be able to pull it out and print it if possible.
Thanks,
allison |
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PeteThayer
Senior Member
Posts:347
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| 11 Nov 2009 05:00 PM |
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November 11th Update on Snow Leopard - Mac OSX 10.6:
Our programmers have completed all the updates they can make at this time. They made over 10,000 changes so far!
At the moment everything seems to work fine on OS X 10.4 and 10.5.
Our program will run on 10.6, but crashes at random intervals because of a known problem between Apple and the Mono Framework [neither of which Thayer Birding Software has any control over] -- The folks at Mono tell us they are working hard to fix this. We should know in a few days if they can fix it within a week or if it will take longer to fix. By the way, Apple has already released Snow Leopard 10.6.2 -- so there are obviously a lot of bugs in the new Apple operating system that are being discovered and fixed.
[Nerd Alert: The Mono framework is a third party unrelated to Apple. They control how the code written in .NET actually runs on an Apple computer. In our update we switched from Coco Sharp to Mono Objective C to write the user interface code.]
The new Mac disc will be named Birds of North America v3.10 (not v3.9.9) . As an added improvement, we will be replacing the old range maps for most breeding species with newer, expanded range maps -- just like those in the Windows Gold Edition. There will be a $20 cost to swap for the new disc if you already have an earlier Mac version.
If you would like to volunteer as a Mac beta tester, please email Pete@thayerbirding.com and include your physical mailing address AND let us know if you have 10.4, 10.5 or 10.6 -- we need beta testers for all three. Please note, the new v3.10 will NOT work on OS X 10.3.9. |
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Peter W. Thayer, President
Thayer Birding Software
ThayerBirding.com
WildBirds.com
OnlineNatureMall.com
BackyardBirds.com |
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PeteThayer
Senior Member
Posts:347
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| 21 Nov 2009 07:47 PM |
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Well, we are still waiting for the folks at Mono to fix their programs so we can proceed with the Snow Leopard changes. They did release something a week ago and other software developers who tried it said it did not fix the problem. At this point we do not know if they will have something ready in a week or a month or two months.In view of this delay, and the very unlikely event that anything will be ready in time to ship for Christmas, we have altered our plans a bit. At the moment, we are planning to release the Snow Leopard Mac version as soon as it is ready and tested -- whenever that is. We will call the new release version 4.0. The cost for the Mac program will increase to $99.95 (from $84.95). We will offer only Guide to Birds of North America in a Mac version (Birds of My State and Birds of Canada will not be available for v4.0). In addition to all the swell new programming you will get  we are also making the following improvements to the program:
1. New range maps for almost 700 species will replace the old range maps. Click here to see an example.
2. We are doubling the number of videos from 90 to 180. Most of these are much longer videos than those currently in the program.
3. We are adding Banding Codes as a way to sort or search for any species.
4. Taxonomic changes through November 2009 are being made to the program. There are 17 minor changes. The two Sharp-tailed Sparrows have been renamed Sparrows and most Tanagers are moved into the Cardinal Family.
Those who already own any Mac version will be able to get the new disc (on DVD, not CD-ROM) for $20. Details to follow. |
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Peter W. Thayer, President
Thayer Birding Software
ThayerBirding.com
WildBirds.com
OnlineNatureMall.com
BackyardBirds.com |
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PeteThayer
Senior Member
Posts:347
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| 16 Dec 2009 03:17 PM |
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December 16, 2009: It has been almost a month since my last update on the status of the Snow Leopard update for Mac. Here is what has happened since then...
After long discussions with our programmers, my sense is that the folks at Mono are working very hard to fix the problems we ran into. We are seeing postings on various blogs and forums from programmers at other companies and from the "top dogs" at Mono. These postings display a good understanding of the issues and there have been various solutions proposed (and rejected) over the past month.
So our take on all this is that the key people who need to be involved in this solution really are involved in a big way. They recognize that these issues are serious and are affecting hundreds of Mac programs. The "work-around" solutions are being put on the sidelines in order to come up with a permanent solution.
We have no idea if all of this will take a month or six months to complete. We would like to think that they might come up with a solution sooner rather than later. My very wild guess is that the v4.0 Mac version for Snow Leopard may be released in early March.
