On 16/02/2015 at 19:56, xxxxxxxx wrote:
Hi Robert,
Although I'm mostly a Windows dev, picking up on Mac development (or really, anything Mac) only recently, some things are in common in terms of C++ compilers and the theory behind it all.
Unfortunately, whoever built it for you on Mac probably used the wrong compiler version, even if they had little or no issues to fix to get it to compile and link. That it's not working in most situations (even if not all) sounds about right, as something is probably out of alignment across the DLL interfaces, probably between your plugin and C4D.
Newer Macs are mostly the issue if it's due to newer software on them, especially the operating system, and perhaps any drivers that come with them. It's certainly not the hardware directly.
The problem with older version support is that it becomes too costly to maintain it, even for just a few versions back. The complexity of keeping older OS, compiler, and supporting systems and software in place makes it a heavy burden. I know not everyone can keep up, but we can't stay static either, so we're forced forward. The benefit is that the compilers and OS upgrades usually come with some improvements that help C4D and hence the customer (new optimizations, etc.)
You'd have to either dual boot a computer with different OS versions, use OS virtualization, and/or have separate systems set up with the different working combinations. I know none of that is fast to setup, easy to maintain, or cheap, but it's what companies do to support software several versions back.
Otherwise, R16+ is the way to go.
I've actually heard Xcode 5 can work somehow on Yosemite, but you may be right that it's limited to 6, as I've only used 6 on it. Yes, it's likely to cause issues to use 6 to build R16 plugins, even if I'm only guessing. Brand new OS versions always have a 'bleeding edge' issue in terms of support.
Joey Gaspe
SDK Support Engineer