Tournament software for Mac

[Chafunkta]

Is there any fencing tournament software for Mac? I've heard about FencingTime, but is that only for windows?

[4qtrs]

Not that I have found. They are all windows based.

I have heard rumors that a version of fencing time is being worked on, but that's all I've heard.

[HDG]

Not that I have found. They are all windows based.

I have heard rumors that a version of fencing time is being worked on, but that's all I've heard.

I posted a question about this ~ a year back (not gonna bother hunting for it); IIRC, that plan (FencingTime for Mac) is off, and the consensus seemed to be that I should just get a DuoCore so I could run Windows-based programs. Not a terribly helpful suggestion unless they're buying.

[edew]

Maybe someone should ping Steverino to get some young programmer to whip one off in one day at Apple. There are fencers at Apple to tell them what needs to be done. Shouldn't take too long with Xcode, right?

[keropie]

Hell, it shouldn't be that hard to whip up a java based database application to do it, which, as long as you made a good choice on your database backend, should work on damn near anything with a java interpreter.

[dberke]

I posted a question about this ~ a year back (not gonna bother hunting for it); IIRC, that plan (FencingTime for Mac) is off, and the consensus seemed to be that I should just get a DuoCore so I could run Windows-based programs. Not a terribly helpful suggestion unless they're buying.

Fencing Time for the Mac is currently on hold while I work on requested features for the PC version. I'm not sure when I'll return to it since there's so much stuff I want to add to the PC version.

That said, I know several people that have been running Fencing Time on the Mac using VirtualPC with no problems.

Dan

[keropie]

That said, I know several people that have been running Fencing Time on the Mac using VirtualPC with no problems.

Dan

Come to think of it (now that you mention it ) the guy who runs our local events does just that. The only issue he has with Fencing Time on VirtualPC is the slow printing, which is likely because of the loveliness of the windows print subsystem/HP drivers/virtualPC interface (or is it just interference in this case?)

[4qtrs]

That said, I know several people that have been running Fencing Time on the Mac using VirtualPC with no problems.

Dan

True, but $100+ is tough to part with to run a single app.

[edew]

Also, VirtualPC doesn't work with the new MacBook Pros.

[MPL]

But if you have a MacBook Pro, can't you just run whatever program you want in Windows?

[4qtrs]

But if you have a MacBook Pro, can't you just run whatever program you want in Windows?

I don't think so, I believe that it has the ability to do file sharing, but doesn't run Windows applications.

[keith]

I don't think so, I believe that it has the ability to do file sharing, but doesn't run Windows applications.

It won't run windows applications but you can set up a partition to run Windows as an OS (you have to 'buy' a copy of windows of course). This obviously only applies to the intel macs, if you have a G4/5 you are stuck with virtualPC.

have a look at;

http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/
http://www.parallels.com/en/

parrallels is a virtualization environment (windows running inside OSX) rather than dual boot.

[4qtrs]

It won't run windows applications but you can set up a partition to run Windows as an OS (you have to 'buy' a copy of windows of course).

Ah, that's interesting. I am trying to wrangle a mac at work for my next machine. That might be a good selling point.

[peet]

VMware appears to be working on a windows (or other x86 os) on Mac solution too:

http://www.vmware.com/products/beta/fusion/

-p

[JMcC]

Maybe someone should ping Steverino to get some young programmer to whip one off in one day at Apple. There are fencers at Apple to tell them what needs to be done.

Steve's son(?) was at the PCC Juniors a year or two back, with Steve accompanying and watching (haven't seen either since); so there's already some sort of a fencing connection there.

[jjefferies]

Fencing Time for the Mac is currently on hold while I work on requested features for the PC version. I'm not sure when I'll return to it since there's so much stuff I want to add to the PC version.

That said, I know several people that have been running Fencing Time on the Mac using VirtualPC with no problems.

Dan

Midi Cox, Pacific Coast Section Secretary, is one who runs fencing time on a Mac. You might care to ask her by e-mail how well it works. I believe slow printing is the biggest issue and she's got work arounds for that.

Other wise fencing time has worked well for us, tested in two tournaments. Most time consuming part of the process, other than the usual learning process, is entering fencers names. And we've come up with a semi-automated process for creating the fencing time data base from division membership lists. So any other computer solution will have to work hard to overcome the lead that fencing time has.

[4qtrs]

VMware appears to be working on a windows (or other x86 os) on Mac solution too:

http://www.vmware.com/products/beta/fusion/

-p

It looks interesting. Is it shareware? I can't see a price other than the registration.

[peet]

It looks interesting. Is it shareware? I can't see a price other than the registration.

I haven't looked deeply into it, but AFAIK, it is beta software, so:

Like most betas, it is free.
It is not guaranteed to work right in all respects
It has known issues, i.e. things that they know don't work yet. See the release notes here

If it were me, I'd be interested to try out the beta, but wouldn't use it for real until it's out of beta and into stable production release (at which time I assume it will cost money).

cheers-

-p

[HDG]

I haven't looked deeply into it, but AFAIK, it is beta software, so:

Like most betas, it is free.
It is not guaranteed to work right in all respects
It has known issues, i.e. things that they know don't work yet. See the release notes here

If it were me, I'd be interested to try out the beta, but wouldn't use it for real until it's out of beta and into stable production release (at which time I assume it will cost money).

cheers-

-p

I might shadow our club's next tournament and see how well it works. Stay tuned.

[KD5MDK]

Parallels is the more mature product, at least from a length of existance issue. Also, it has a nifty "coherence" mode where Windows applications run right next to native Mac applications rather than all crammed in a "Windows Desktop" window. That said, it is not free.