Alternate for Keyman on a Mac Re: Crossovers and parallels

[Andrew Cunningham]

Not surprised that you have problems with input using crossover. Native
apps or virtual machines are much more robust approaches. There are key
differences between the input frameworks on each OS.
On Dec 10, 2011 9:50 AM, "Claire Bowern" <clairebowern at gmail.com> wrote:

>  It looks like only some keyboard remappings work in Crossover/Toolbox. In
> my keyboards, the characters that use remappings work, but the ones that
> use deadkeys (e.g. ä produced by ; and then a, as sequential keystrokes) do
> not. For the typing I do, I can't imagine using drag and drop, and even
> deadkeys are inefficient.
> Claire
>
> On Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 10:30 PM, #HIRAM RANDALL RING# wrote:
>
>  Hi Tom and all.
>
>    Regarding an alternative solution for Keyman on a Mac, try using
> Ukelele (developed by an SIL programmer who uses a mac). http://
> scripts.sil.org/ukelele - it creates a unicode keyboard layout file
> recognized by Mac that you can load on startup.
>
>    Mine is loaded permanently, and I can access Roman characters as well
> as more esoteric sounds like: ŋ, ɲ, ɪ ɛ, ə, ʔ, ∫, ʒ, and even diacritics
> etc.. which I just typed now by using the 'alt-option' key along with
> preset characters. Those characters should come through fine if your email
> program is set up to read unicode - basically, if it's unicode and you can
> find it in your character map, you can map it to a key in Ukelele.
>
>    I have been using Crossover with mac to run Toolbox for the last year
> (your option #3), and have setup a unicode keyboard in Ukelele (a simple
> drag-and-drop from the character map) that works great for inputting
> characters - not only in Toolbox, but in just about any other document
> editor as well.
>
>    The one place it doesn't seem to work is in Transcriber for Mac, which
> is another issue, as I use the Transcriber > Toolbox > Elan workflow for
> time-aligning my transcriptions of sound and video. Unfortunately the
> Transcriber program is not user-friendly on Mac at all (the newest version
> doesn't even run on my mac), and I can't figure out how to get it to
> recognize unicode characters, so if I want IPA I have to manually replace
> characters once I get the transcription into Toolbox.
>
>    The best way I've found for using Ukelele is to set up your special
> keys to work when holding down the "alt/option" key, as this is a key that
> Crossover and Toolbox and other programs don't use much for mapping special
> functions.
>
>    There is some good documentation to go along with Ukelele as well,
> which I found to be helpful in setting up my keyboard map and putting it in
> the right place for OSX to find it.
>
>  Regards,
> Hiram
>
>
>  On Dec 9, 2011, at 8:45 AM, Tom Honeyman wrote:
>
>  For those that might be a little lost about what this thread is about,
> essentially Toolbox and many other Linguistics oriented programs run only
> Windows (XP, 7 etc), and there are people out there on Apple computers or
> running a Linux based operating system who would like to be able to run
> these programs. However, if you're running a linux based operating system,
> I suspect you're technically savvy enough not to need to read this email.
>
>  If you're on a Mac, and you're confused about the options then read on.
>
>  To run Toolbox and potentially other Windows only programs, broadly
> speaking there are 3 possible solutions:
>
>  (1) get a separate computer running a windows based operating system (or
> use "Boot Camp" if you're on an Intel based mac (ie relatively recent mac)).
> (2) run a "virtual" computer inside your computer and install Windows on
> this.
> (3) emulate windows and run your applications through that, using
> Crossover or Wine.
>
>  Solution (1) requires that you buy or find a separate computer, but this
> is at least reasonably straight forward. If you're not tech savvy but
> you're okay using a Windows PC then this is often the easiest solution. But
> the cost of this solution is the cost of the new computer (or find a second
> hand one - Toolbox does not need the latest and greatest computer).
> Consider getting a cheap netbook if this solution appeals. A major
> disadvantage for this solution is that your files will be spread across two
> computers. But you could always store them on a USB flash drive and then
> plug that into the computer you want to use.
>
>  Solution (1a) is "Boot Camp". Boot Camp (
> http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/) is an alternative for the
> moderately tech savvy mac users. It allows you to install Windows straight
> onto your mac, but will mean you have to restart your computer every time
> you want to use Toolbox, and you cannot simultaneously use Toolbox with
> your regular Apple programs. The costs associated with this solution are
> the purchase a of Windows license. There are academic versions available,
> and some academic institutions may have a site license which means you
> don't have to pay at all.
>
>  Solution (2) is technically harder than solution (1). There are three
> possible contenders: Parallels and VMWare Fusion, and VirtualBox. The first
> two are commercial products with various degrees of technical support
> available, the third is free, with community based support. Again if you
> are not tech savvy, I would lean towards the commercial solutions. And so
> the costs would be both the cost of the software _and_ a windows license.
> Advantages to this solution are that you can run Mac and (any) Windows
> programs side by side. Some confusing points can be locating your files,
> cutting a pasting between programs, and managing a "virtual" computer
