Batting .500
As I've said before, there is certain software that people around here need to be able to run, preferably on their desktop computers. One expensive biggie is Matlab; people depend on it for data analysis. Not only can Matlab not be run on an Intel Mac, except in a no-graphics mode that really won't do; the Mathworks web site barely provides any official indication that they're planning a new release that will run on these computers (aside from a posting by one of the developers in a Matlab newsgroup).
Another widely-used program is Praat. It's freeware, and is used for acoustic analysis of speech (and so much more). It's truly amazing how much functionality is packed into a fairly small program. I'd downloaded the current version a week or two ago (then 4.4.06), and it worked wonderfully. From a user point of view, it's kind of irrelevant whether it's working in native Intel mode or in Rosetta (emulation) mode. The important thing is whether you can get your work done. And I was able to get some actual work done in Praat in this version. Today, I went back to the Praat web site (I know how often the developers update the program!) and, sure enough, they were up to version 4.4.11, which is the third version that's a Universal binary; that is, it'll run in native Intel mode. I'm going to have to get hold of some long sound files so I can really see how fast it is.
Meanwhile, I've been using Canvas to edit some bitmap images that need to be at a much higher resolution. It's a frustrating process, but the program itself is running just fine on Intel.
Another widely-used program is Praat. It's freeware, and is used for acoustic analysis of speech (and so much more). It's truly amazing how much functionality is packed into a fairly small program. I'd downloaded the current version a week or two ago (then 4.4.06), and it worked wonderfully. From a user point of view, it's kind of irrelevant whether it's working in native Intel mode or in Rosetta (emulation) mode. The important thing is whether you can get your work done. And I was able to get some actual work done in Praat in this version. Today, I went back to the Praat web site (I know how often the developers update the program!) and, sure enough, they were up to version 4.4.11, which is the third version that's a Universal binary; that is, it'll run in native Intel mode. I'm going to have to get hold of some long sound files so I can really see how fast it is.
Meanwhile, I've been using Canvas to edit some bitmap images that need to be at a much higher resolution. It's a frustrating process, but the program itself is running just fine on Intel.
posted by Aliceq @ 5:30 PM
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