GrandPrix Race Manager for Mac OS X

Provides software for Cub Scout Pinewood Derby, Awana Grand Prix, Space Derby, Raingutter Regatta or other similar races. Providing high quality software solutions that will help with planning and conducting your races.

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gpraceman
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GrandPrix Race Manager for Mac OS X

Post by gpraceman »

We've had many inquiries on a Mac version of our GrandPrix Race Manager software. I did want to provide an update on those efforts. We are certainly making progress, and finally have been able to get the software up and running in a development environment. That is the second major hurdle in this effort. The first was rewriting the software so it would be compatible with both PCs and Macs. The PC version was released last month, allowing us to then focus on the Mac version.

We have been able to do some testing with the development environment but have a lot more testing to do. There are still some other technical issues that we have to work out before it is ready to distribute. Currently, we do not have a projected release date. We certainly hope to have the Mac compatible version released before January, but it will only be released once it is ready.

Sadly, the Mac version will have a limitation that the Windows version does not. It will not have Perfect-N Type scheduling. Only a Windows driver is available to create those types of schedules. We are unable to contact Cory Young, who created the driver, along with Stan Pope. Unfortunately, Stan does not have a copy of the source code and has lost contact with Cory as well. Anyways, we are trying to find a workaround on that issue, but it looks like, at least initially, the Mac version will not have that capability. The Phase Shifted Lane Rotation schedules would be the best option in the interim.
Randy Lisano
Romans 5:8

Awana Grand Prix and Pinewood Derby racing - Where a child, an adult and a small block of wood combine for a lot of fun and memories.
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Vitamin K
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Re: GrandPrix Race Manager for Mac OS X

Post by Vitamin K »

You could embed a Javascript engine and run Stan's JS code? :)
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Re: GrandPrix Race Manager for Mac OS X

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Vitamin K wrote:You could embed a Javascript engine and run Stan's JS code? :)
As far as I know, that is a more limited scheduler than what the DLL provides.

I was thinking to decompile the DLL and then recompile it as a DYLIB to work on a Mac. Whether that is actually possible, I am not sure. I have only a tiny bit of experience with C++ and have not been able to find a decompiler that would work and not crash on me.

I could just build a separate Perfect-N Type scheduler app with the DLL and users can run it on a Mac with Wine. The schedules would have to be saved to a CSV file and then imported into GPRM. Doable but is not so convenient for the user. Unfortunately, the whole app cannot run under Wine, as the serial port functionality will not work at all. That functionality is the more critical.
Randy Lisano
Romans 5:8

Awana Grand Prix and Pinewood Derby racing - Where a child, an adult and a small block of wood combine for a lot of fun and memories.
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Vitamin K
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Re: GrandPrix Race Manager for Mac OS X

Post by Vitamin K »

gpraceman wrote:
Vitamin K wrote:You could embed a Javascript engine and run Stan's JS code? :)
As far as I know, that is a more limited scheduler than what the DLL provides.
Maybe Stan could chime in here: What features does the DLL offer that the JS code doesn't? I want to say I've seen some independent re-implementations of Perfect-N scheduling in some open source packages...most likely modeled off of Stan's code.
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Re: GrandPrix Race Manager for Mac OS X

Post by gpraceman »

Vitamin K wrote:I want to say I've seen some independent re-implementations of Perfect-N scheduling in some open source packages...most likely modeled off of Stan's code.
That's off of the same DLL that GPRM uses.
Randy Lisano
Romans 5:8

Awana Grand Prix and Pinewood Derby racing - Where a child, an adult and a small block of wood combine for a lot of fun and memories.
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