Mac OS X - version 25.10 beta test

[Prime95]

A GUI for the Mac!

I need a few beta testers for the new GUI Mac client. You can download it from ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/Prime95-MacOSX-2510.zip

I haven't written a readme yet. The client creates files in ~/Prime95. You can change this by running prime95 and exiting, then editing the property list file in ~/Library/preferences/org.mersenne.prime95.plist (or you could move your existing mprime files to ~/Prime95).

Bug reports and suggestions are welcome.

[flouran]

I am guessing this only works for Intel-based Macs, right?

[Prime95]

Originally Posted by flouran

I am guessing this only works for Intel-based Macs, right?

Correct.

[bayanne]

.... and just 32 bit at present ...

[Jeff Gilchrist]

Originally Posted by bayanne

.... and just 32 bit at present ...

Are you sure about that? Using the Activity Monitor, Prime95 is showing up as "Kind = Intel (64bit)" so looks like 64bit to me.

George, so far so good, this is much nicer than the command line. I'm new to Mac so still not familiar with all the Mac terminology. The "Hide Prime95" button is very useful, I wasn't really sure what that was going to do, but works like "Minimize to Tray" in Windows. It leaves the Prime95 icon in my whatever-you-call-it bar at the bottom so I can just click on it to bring the windows back.

The other thing I really like is the Test -> Status, it actually displays the entire list of exponents in my worktodo.txt file unlike the Windows Prime95 that if you have 4 CPUs it just shows the next 4 entries or so. This would be a nice feature to add to the Windows client so you can get an idea of when the last item will be complete.

I'm trying this on some non-Primenet work right now so can't comment on the network/Primenet stuff.

Jeff.

[Prime95]

Originally Posted by bayanne

.... and just 32 bit at present ...

It is a universal binary (if that's the correct term) containing both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

P.S. I found my first bug. Shutdown does not update save files. This will be fixed in build 2.

[Prime95]

Originally Posted by Jeff Gilchrist

George, so far so good, this is much nicer than the command line. I'm new to Mac so still not familiar with all the Mac terminology. The "Hide Prime95" button is very useful, I wasn't really sure what that was going to do, but works like "Minimize to Tray" in Windows. It leaves the Prime95 icon in my whatever-you-call-it bar at the bottom so I can just click on it to bring the windows back.

"Hide Prime95" and several other menu choices are standard boilerplate stuff generated by xcode. All Mac apps should have these features.

The feature I like the most is "control click" on the Prime95 dock icon and you get the "Start at Login" option. Much nicer than editing rc.local or whatever the Mac equivalent is.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by Prime95

It is a universal binary (if that's the correct term) containing both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

I'm thinking getting a used MacBook (I can't justify paying 2-3x what a Windows laptop costs fo a new MacBook) to use as a personal 64-bit gcc build platform, but a friend mentioned that one needs to be careful, because some early MacIntels ran the OS in emulated 64-bit mode, with the CPU operating in 32-bit mode. Is this true? If so, how can one tell whether one is getting genuine 64-bit? Unlike the PC ads, the Mac ads never mention 64-bit explicitly. (I thought this was because they were all genuine 64-bit mode, until I heard the above).

[Prime95]

The first MacIntels were 32-bit Core Duo chips. I'd avoid these. Core Duo was based on the Pentium M architecture with lousy floating point throughput.

If you have the MacBook in front of you, click on the Apple logo in the menu bar. The "About this Mac" menu choice will tell you the processor, speed, and memory.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by Prime95

The first MacIntels were 32-bit Core Duo chips. I'd avoid these. Core Duo was based on the Pentium M architecture with lousy floating point throughput.

If you have the MacBook in front of you, click on the Apple logo in the menu bar. The "About this Mac" menu choice will tell you the processor, speed, and memory.

Thanks, but I don't have a machine in front of me - this will likely be an online purchase.

Are all the Core 2 Duo-based Macs 64-bit? I'm only interested in the CPUs with double-pumped SSE2-floating-double support, which I believe was only introduced with the 2nd-generation of the Core architecture.

[rogue]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Thanks, but I don't have a machine in front of me - this will likely be an online purchase.

Are all the Core 2 Duo-based Macs 64-bit? I'm only interested in the CPUs with double-pumped SSE2-floating-double support, which I believe was only introduced with the 2nd-generation of the Core architecture.

Yes, but you need OS X 10.5 to have be fully 64-bit. 10.4 was a 32-bit OS. In 10.4 you could enable builds to run 64-bit using the -m64 compiler flag with gcc. 10.4 and 10.5 can run both 32-bit and 64-bit console apps, but 10.4 cannot run 64-bit GUI apps.