[CharlesS]

Hey all, a new version of Pacifist is in the pipeline, and it needs beta testers. It's the usual kind of stuff — Mavericks compatibility, Retina Display enabled, performance enhancements. I've also converted the project to ARC, and also completely rewritten the authentication code so that it's done properly now, getting rid of the legacy crap there that's been largely unchanged since the first version for OS X 10.0, so it should be not only faster but also more secure now.

Obviously, anyone running Mavericks would be great, as this of course needs to work well with the new OS. However, there is a lot of custom code to support Snow Leopard, given my changes to the rest of the OS, so I need to get some testers who are running SL to make sure everything still works there, since this is likely to be the last major release that will run on that system.

Any takers? Please send me an e-mail at support (squiggly thing with an 'a' in the middle of it) charlessoft (decimal point) com.

Thanks!

[reader50]

I have SL on my laptop. I can run it through a few paces, but I'd hardly call it a thorough testing.

[shifuimam]

I use SL on my MacBook 1.83GHz. I'd be happy to help with testing.

P.S. I don't know how hard it would be, but I do hope you can continue to support SL in future releases, because quite a few older Intel Macs won't even run Lion. If that's not feasible, will you still make the last SL-compatible version available for download?

[CharlesS]

Thanks! I've sent you both PMs.

If anyone else is interested in testing, please send me an e-mail! I'll add you to the list, so that you get a new build when I send them out.

Originally Posted by shifuimam 

P.S. I don't know how hard it would be, but I do hope you can continue to support SL in future releases, because quite a few older Intel Macs won't even run Lion. If that's not feasible, will you still make the last SL-compatible version available for download?

There's way, way too much duct tape involved in getting this version to work on Snow Leopard for that to be a long-term solution, unfortunately. I had to include a whole separately coded privileged helper tool for SL, as well as employ a major kludge to get the QuickLook plug-in to load, and there are a lot of unsafe_unretained properties being used throughout the code that I'd really like to be weak references instead. Also, I'm looking forward to being able to use the auto-layout and Base Localization features, which are only available in 10.7 and 10.8 respectively. However, for the time being, this release is planned to be compatible with 10.6, as well any bug-fix updates to it. Whether the next major release also supports Snow Leopard will depend on usage stats, but as soon as the percentage of users using Snow Leopard in the Sparkle stats goes below a certain point, I'm probably going to start considering removing SL support. My guess is that the number will lower somewhat after 10.9 is released, but we'll see.

Whenever I do end dropping SL support, the last SL-compatible version will remain available on the site, just as the versions for 10.2 and 10.3 are now, and the current version will be for 10.4 and 10.5 users after the new one is released.

[Waragainstsleep]

I have a MacBook running SL and a Mini running Mavericks.

[ghporter]

My 2006 MBP is running Snow Leopard. Drat it all - as with the others who've posted about their laptops, that's as high as I can go. Not sure how helpful I can be in testing, but I run Virtual Box for work software, which may do "interesting" things within OS X.

[MacGeekAz]

Hi,

I would be interested in becoming a beta tester for Pacifist. I have been a long time user of the software and I'm running 2012 iMac 27 inch with 10.9 Maverick. Let me know if you're still looking for testers.


Cheers!