The Future of Bible Analyzer on MacOS

[Tim]

My first Mac computer was a used G4 Power Mac that had a PowerPC chip running the old OS X Jaguar (10.2) operating system. I got it around 2005 to try and make a Mac edition of Bible Analyzer. After a lot of trial and error getting used to the "Mac way," I released the first Bible Analyzer Mac edition.

This was before the iPhone, iPad, and any "App Store." At that time Mac was just another computer company that worked basically the same as the others. However, in 2007 Apple begin to change. They introduced the iPhone, the first smart phone, and along with it the Apple store. The iPhone was a revolutionary product and people bought them by the millions, but there was a catch that most people simply ignored. Even though the phone was a little pocket computer, one could only install apps on it from Apple's own store. No "outside" apps could be installed and Apple insisted this was to keep people "safe" and "protect" them from malware. When the iPad came out this restriction continued as it did later with the Apple Watch. Apple has successfully conditioned its users to accept these restrictions in the name of "security."

The exception to this was MacOS. Early on users could install any DMG or even ZIP app they wanted without any problem. After the Mac Store came out, though, Apple started adding warnings to users trying to install any app that did not come from their store. Every year or so Apple would make installing these non-store apps like Bible Analyzer harder and harder to where it is at the point now that users have to jump through so many hoops with Gatekeeper that they just give up. I get emails from Mac users all the time stating they can't install Bible Analyzer and Apple is making them afraid to try with all the warnings they are confronted with.

The "handwriting is on the wall" so to speak. Apple is on a path to limit all Mac systems to only be able to use store apps.

Furthermore, unlike Windows and Linux OSs, Apple does not value making its OS backwards compatible with earlier platforms. When they went from PowerPC to Intel chips, they provided "Rosetta" as a translator so users could still run PowerPC apps for a while, then they completely abandoned them. They have done the same with the transition from Intel chips to Silicon/ARM chips. Now they have "Rosetta2," but it will be discontinued with MacOS 28 sometime in 2027.

I have received emails and notices from some of you wanting to know if Bible Analyzer will have a true Silicon edition in time for the cut off, and unfortunately, the answer is no. [Edit: See update below]. Over the years I have had to buy four Mac systems to try and keep up with the changes so we could continue to develop Bible Analyzer. The last one I bought was a nice Intel iMac with a retina screen that I have developed the latest Bible Analyzer Mac editions on. However, to develop for Silicon I must have a Silicon Mac and I'm simply not going to buy one. Apple products are good quality, but they are expensive, and I cannot justify the expense, especially since Apple continuously tries to scare Bible Analyzer users away with their constant "non-store app" warnings. Also, to keep all the users who still use Intel Macs happy, I would have to develop two Mac editions on two different systems, one Intel and one Silicon. I am too old for all this.

So, Mac Bible Analyzer users, I'm sorry. Unless there is some way to still run Intel apps after MacOS 28, Bible Analyzer installation will end with MacOS 27. There may be emulators that will do it. I don't know, but that is the state of things right now.

[Tim]

Well...after some email exchanges with Bible Analyzer Mac users I reconsidered my position on Mac Silicone. I decided to look and see if I could find a used M series Mac to develop the upcoming Bible Analyzer 5.7 with the Semantic Explorer add-on and I found an M2 Silicone Mac Mini for a reasonable price and ordered it.

I purposely did NOT install Rosetta 2 on this ARM Mac to be sure I could build Bible Analyzer on it and no Python Intel dependencies crept in. That was an issue a couple years ago. Not all the libraries were yet "universal." Anyway, much to my relief, Bible Analyzer 5.6 compiles and ran well on this pure ARM/Silicone system. I see no reason why Bible Analyzer 5.7 could not run as well (even though it uses a couple new libraries).

So, Lord willing, there will be both an Intel version of 5.7 and an ARM version. This should cover the whole Mac platform.

On a related note, I learned it may be possible to for me to sign and notarize our Bible Analyzer Mac apps without submitting them to the App Store. This will bypass the Gatekeeper warnings. It will cost me $99 to try. I'll check more into that when 5.7 is completed.

[wsbones]

Glad to hear this. Thanks.
Bill

[bobsc]

I too was resisting moving to the ARM Macs, but I finally bought a MacBook Air M5 15" in April, and and happy now that I did.
Previously I was stuck at Mojave, afraid to lose access to too many "important" hardware add-ons, software apps and scripts, and in some cases even data (no current software is able to open some of the OLD files I have).
Well, it turns out I can either live without those, or work around somehow, or keep the old hardware hidden but handy.

Somehow I had the mistaken idea that the new Mac would not be able to use my 2009 27-inch iMac as a screen. All the macbooks, even the biggest 16", are too tiny for my 87-year-old eyes. But it is working very well. All I had to do was buy an inexpensive cable, USB-C to mini-display-port.

All this to say, I am very glad that you got a mac-mini-m2, and that BA 5.6 compiles and runs on it!
I currently have BA 5.5 running on my M5.

[epement]

On a related note, I learned it may be possible to for me to sign and notarize our Bible Analyzer Mac apps without submitting them to the App Store. This will bypass the Gatekeeper warnings. It will cost me $99 to try. I'll check more into that when 5.7 is completed.

I do not own a Mac and know nothing about the difficulty of installing an app for Mac without submitting them to the App Store. However, I do use a lot of free software and I noticed this today from another application that I use:

Installing Subtitle Edit on macOS (Unsigned App)
Because Subtitle Edit is not signed with an Apple developer certificate, macOS will block it by default. You can still install and run it by following these steps:

Download and double-click the .dmg file to mount it.

In the window that appears, drag Subtitle Edit.app into your Applications folder.

Open the Terminal app (you can find it via Spotlight or in /Applications/Utilities/).

In Terminal, run the following commands to remove macOS’s security quarantine flag and add adhoc code signature:

Code: Select all

sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Subtitle Edit.app"
sudo codesign --force --deep --sign - "/Applications/Subtitle Edit.app"

-- copied from https://github.com/SubtitleEdit/subtitleedit in the README section

Since Subtitle Edit is an open source project, you may be able to use its code to perform something simliar with Bible Analyzer.

Just trying to be helpful.

[Tim]

Yes, Mac's Gatekeeper which flags these apps, can be bypassed a couple different ways (current Mac Bible Analyzer users are doing this now), but the issue is the Apple warning scares many potential users away. They refuse to install any app not "verified" by Apple.

[geekybryan@gmail.com]

Hi Tim,

Thank you very much for reconsidering! Code signed or not, at least we'll have a native Bible Analyzer for a bit longer. I very much appreciate the software and the modules.

God Bless!

Bryan E. Johnson

[lesdelc]

After 20+ years of using MS Windows I recently purchased a Mac M5 laptop along with the Mac M5 mini (once it is released in Oct/Nov 2026.) MS Windows is moving in a different direction with personal computing. I realize that Bible Analyzer will stop functioning on the next major upgrade to the Apple OS. However, I have a 2nd laptop that runs with the Linux OS so I can continue to use the Bible Analyzer for Bible study.

-Les-