PlayOnMac is a free

compatibility layer In software engineering, a compatibility layer is an interface that allows binaries for a legacy or foreign system to run on a host system. This translates system calls for the foreign system into native system calls for the host system. With som ...

and

emulator In computing, an emulator is Computer hardware, hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run so ...

for

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

that allows installation and usage of video games and other software initially designed to run exclusively on

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. PlayOnMac is based on the open-source

Wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

project and therefore creates and uses virtual drives much like Wineskin wrappers (the virtual drives are essentially Wineskin wrappers operating on a particular version of Wine). Furthermore, it uses an online database of installers (called scripts) that are applied to different applications that need special configuration. The scripts act as installers for the desired software. If the video game or software that must be installed is not in the online database of PlayOnMac, a manual installation can be performed but the positive result cannot be guaranteed. Aside from video games, any other program can be installed and each one is put in a different container to prevent interference of one program with another. Therefore, PlayOnMac allows users to install some of the most popular Windows programs and many video games as well. As with Wine, the use of PlayOnMac does not require nor use a Windows license. Lastly, PlayOnMac has been developed using a combination of two

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...

s, more specifically

Bash Bash or BASH may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Bash!'' (Rockapella album), 1992 * ''Bash!'' (Dave Bailey album), 1961 * '' Bash: Latter-Day Plays'', a dramatic triptych * ''BASH!'' (role-playing game), a 2005 superhero game * "Bash" ('' ...

and

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (pro ...

. In addition, it also uses the wrapper/toolkit

wxPython wxPython is a wrapper for the cross-platform GUI API (often referred to as a "toolkit") wxWidgets (which is written in C++) for the Python programming language. It is one of the alternatives to Tkinter. It is implemented as a Python extension mod ...

References

External links

* {{Official website, www.playonmac.com/en/
Supported software
Free software MacOS software Compatibility layers macOS emulation software Software derived from or incorporating Wine Software that uses wxPython

See also

References

External links