We are completely ready to go -- we have updated the database for Birds of North America v4.0 and we have rewritten the code to work on OS X 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6. Now we are just waiting on the folks at Mono (and Apple) to get their programs to work together. Once that happens, we will need a week or so to integrate everything into our program and we should be able to start beta testing. |
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Peter W. Thayer, President
Thayer Birding Software
ThayerBirding.com
WildBirds.com
OnlineNatureMall.com
BackyardBirds.com |
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PeteThayer
Senior Member
Posts:347
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| 16 Jan 2010 11:38 PM |
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Are you as frustrated as I am?
We are still waiting for the folks at Mono and Apple to come to an agreement and update their code.
Our programming has been ready to go for a few months now.
There does seem to be progress, but nothing we can use. Hang in there!
I noticed that Snow Leopard is already up to version 10.6.2 and that Apple began widespread beta testing of 10.6.3 on January 6th.
We have no idea when the new Mac version will be ready. We are hoping it will be ready by the end of March.
We are now going to have 200 videos in the new Mac "Snow Leopard" version 4.0 (up from 90 in the current version.) There will be new, more detailed range maps as well. There will probably be other additions and changes -- more about that later. |
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Peter W. Thayer, President
Thayer Birding Software
ThayerBirding.com
WildBirds.com
OnlineNatureMall.com
BackyardBirds.com |
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PeteThayer
Senior Member
Posts:347
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| 24 Jan 2010 10:47 PM |
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We are still waiting for the folks at Apple and at Mono to release the final updates that will let us finish our new version 4.0 software.
In the meantime, we have produced a DVD for testing purposes that contains the Windows and the Mac version 4.0 of our birding software. I have found that it runs without any problems on Windows XP and Windows 7, as well as on Mac Tiger (OS X 10.4) and Leopard (OS X 10.5). It also runs well on both 32-bit and 64-bit computers.
There are still a few problems when it is installed on Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6), but actually not that many. I have been using it for a day and a half and only ran into problems in a few cases. Once Apple and Mono get their issues resolved, we will complete the alpha testing and then start sending out Beta copies to those of you who have volunteered to help us test the new software.
The new version 4.0 DVD will include both a Windows and a Mac installation, so everything will be in one package. Because of all the new content, we needed a LOT more space. Hence, version 4.0 is on a DVD rather than a CD-ROM. A DVD holds about seven times as much data as a CD-ROM.
On a Personal Note: Thanks to all of you for your patience and to many of you for the kind words of encouragement over the past few months!! I wish there was more we could do, but at the moment we are stuck. We are taking this "opportunity" to rewrite the Help manual for both Windows AND Mac users. I realize that in the past the Help Manual was certainly "Windows-centric."
In 2009, 14% of our sales were Mac products and 86% were Windows products. We had expected the Mac version to be more popular, especially among birders and students. I am quite sure that the Snow Leopard problems that surfaced just before the Christmas season had a lot to do with the low level of Mac sales. We hope that once the Snow Leopard issue is resolved and the new version 4.0 is released, that you will tell your friends that have Mac computers about our birding software. We are making a number of changes that we think will improve it and make it more informative. If you have any suggestions for us, we would love to hear about them! Email me at:
Pete at ThayerBirding.com
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Peter W. Thayer, President
Thayer Birding Software
ThayerBirding.com
WildBirds.com
OnlineNatureMall.com
BackyardBirds.com |
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PeteThayer
Senior Member
Posts:347
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| 24 Feb 2010 01:43 AM |
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We are still waiting for the folks involved with Mono to complete the work they need to do that will allow us to finish the Mac version for Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6).
Mono is a software platform designed to allow developers to easily create cross platform applications. It is an open source implementation of Microsoft's .Net Framework based on the ECMA standards for C# and the Common Language Runtime. Novell is deeply involved in this project. For hard-core teckies out there, you may want to visit The Mono Project on the web.
We have completed the rewrite of the Windows and Mac help files and we have completed all the coding work we can do. In the next few days we will be sending beta copies out to our beta testers. Actually, we are looking for a few beta testers that are using Windows 7, Vista and XP. Email Pete@Thayerbirding.com if you are interested.
The new version 4.0 has 275 videos (rather than 90). It also includes very detailed range maps that show the wintering grounds in Central and South America. In addition, the ID Wizard will now display both primary and secondary images for each species in the Photo Gallery, so you are not just looking at males in breeding plumage any more.
