I’ve been loving that scene from Billy Madison since the movie was released. And been using Unix as my daily driver since the 80s, with an ‘off-season’ during part of the 90s. Got my first Mac just before the PPC to Intel transition when I worked at ARM. Totally agree with you on a philosophical basis, heck I still compile Linux for embedded platforms for fun. My kids joke about it - their dad sells free software LOL. But the law of diminishing returns applies here and if you want to reduce carbon footprint then the choice is obvious. While I care about what you are trying to do, it’s unlikely to get much groundswell or attention from TR. Which kinda sucks but I’ll give props for fighting the good fight.
So is the problem:
Electron?
No native or universal app?
resource (i.e., cpu and battery) usage?
As far as I know, Electron can be compiled for x86 (intel), arm (M1), or universal. Some apps are doing universal so that users don’t get confused and download the wrong package.
As I mentioned before, many if not most x86 apps run faster on arm via Rosetta2. How much faster would a native (arm) or universal app be, I don’t know. Speaking of which, using Rosetta as a guide, Rosetta 2 will be provided by default for 3-4yrs. Then supported for another 1-2yrs. That would be 5-6yrs before a native app is required. TR has plenty of time!
How much resource saving there is to be gained via a native or universal app? A couple % cpu which translates to how much battery? Is it significant or spit in the ocean?
It’s not about reducing carbon footprint. It’s about have a well-optimized app. That’s it. It irks me that when I open TR on my Mac the CPUs winds up to 40% while loading a basic functioning app that displays blue bars. It then takes 20 seconds to load. Each👏And👏Every👏Time👏You👏Open👏It👏
It’s a feature request. I don’t get why people are shitting on my feature request?
Yeah that sucks.
I don’t think you get it… Universal is native. It includes Intel and Apple Silicon binaries). The TR Electron app, which is an Intel binary and runs through Rosetta2, uses more than 2x the resources of a native app. But it also would speed up the snappiness of the app. It takes 20 seconds for the app to load. Why??? TR’s motto is “GET FASTER.” I’d like the same for it’s Mac app.
I get it. I was stating that it can be packaged in one of three ways. I totally understand that universal includes native support.
I don’t think anyone is on your feature request. I think there is a disagreement in the need and/or urgency of said feature.
Personally, I would love a native or universal app as well. I’m all for better resource utilization, faster app performance, etc.. Also, I want it due to my nerd OCD
What’s the need/urgency of AI FTP? It’s a literally redundant feature.
I still don’t get it. Electron is a very commonly used framework. The Electron system is written in nodeJS which is JIT compiled down using a browser which is natively compiled for the underlying architecture. This is just how cross platform apps are built these days. I don’t see and Electron app on an M1 is different on a Intel and AMD processor. They all incur the same overheads for the sake of portability. Can someone explain why the M1 MAC should be treated differently?
The company I work for has ported Chromium to embedded ARM processors. It’s a resource hog. It’s the rendering engine for Electron.
Yes I know that very well. It is my day job. How else are people going to deliver a universal app?
Its not an easy technical or business decision, and you can see some arguing to not go the universal app route. In my career it started with TrollTech’s Qt back in the mid 1990s, I recall that first product team both cursing and praising the decision. I still work with companies that are using Qt. And companies that bite the bullet and go native. Tradeoffs.
What’s the need/urgency of AI FTP? It’s a literally redundant feature.
Just another viewpoint here - a native ARM app would make almost zero difference to my user expereince (I am on M1 mac) but AI FTP makes an enormous difference for me. I’d also wager that the vast majority of TR users aren’t using an M1 mac so would not benefit at all.
I don’t think it’s a bad feature request, but I do think that in perspective it’s not as important to most people as it is to you.
JIT compiling is notorious resource intensive. Why does my 3200+ 28 GB natively-written Photos library open instantly when an simple Electron app that displays blue bars need 20 sec to load on the highest performance per watt chip currently out there?
How has AI FTP helped you vs doing an actual ramp test? You gained an extra workout session? Pro cyclists for sure don’t rely on AI FTP. Why should I?
Adaptive Training, which I take uses the underpinnings of AI FTP, I get is useful. But AI FTP is just shirking a test. It’s marketing hype more than anything.
I absolutely hate doing tests. It’s not ‘shirking’ - it’s my leisure time and I don’t want to spend it doing efforts that I hate. Now I get my workouts scaled appropriately without having to go through a process I really don’t enjoy.
I may be in the minority here, but there’s been fair bit of discussion on the podcast that indicates otherwise.
It seems AI FTP is popular so I don’t think you’re in the minority. If it wasn’t something people were interested in people wouldn’t bother turning it on, continue just doing ftp tests, and there wouldn’t be a thread with 1000+ posts providing feedback on it from many different people.
I’d be curious what the breakdown of devices users run TR on. Compared to windows, iPhone, and iPad I suspect users running TR on a MacBook and concerned about TR not being native are a minority of users. Maybe I’m wrong though. I don’t have that data.
If I remember correctly, MacBook users are majority which is why it was updated before mobile app a few years back when they did the major update. That may have changed over the years
That definitely surprises me then if that is the case. I guess since I mostly use erg mode I just run it on my phone and don’t need to keep too close an eye on the blue bars.
I could be wrong, but I seem to remember being surprised as well which is why it sticks in my mind
Curious… I assume someone has confirmed via Activity Monitor or System Report that the latest TR app is not native?