Porting .NET C++ standalone to Mac

Question

I need to give an estimate for porting a standalone program to a Mac from a .NET platform. I have all the source code which is in C++ and is both code I wrote and a modified version of GLUT/GLUI because the program uses OpenGL and GLUT/GLUI as a UI.

I don't think the C++ code will be a problem or the OpenGL environment, please tell me if you think it will be. In .NET, I use OpenGL32.DLL and deploy it with my app. I need to find out how this is done for a Mac?

I really need to know what the current deployment method is for Mac's these days and how hard it will be for me to write for it. For .NET, I use Visual Studio for the application development and deployment, I make a new VS project to build the deployable MS installer.

The deployment process also allows things like placing a desktop shortcut, associate a unique icon with the program ... What deployment options can one select on a Mac? What do you think the biggest obstacles will be?

There's no .NET framework calls within the code. The deployment phase produces a .NET assembly with all the security features. I think that is the main relationship with .NET since it is straight C++ not C#.

Answer 1

Development should be rather straight-forward. You'll be able to do OpenGL/GLUT/etc... through the Cocoa framework. Look at this example from Apple to see how it is done in code.

As for development tools, you will be able to use Xcode (which is free with the Mac). You can develop in C++ and compile with GCC.