Mac Software, does it exist? anymore?

[infojunky]

There used to be a fair amount of Traveller software for the Mac. Now I can't seem to find any.

Anybody seen any?

 

[Border Reiver]

There is some about.

The hard part is finding stuff that runs on OS X. Most of the work you can still find online uses Hypercard stacks that Apple abandoned a few years back.

Look out for Java and Java Script apps, they work fine. Mickazoid also scripted a nice Sector Generator that produces high quality pdf's including maps.

 

[Mickazoid]

Thanks Border - and as you asked via PM (sorry for the late reply), I'm trying to provide detailed instructions and 'bundle' it all up into a Mac application.

In the meantime, basic install instructions are included in the script for a few utilities (like James Perkins' very useful 'SW4'). Grab those pieces at least, and you can make your own maps. Here's what you need to install:

Requires:
# - James M. Perkins' Traveller software programs
# http://traveller.mu.org/archive/software/SW4
# - Paul J. Netherwood's Traveller program 'full-upp'
# http://seegras.discordia.ch/Roleplay/Traveller/Software/FullUPP.tgz
# - J Greely's fantabulistic 'sec2pdf' and 'allygen'
# http://dotclue.org/t20/
# - Christopher Pound's language confluxer
# http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~pound/revised-lc
# - pstopdf
# (built in on Mac OSX)
# - enscript
# (built in on Mac OSX)
# - joinPDF
# http://www.iis.ee.ic.ac.uk/~g.briscoe/joinPDF
# - pdftk
# http://www.pdfhacks.com/pdftk/

You can see my 'big' script and the thread about it here: http://www.TravellerRPG.com/CotI/Discuss/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=44;t=000350

 

[E.D.Quibell]

Try BITS:

http://www.bits.org.uk/

It's not OSX but it is for the MAC.

 

[shanksow]

Any help is fine. I'm still stuck in mac OS 9.2 anyway.

 

[infojunky]

Well I could install it, but that would be my 4th os on my laptop.

 

[Mickazoid]

The reality is that with Mac OSX' Unix core, a wealth of Traveller programs are available for use.

I've found software for generating 1000 characters at a pop (an Excel spreadsheet), managing ships (high guard and small vessel Excel spreadsheets), generating world maps (Lunarcell, Solarcell, Flexify), mapping systems (Excel spreadsheet I created), mapping subsectors and sectors (SW4 and sec2pdf), calculating animal encounters and cargo (in Java, C and Perl), etc.

You need to become comfy with unix programming, and I'd be glad to help you get started - but once you do, the sky is the limit. I've got a script that generates a sector with a single command, or generates 1000 characters at a keystroke.

Viva Mac!

 

[infojunky]

Dude I'm a grad student in a heavy field where would I find the time? Though it would be nice.

Though I can make Ecel stand up and bark like dog for some things.

 

[Mickazoid]

Dude:

If you argue that you cannot do something, you will always be right

 

[infojunky]

I'm not a programmer, i'm a user. though it looks like ESRI is gonna make me learn a new scripting language. I have considered Building some Traveller base Databases and polygons but the price of Arcview and similar packages is beyond most people would pay for a game tool.

Though saying that I did do some stuff with Hypercard.

 

[Maladominus]

Originally posted by Infojunky:

Though saying that I did do some stuff with Hypercard.

And I used to do things in Applescript! =)

but that was in The Days Long Gone, back in the good old days when a Powerbook G3 with a "secret code name" like Wallstreet was actually a status symbol laptop among the Mac intelligentsia.

*sigh* I am severely tempted to go back to Macworld Expo this January, which I had not done for nearly 8 years now. Time to get a new Mac.

 

[sgbrown]

Originally posted by Maladominus:
-clip-
but that was in The Days Long Gone, back in the good old days when a Powerbook G3 with a "secret code name" like Wallstreet was actually a status symbol laptop among the Mac intelligentsia.

-clip-

Or the days even longer ago when Mac didn't have color and didn't want it? Guess I'm really dating myself here. Firmly into OS X now.

Nostalgia aside, is there a way to "package" the unix stuff available so that it runs on a semi-modern (non-Intel) OS X system without having to be a unix expert?

Is that essentially what Micazoid's post provided? or is that only for folks willing to tackle Unix head on?

 

[infojunky]

Right now I am playing with a VM Win98 machine to see what of the older dos/windows software will run under emulation.

 

[aramis]

DosBox will run the even older dos command-line stuff, as well as the assorted QuickBasic stuff.