Metrowerks to end CodeWarrior for Mac development

Having never used CodeWarrior (except briefly, when it was being made for OS-9... Microware's OS-9, not Mac OS 9), is this a good thing? Did it have any advantages over Apple's devtools? (I knew CW as a Mac and PalmOS tool, before Motorola bought them; have they been the same since?)

CodeWarrior was essential back in the days of Symantec C++. It was a powerful, robust environment that supported a huge number of languages and platforms, all in a very well-done IDE. They had extensive and well-done documentation, and released a new version every three months.

After a while, this changed. Releases slowed first to every six months, then to "whenever" like most companies. The languages were pared back to C/C++ and Java. Windows support became much more important than Mac support, and while CodeWarrior led the charge for creating PowerPC binaries back in the early 90's, their transition to OS X was pretty lackluster.

Now that Apple has its own suite of development tools in XCode, there's even less reason to use CodeWarrior. The biggest problem here is that - to my knowledge - XCode does not create OS 9 Carbon programs, but only creates the Mach-O Carbon binaries that run on OS X. This will effectively end all support for developing for Mac OS 9 (and yes, many companies - especially educational vendors - still support OS 9 alongside OS X).

It's sad, but at the same time, it's a good thing. They were slow to move to OS X and Apple, as far as Jobs is concerned, never had a Newton or Mac OS "Classic," and as of the Intelintosh, CodeWarrior will be about as missed as the Chooser. Long forgotten in a matter of months. "Most" schools aren't supporting OS 9 anymore, and as a Mac IT pro, I find Classic to be a lingering annoyance that breeds more down time then productivity (especially if Outlook is involved). IT's still sad to see the product that made Office... is gone. I wonder if 10 will support Intel units or not?