> inside your actual computer. But the advantages are many - everything is
> (pretty much) in the one location, the windows programs run very robustly,
> and especially with the commercial software, the tightness of integration
> means you may not even be aware of the difference between Toolbox and any
> other application on your mac.
>
>  Solution (3) is also technically harder than (1), and while Toolbox runs
> reasonably well, I have failed to run many other SIL Linguistics programs.
> The cost is lower however - you only need to purchase Codeweaver's
> Crossover, and there are academic versions available. The software is
> updated frequently, but their business model is to make you pay for support
> (and major updates) on an ongoing basis (but you don't have to update if
> everything works!). Integration between regular Mac programs and windows
> programs is reasonably tight, but at times confusing - for instance when it
> comes to closing/quitting Toolbox. Keyman does not work, and I have yet to
> come up with a reasonable solution to typing in non-standard characters.
> Key combinations can also be a little confusing. Cutting and pasting
> between documents can be a little buggy. The major advantage is that this
> is the cheapest solution to get Toolbox running on your mac.
>
>  Crossover is actually a commercial repackaging of the freely available
> and open source "Wine" software. If you know how to install Wine then this
> email is not for you. But FYI it is the only legal free solution that does
> not require the purchase of a windows license (actually, technically in
> some cases you are required to own a windows license but you don't need to
> use it).
>
>  So here is how I would break it down based on different user's scenarios:
>
>  *"Argh, it's all too hard... I want an easy solution!"*: use a separate
> Windows PC computer with a thumb drive to store your files. Of course
> lugging around two computers may actually be harder in some cases!
>
>  *"I'm not afraid to try something trickier. I want to run Toolbox only
> and I want the cheapest (legal) solution"*: run Wine, or if you don't
> know how to do that, run Codeweaver's Crossover. VirtualBox is potentially
> a better cheap option if you can get ahold of a windows license for free
> (ie through work etc).
>
>  *"I'm not afraid to try something trickier. I want convenience. I don't
> care what it costs":* run Parallels or VMWare Fusion (where the
> integration is more transparent), or if on a budget, run VirtualBox. Of
> course, VirtualBox will be the cheapest if you can get ahold of a windows
> license for free.
>
>  None of these solutions are perfect. So in addition, consider writing a
> friendly email to the SIL Toolbox/Fieldworks team praising them on their
> excellent software (a bargain at that price too if I may say so!), and
> saying how nice it would be if they could produce a genuine cross-platform
> solution.
>
>  Cheers,
> Tom
>
>  On 08/12/2011, at 11:33 AM, Xavier Barker wrote:
>
> You don't even need to be booting the VM everytime you use it.  You can
> pause it (or save state) and just reload it in a ready state every time you
> need it, which is a great option if you're seriously so time poor you can't
> wait a few minutes for the VM to load.  You'll find a lot of software is
> dependent on a fair bit of backend stuff happening in Windows (like Keyman)
> which is why they don't work as expected under emulated conditions.
>
> On 08/12/2011, at 11:24 AM, Aidan Wilson wrote:
>
> Given how many programs you intend to use, I argue again that a virtual
> machine is the best approach. I agree that crossover allows you to easily
> open a project without booting the machine, but the ram and cpu usage is
> higher when you have crossover and a virtual machine running. It's best to
> have everything in one VM.
>
> --
> Aidan Wilson
>
> PhD Candidate in Linguistics
> School of Languages and Linguistics
> The University of Melbourne
>
> +61428 458 969
> aidan.wilson at unimelb.edu.au
> @aidanbwilson
>
> On Thu, 8 Dec 2011, Margaret Carew wrote:
>
> Sorry about that, I can’t get it to work either
> I’ve had the LP/crossovers download sitting here – I just tried running
> it, but it won’t load my database.
> MC
> On 8/12/11 9:25 AM, "Claire Bowern" <claire.bowern at yale.edu> wrote:
>
>     I've had no luck getting Lexique to work on Crossover - what settings
> did you use?
>     Claire
>
>
>     On Wednesday, December 7, 2011 at 6:52 PM, Margaret Carew wrote:
>
>           Crossovers and parallels Thanks for all the input on Crossovers
> and parallels for toolbox.
>
>           After my own couple of weeks of testing I’ve decided to use both
> – I’m going with a parellels virtual
>           machine, mainly so I can use Miromaa, running under windows 7.
>
>           However, I like crossovers for toolbox because you go straight
> to it (the crossovers/Toolbox icon) and
>           start up from there. If I need to I can also use it in
> Parallels, accessing the same files etc, but it
>           seems to run a bit slower (also has the whole windows start up
> routine which is boring).
>
>           And I think Lexique pro works the same way through crossovers.
>
>           The cost wasn’t exhorbitant, paid $70 for parellels (on special
> last week!) and about $40 for
>           crossovers. (and have access to licences for the big ticket
> software through work).
>
>           cheers
> --
> Margaret Carew
> Arandic Endangered Languages Project
> Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education
> Alice Springs NT 0870
> 08 8951 8344 / 0422 418 559
> margaret.carew at batchelor.edu.au
>
>
>
>
>
>
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