O'Reilly: OpenOffice/NeoOffice on Mac OS X

[ Thanks to Jaja for this link. ]

"Open Office contains 7.5 million lines of code, and produces 240 megabytes of executable code. It isn't just a large project; it's a huge project.

"Before you start porting something like this, you have to ask yourself what kind of programmers you have. Old mac coders may not know Unix, and vice versa. You need both. And you have to ask yourself about your users. Do they want something with typical Mac 'fit and finish'?

"There was a three stage porting approach:

"Phase 1: Get it to compile. (Just treat Mac OS X as another Unix)
Phase 2: Wean it away from X11. (Get it to run without an X server.)
Phase 3: Adopt Aqua look and feel. (Make it behave like a Mac application.)

"Phase 1 (just getting it to compile) took a whole year..."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• OfB.biz: Mac OS X: An Apple a Day keeps the Penguins Away?(Oct 08, 2002)
• Freezer-Burn: The Future of the Linux Desktop(Aug 28, 2002)
• NewsFactor: OpenOffice Gets Its OS X Story Straight(Jul 30, 2002)
• The Register: OpenOffice Bats for the Mac(Jul 25, 2002)