Mac producers might be happy to learn that Image-Line has finally begun developing a legit OSX version of FL Studio 12 (for real this time guys, seriously). Previous workarounds involved running an instance of windows through a virtual machine but apparently new developments with a Delphi compiler for OSX (FL being written in Delphi) have finally made the transition less daunting than completely re-writing the program in another language. Nonetheless, there’s still a lot of work to be done and it could take years before they develop a stable release assuming they don’t run into some problem they can’t fix (which is entirely possible). From Image-Line:

1. Delphi:FL Studio is written in Delphi with in-line assembly for much of the DSP. This is one reason why FL Studio and its graphics are so fluid.Delphi only recently got the ability to compile to OS X. So while this is great, it’s a 1st-generation OS X compiler, it’s cranky and sometimes causes problems of its own. But, before this came along, we needed to port well over 1 million lines of code to another language. We never thought that was a good idea, and it’s why we never did it before. But, things have changed, so let’s call this progress.
2. Windows API:FL Studio is tightly bound to the Windows API that takes care of moving, minimizing, maximizing windows, detecting cursor position, drag & drop, opening windows dialogs, clipboard functions, decoding MP3s, … so a port requires all operating system dependent calls to be isolated & replaced by bi-platform dependent functions. That’s a major part of what the team are doing now.FYI, just getting all this system dependent code from Deckadance (which was created more or less with porting in mind) and replacing it with bi-platform versions took almost 6 months. FL Studio is many times the size of Deckadance, so please be patient.

While FL was once very popular among even some high-profile producers, it has become less popular as software like Ableton Live , and Reason have  gained market share thanks in part to their cross-platform availability. With so many options available and a stable release so far down the line, do you think Fruity Loops can make a comeback by porting to Mac? Tell us what you think on Facebook or Twitter!

s/o Attack Magazine

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FL Studio Being Developed for OSX