I’m a long time Windows developer, and it looks like I’m going to be involved in porting a Windows app to the Mac.
We’ve decided to use Flex/Air for the gui for both sides, which looks really slick BTW.
My Windows application has a C++ DLL that controls network adapters (wired and wireless). This is written using the standard library and Boost, so most of it should work cross platform.
On the Mac, what IDE/complier do most folks use if they want to write C++? Also, can someone provide a pointer to whatever APIs the Mac has that can control WiFi adapters (associate, scan, disconnect, etc)?
Xcode is the IDE for Mac OS X, you can download the latest version by joining the Apple Developer Connection with a free Online membership.
I don’t believe there are any supported APIs for controlling wireless networking adaptors. The closest thing would be the System Configuration framework, but I don’t know if it will let you do everything you want.
Also, I would strongly recommend against trying to use Flex/Air for your application’s user experience. It may look slick to you on Windows as a Windows developer, but when it comes to providing a full Macintosh user experience such technologies aren’t always a great choice.
For one example, I think Air applications don’t support the full range of Mac OS X text editing keystrokes. While not all Mac users will use all keystrokes, for those people used to them trying to type in a text field that doesn’t handle (say) control-A and control-E to go to the beginning and end of field is like swimming through syrup.
For a new application that needs to be cross-platform, I’d strongly consider building the core logic in C++ while using Cocoa on the Mac and WPF on Windows to get the best user experience on each platform. Both Mac OS X and Windows have modern native user experience technologies that their respective users are getting used to, and also have good ways for C++ code to interoperate with these technologies.