Display problem on M1 Mac

[jlertola]

Hi all,

It's been a while since I used Geocart. I am opening the program on my M1 MacBook Pro. The Boundaries window and Projection Center window don't display properly. See the links below. The maps have a pixelated look and do not correspond to any clicks or drags on the window. Other than that Geocart seems to be working properly but these issues make it hard to create a new map.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/4uzk8spa ... canw3&dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mcs9taeh ... 7vrrt&dl=0

-Joe

[daan]

Hello Joe. It’s good to hear from you.

Apple broke this behavior in Sonoma; I think you’ll find that the same problem occurs whether in Intel or Apple Silicon Macs. It’s such a fundamental breakage that I can’t predict when I will be able to fix it. They deprecated OpenGL some time ago. It’s still supposed to work on Sonoma if the binary was built on earlier OS versions, but it doesn’t.

Beyond just OpenGL, they broke rendering in general on their own Carbon APIs. I cannot build Geocart on Sonoma anymore and am forced to rewrite the entire rendering subsystem on the Metal model in order to maintain compatibility. It’s a huge project.

Regrettably,
— daan

[jlertola]

That is dissapointing. I suppose that these problems also make it hard to keep a common code base between the Mac and PC versions of Geocart. I still have my 2010 Mac Pro tower so Geocart works well for me on that computer.

[Atarimaster]

Apple broke this behavior in Sonoma

So at the moment it is better to use macOS Ventura (or older)?
… and in the long run, maybe even starting to think about a Windows computer?

Kind regards,
Tobias

[daan]

So at the moment it is better to use macOS Ventura (or older)?

Yes.

… and in the long run, maybe even starting to think about a Windows computer?

In the context of Geocart only (of course), I can’t say with confidence. I am angry at the various Apple taxes and coercions, especially their casual disregard for third-party developer pain. That does not, yet, translate into a decision to abandon the platform, but it does translate into a distinct lack of motivation to spend huge chunks of my life keeping what I already have afloat at the expense of time to make improvements to my product. We (Paul and I) already put a huge amount of effort into working around Apple’s poor graphics performance. It’s nice that Metal is supposed to solve those problems, (way too late), but it’s very not nice to break their own APIs and thereby force us to do it a second time.

I have all kinds of functionality I want to add to Geocart, but at this point, I couldn’t even make a security update, thanks to Apple.

Sorry for the rant. Yes, I am bitter.

Uncheers,
— daan

[K1GQ]

I fully understand daan's unhappiness with Apple. I've struggled for at least a decade to provide Mac users (especially myself) with a unique app for amateur radio operators. The app includes a map presentation, with overlays, that I could not provide without Geocart. The app is free so I avoid some of the Apple taxes, but the changing frameworks, the ever-increasing app security requirements, and so on, have been non-trivial obstacles.

I am pleased that Geocart 3.3.6 runs well on my Mac M1 Studio, even though it requires Rosetta. In addition to the display problem noted by Joe, the only issue I've seen is that text in some text boxes, like that in the Map > Databases window, disappears in Dark mode. Easy to work around: turn off Dark mode. I had to recompile my app with a new SDK and bump the minimum support macOS version to cure this Apple mis-feature.

Geocart on Mac is an essential part of my life and I'd hate to see Apple drive daan away from the Mac platform.

— Bill

[daan]

Apologies for the long delay.

Thank you, Bill, for the solidarity. I still have not settled on a course of action. I’ll note when I do.

— daan

[Atarimaster]

A belated Happy New Year to you, daan, and everyone else!

Disregarding your “don’t call us, we call you” line …
Are there any news regarding this matter?
I’d like to buy a new computer soon, so I have to think about the options.

[daan]

Happy new year to you, too!

I wish I had something to tell you. I don’t — nothing anyone could act on, anyway. I seem to believe I will adapt the code base to Metal, but I have not started and have no idea how long it will take.

— daan

[Atarimaster]

Alright, thank you for your reply!

At the moment, the solution I prefer is to buy a new Mac but keep my current Mac up and running so that I can use it for Geocart if necessary. And then, I’ll hope for the best; but if the worst should happen: Do you konw if Geocart is compatible to Windows 11 on Arm? I’m asking because you need this in order to run Windows with the help of Parallels Desktop on a Mac.