Starfish 2.0b5 review

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by rbytes.net on

StarfishX is a Mac OS X-native application which generates cool desktop patterns.

License: GPL
OS: Mac OS X
File size: 432K
Developer: M. Scott Marcy
Price: $0.00
Updated: 28 Apr 2006
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StarfishX is a Mac OS X-native application which generates cool desktop patterns. It is based on Mars Saxman's Starfish pattern generation engine.

Here are some key features of "Starfish":
Mac OS X native cocoa application.
Altivec-enabled and multi-threaded to take full advantage of today's dual (and single) processor G4 PowerMacs. (There is also a version of Starfish X which will run on a G3 Macintosh, although it's much slower).
Support for multiple monitors (you can generate a different pattern for each monitor connected to your computer).
Support for both TIFF and JPEG image files.
Option to quit StarfishX when all patterns have been generated. (Perfect for use as a startup item!)
Keeps track of recently-created patterns so you can go back to that really cool pattern StarfishX created yesterday.

What's New:
StarfishX now comes as two separate downloads. One for G4 and higher machines, and one for G3 machines. It appears that the gcc 3.3 compiler added some G4 instructions to routines which call Altivec code, even if these such routines don't have any Altivec code in them themselves. This sucks, because it causes
StafishX to crash on any G3-based machine. But I'm unwilling to give up the 15% speed improvement this new compiler gives us just for this, so there are now two vesions. The G3 version will warn you if you run it on a machine with Altivec, and the G4+ version will refuse to run on a G3.
Fixed a crash when dragging to rearrange palettes and/or colors.
Removed a beep when you edited--but didn't change the name of--a palette.

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