The Birds of My State or Province version 4.0 will include 300 species for each state and province. The Guide to Birds of North America will include 700 species -- including the uncommon and rare species. The very rare and accidental species are now available exclusively in the Gold edition. This will make it much easier to use Guide to Birds of North America since you will not have to wade through those species that have been seen only a few times in North America.
We will have a lot more details once the final version is ready to go, including information on upgrading previous versions. |
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Peter W. Thayer, President
Thayer Birding Software
ThayerBirding.com
WildBirds.com
OnlineNatureMall.com
BackyardBirds.com |
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PossumPete
New Member
Posts:2
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| 14 Mar 2010 01:20 AM |
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It's been over 6 months now. |
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PeteThayer
Senior Member
Posts:347
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| 18 Mar 2010 07:51 PM |
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After 6 1/2 months, we have decided that we can no longer continue waiting for Mono and Apple to come up with a perfect solution to the problems we are encountering with Snow Leopard. As a result, we will be using the best work-around available at this time and proceed with the release of version 4.0 of our birding software. We hope to have the final version ready to ship by the end of April. This version 4.0 will work on Snow Leopard.
We believe that the new version 4.0 will work 100% of the time on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. We believe that it will work 99.8% of the time on OS X 10.4 (Tiger), 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard).
We sent out beta copies of version 4.0 to some volunteers a week ago. We will be taking their feedback and sending out a second beta copy in another week or two. Three of them reported an unusual glitch that we will be fixing. Those who installed the software reported that everything seemed to be working fine.
For those that installed version 4.0 on a Windows computer, we have not had any reported problems.
I just completed my testing on a Mac laptop running Snow Leopard. Installation was very smooth. The photos are crystal-clear and the songs sound great. I was able to run quizzes, use all the function keys, compare two birds side-by-side, use the ID Wizard and enter my sightings. I was able to make a screen saver. I was able to export songs and an image to iTunes and import it into my iPod. I was able to upload free quizzes from the Forum. Everything is working as expected.
As we previously reported, there are now 700 species in the Guide to Birds of North America. Each State or Province now has 300 species. (Very rare and accidental birds can be found in the Gold edition.) We increased the number of videos from 90 to 275. We improved the maps and they now show distributions in Central and South America. We also added a secondary image to the ID Wizard to show female and immature plumages as well. Banding codes are now included in version 4.0. Version 4.0 is being released on a DVD, not on a CD-ROM disc. We will be releasing upgrade options and prices in April. Please sign up for our free Newsletter to be notified about this. |
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Peter W. Thayer, President
Thayer Birding Software
ThayerBirding.com
WildBirds.com
OnlineNatureMall.com
BackyardBirds.com |
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PeteThayer
Senior Member
Posts:347
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| 01 Apr 2010 07:15 PM |
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For you hard-core techies out there, here is a link to the "Mono crashes on OS X Snow Leopard" bug forum we have been monitoring for the past six months.
http://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=537764
Here is what the last posting, dated April 1, 2010 says:
--- Comment #29 from Laurent Etiemble
2010-04-01 07:59:40 UTC ---
A workaround has been implemented in Monobjc (starting with 4.0.479) to avoid re-addition of foreign threads after their removal from the GC. It seems that the fix is sufficient to consider this bug as worked around.
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As a result of this posting, Thayer Birding Software is proceeding full-speed ahead with the launch of version 4.0. This version will work on Snow Leopard (as well as many other operating systems.)
Nope, this is not an April Fools joke.
We have one minor issue (encountered by 20% of beta testers) related to loading the program on Snow Leopard that we need to work out and then we are ready to go. I am still guessing that we will have a late April release date, but we may send out a newsletter using a May 2010 date, just to be a bit conservative.
The v4.0.0 beta that I am running on Snow Leopard works fine!
Call Pete Thayer at 800-865-2473 ext 102 if you want to test the final beta and you can reply to us within 48 hours of receiving the disc.
To be notified when version 4.0 is ready to ship, please sign up for our Thayer Birding Software eNewsletter. |
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Peter W. Thayer, President
Thayer Birding Software
ThayerBirding.com
WildBirds.com
OnlineNatureMall.com
BackyardBirds.com |
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