How an ARM processor for Mac would influence Pixelmator Pro?

Talk about Pixelmator Pro, share tips & tricks, tutorials, and other resources.
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2020-06-12 06:47:47

Now super wide spread rumours hints that Apple will transition to ARM and their own chips (A series...).

1. How would that influence Pixelmator in terms of development time, effort and willingness to adopt to this new tech?
2. This chips should handle machine learning even better, does Pixelmator has more plans to expand on ML and if yes is there something you can share?


Thanks
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2020-06-16 09:06:17

by ResLes 2020-06-12 06:47:47 1. How would that influence Pixelmator in terms of development time, effort and willingness to adopt to this new tech?
The honest answer is we don't really know. A lot depends on how everything would be implemented. Of course, we always strive to support new Apple tech as quickly as possible and that hasn't changed.
by ResLes 2020-06-12 06:47:47 2. This chips should handle machine learning even better, does Pixelmator has more plans to expand on ML and if yes is there something you can share?Thanks
Yep, we're working on some more ML stuff right and have plans for other things in the future, but nothing to share just yet. :wink:
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2020-06-16 11:25:22

Thanks Andrius.

1. We will see next week what comes out of it.
2. Understand completely
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2020-06-22 22:49:13

It looks now “easier“ then Before to compile Pixelmator pro to iPad Os and Pixelmator photo to Mac OS?
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2020-06-23 04:41:18

Same processor family but the approach to memory management is radically different. I don't write apps but I do code to solve mathematical problems.

If I run a bit of code on the Mac, and it gets memory hungry, macOS will shuffle things out of memory to accommodate me. It will extend the swap file to accommodate me.

If I run a bit of code on my iPad and it gets memory hungry, iPadOS will terminate the app.

Moving code from the iPad to macOS will get easier but there will still be very significant hurdles going in the opposite direction.
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2020-06-23 06:22:02

by st3f 2020-06-23 04:41:18 Same processor family but the approach to memory management is radically different. I don't write apps but I do code to solve mathematical problems.

If I run a bit of code on the Mac, and it gets memory hungry, macOS will shuffle things out of memory to accommodate me. It will extend the swap file to accommodate me.

If I run a bit of code on my iPad and it gets memory hungry, iPadOS will terminate the app.

Moving code from the iPad to macOS will get easier but there will still be very significant hurdles going in the opposite direction.
Great answer. Could that mean that if the iPad gets more Ram in the future (currently 6gb) that iOS could be rewritten and it’s behaving more like Mac OS - that this could make it “easier “? Thanks Stef - by the way have you been ill- haven’t seen you in the forum for a while?
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2020-06-23 07:33:47

Could that mean that ... iOS could be rewritten
The document "The Zen of Palm", written in the 90s brilliantly describes the differences between how we interact with a desktop/laptop and what was then the new emerging class of 'palmtop'. Looking at the differences between macOS and iOS I think that a lot of people at Apple have read that document.

By splitting iPadOS from iOS, it seems to me that Apple is looking at creating a third class of item: something that might have more RAM, a faster processor and a bigger screen than a phone but possibly less of all these things (and a different type of interaction) than a typical desktop/laptop. It'll be interesting to see where that ends up.
...have you been ill...?
Mental illness. I've been struggling to interact with and face the world: self-isolating before COVID=19 was a thing. That I'm here and talking should be taken as a good sign. Not better but heading in the right direction day by day. Thanks for asking, even if you may have got more than you bargained for as a reply. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
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2020-06-23 08:12:10

by st3f 2020-06-23 07:40:47
The document "The Zen of Palm", written in the 90s brilliantly describes the differences between how we interact with a desktop/laptop and what was then the new emerging class of 'palmtop'. Looking at the differences between macOS and iOS I think that a lot of people at Apple have read that document.

By splitting iPadOS from iOS, it seems to me that Apple is looking at creating a third class of item: something that might have more RAM, a faster processor and a bigger screen than a phone but possibly less of all these things (and a different type of interaction) than a typical desktop/laptop. It'll be interesting to see where that ends up.



Mental illness. I've been struggling to interact with and face the world: self-isolating before COVID=19 was a thing. That I'm here and talking should be taken as a good sign. Not better but heading in the right direction day by day. Thanks for asking, even if you may have got more than you bargained for as a reply. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
Oh, I can see you. It’s fantastic that you can speak about it 👏🏼. I felt something like that, wanted to make a post - where is Stef - but thought I leave it for a bit... My wife is a therapist and I have tried crm therapy which Is a great resource for processing things... if you want to have a look

Thanks for the zen of palm, I will have a look. Stay healthy and well.
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2020-06-23 08:27:22

Very excited by Arm Mac and Big Sur but why do the app icons on Big Sur look so bad? hate that they're all conformed into little boxes.
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2020-06-23 08:42:51

by mazerfaka 2020-06-23 08:34:17 Very excited by Arm Mac and Big Sur but why do the app icons on Big Sur look so bad? hate that they're all conformed into little boxes.
I think it depends I like the new icons
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2020-06-23 15:37:58

by st3f 2020-06-23 04:41:18 Same processor family but the approach to memory management is radically different. I don't write apps but I do code to solve mathematical problems.

If I run a bit of code on the Mac, and it gets memory hungry, macOS will shuffle things out of memory to accommodate me. It will extend the swap file to accommodate me.

If I run a bit of code on my iPad and it gets memory hungry, iPadOS will terminate the app.

Moving code from the iPad to macOS will get easier but there will still be very significant hurdles going in the opposite direction.
I'm not the biggest expert but I do feel you've hit the nail on the head. Memory constraints will likely stay the same for now and, as far as I understand, it's basically a case of performance vs. power consumption (and cooling). iOS and iPadOS are all about power and thermal efficiency. They're small, portable but have great battery life and don't need fans for cooling and this is both down to how efficient the chips are but also because of how the OS is tuned.
by ResLes 2020-06-23 06:22:02
Great answer. Could that mean that if the iPad gets more Ram in the future (currently 6gb) that iOS could be rewritten and it’s behaving more like Mac OS - that this could make it “easier “?
I'd say a greater amount of RAM won't necessarily make a huge difference — just over 10 years ago, the MacBook Pro shipped with 2 to 4 GBs of RAM as standard and handled power-hungry apps just fine. It's more that swapping out (or paging) memory appears to be quite a power-hungry task. I've also seen comments saying this 'destroys' flash memory but that one intuitively seems off to me as all the latest laptops/desktops use flash storage too, so surely the same limitations would apply. Anyway, I'm just speculating here!
by st3f 2020-06-23 07:33:47 Mental illness. I've been struggling to interact with and face the world: self-isolating before COVID=19 was a thing. That I'm here and talking should be taken as a good sign. Not better but heading in the right direction day by day. Thanks for asking, even if you may have got more than you bargained for as a reply. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
There's probably not much I can do to help but I'd just like to say that it's really awesome having you as a part of this community and you seem like a super cool person. Sending virtual best wishes your way!
by mazerfaka 2020-06-23 08:27:22 Very excited by Arm Mac and Big Sur but why do the app icons on Big Sur look so bad? hate that they're all conformed into little boxes.
I reckon they'll grow on you (and maybe some of them will be tweaked before the final release...)
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2020-06-29 16:47:48

They look too much like app icons! like the own thing Mac has going with their app icons and BTW Pixelmator pro is the most beautiful in my dock 😍
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2020-06-30 12:46:52

by mazerfaka They look too much like app icons! like the own thing Mac has going with their app icons and BTW Pixelmator pro is the most beautiful in my dock 😍
:pray: :pray: :pray: