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macOS Mojave?

Jens KutilekJens Kutilek Posts: 244
in Type Design Software
Any reports yet about which type design software breaks under macOS Mojave?

It is the last version of macOS to run 32 bit applications, so FontLab Studio 5 gets another year of life ;( (Notwithstanding the annoying bugs with copy & paste which were introduced in macOS High Sierra)

Regarding macOS High Sierra: I found a workaround for FontLab 5 to the new file system APFS not returning file lists in alphabetical order, thus messing up the sorting of macros in the menus:
  • Make a disk image with the old HFS+ format, which lists files alphabetically:
hdiutil create -size 100m -type SPARSE -fs HFS+ -volname FontLab FontLab
  • Copy the contents of your "Applications Support/FontLab" folder into it
  • Quit FontLab, move the old folder out of the way and attach the disk image in the same location: 
hdiutil attach FontLab.sparseimage -mountpoint "~/Library/Application Support/FontLab"


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Comments

  • John HudsonJohn Hudson Posts: 1,828
    Regarding macOS High Sierra: I found a workaround for FontLab 5 to the new file system APFS not returning file lists in alphabetical order, thus messing up the sorting of macros in the menus:
    Aha! This is interesting and possibly explains the weird situation on my MacBook. I'm running FLS5 for Windows in a virtual machine under High Sierra, and the macro order is messed up as you describe. It didn't cross my mind that it might be an issue from the Mac file system side, but that explains why I don't have the same issue on my iMac running Sierra.
  • Georg SeifertGeorg Seifert Posts: 610
    The virtual machine is not using the apple file system. So there has to be another issue.

    And Glyphs runs find in Mojave. Only the dark mode is disabled. 
  • John HudsonJohn Hudson Posts: 1,828
    The virtual machine is not using the apple file system.
    My FontLab macros and other support files are stored in a shared folder, so that I only ever need to keep them up-to-date in one place and have macros point to a single location for libraries. My virtual machine has closely integrated folder sharing, so all my document folders etc. are stored in one place, accessed by both OS's. [I use VMware.]

    The only difference between the setup on my iMac and MacBook is the Mac OS version. Everything else is the same, and the issue with macro ordering in menus in FLS5 is exactly as Jens describes.
  • Thomas PhinneyThomas Phinney Posts: 1,854
    FontLab VI runs fine in Mojave as far as we can tell. Although running FontLab VI in Mojave under a VM can cause trouble, at least under VMWare Fusion.
  • Mark SimonsonMark Simonson Posts: 1,202
    edited September 2018
    Only the dark mode is disabled. 

    I know it's probably not a priority, but Glyphs dark mode sounds cool.  B)
  • Georg SeifertGeorg Seifert Posts: 610
    Mark Simonson said:
    Only the dark mode is disabled. 

    I know it's probably not a priority, but Glyphs dark mode sounds cool.  B)
    It will get it eventually.
  • Georg SeifertGeorg Seifert Posts: 610
    I just found out that there are some performance problems in Mojave. It seems to be caused by code from Apple. I’ll investigate.
  • Chr. St. JørgensenChr. St. Jørgensen Posts: 4
    Thomas Phinney said:
    FontLab VI may get dark mode eventually, but not right away, either. 

    It looks cool, but it has complications—and we believe that mostly, people want to edit darker glyphs (or darker outlines) on a lighter background. We don't see any major functionality that is enabled by dark mode, so we are going to concentrate on more pressing things first.
    I agree. But it doesn’t have to effect the background, but only UI - like the mail app have an option to disable it in the message window — turning it white. 
  • Michael JarboeMichael Jarboe Posts: 258
    Does Fontlab V work fine with Mojave? I still use V with High Sierra but there is the glyph copy and pasteboard problem. Is there any way to fix it until I upgrade to VI?
  • Thomas PhinneyThomas Phinney Posts: 1,854
    edited December 2018
    Michael Jarboe said:
    Does Fontlab 5 work fine with Mojave? I still use V with High Sierra but there is the glyph copy and pasteboard problem. Is there any way to fix it until I upgrade to VI?

    FontLab Studio 5 has problems on High Sierra and Mojave (10.13, 10.14). It may well not work at all in the next macOS coming in fall 2019 (10.15). These problems are described on our blog. The Windows version runs on Windows XP SP2 and newer, including Windows 10. FontLab VI works on Yosemite (10.10) and higher, including 10.14 and beyond. The Windows version runs on Windows 7 and newer, including Windows 10.

    There is no real workaround for the lack of "paste special"; the glyph copy/pasting problems can be worked around as described.

    FontLab VI runs on macOS 10.10 Yosemite and newer, including 10.14 Mojave and beyond.
  • Michael JarboeMichael Jarboe Posts: 258
    Will FontLab Studio 5 work on macOS Catalina?
  • Thomas PhinneyThomas Phinney Posts: 1,854
    Not as far as I know. (I’m just holding off on Catalina because I am too busy right now; expect to upgrade over the Christmas holidays.)

    Note that there was an update to FontLab Studio 5 that made things better with High Sierra and Mojave (10.13, 10.14). 
  • Viktor RubenkoViktor Rubenko Posts: 76
    Michael Jarboe said:
    Will FontLab Studio 5 work on macOS Catalina?
    Nope
  • Hrant H. PapazianHrant H. Papazian Posts: 1,600
    Same with TypeTool...
    Next semester my class will be counting on some sort of a fix.  :-/
  • Daniel Benjamin MillerDaniel Benjamin Miller Posts: 79
    TypeTool won't be updated, per FontLab.
    A fix is probably non-trivial for the reasons of Carbon API removal; this API is 32-bit only and thus dropped in Catalina. (Apple actually did create a 64-bit version of the API back in the day, but chose not to release it for some reason.) So it's not a matter of changing some little bits and recompiling in many cases: it would take a rewrite of some, or perhaps almost all of the program.
    In the meantime, you can keep running it on an older version of MacOS. Another alternative is to run on Windows, or Linux using Wine (I have had success running FontLab in Wine, although I only tried the demo once). (Wine has worked on Mac before, but Catalina broke this --- though I'd expect a fix at some point in the future, one day.)
    The best solution, though, is to move to another tool, unfortunately.
  • Hrant H. PapazianHrant H. Papazian Posts: 1,600
    edited October 2019
    Daniel Benjamin Miller said:
    (Apple actually did create a 64-bit version of the API back in the day, but chose not to release it for some reason.)
    Interesting.
    Thanks for the insights.
    The best solution, though, is to move to another tool, unfortunately.
    Or another platform...

    BTW, this just in:
    https://blog.fontlab.com/fontlab/fontlab-studio-5/fls5-fog5-tt3-macos-catalina/
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