Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

PC -> MAC for programmers?

F

fc89gtr

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hi, I'm a newbie to this forum, and currently looling to buy a powerful mobile notebook for use in school. choosing between 12" Alu PB and Dell's D400.

i already have a desktop PC at home, but lately i've been spending a lot of times in school and at partner's house doing projects.

i'm am a computer engineering major and requires to code in C++ and Java.

my question is, will does the Mac platform has those kind of compilers? like IntelliJ and Visual Office and such? i've invested quite some money in the software for my PC (Macromedia studio, Office, Visual Studios and other programming software that i need). will VirtualWindow allow me to run my needed apps? if you were me, would you do the swtich?

Thanks in advance 🙂
 
Too bad you have invested so much money in quality C++/Java compilers for Windows, Apple gives them away for free! Check out http://developer.apple.com. But if you're married to Visual Studio you can always run it via Virtual PC.
 
I've been dealing with both world's for a while. While very few products are cross-platform, MetroWerks CodeWarrior is a commercial one, there are plenty of tools on Macintosh.

gcc is at the heart of Apple's tools and the development system is free to anyone with Mac OS X.

Java is best written with a tool other than what Apple provides, as there are others more concerned with Java than Objective-C.

There are C, C++, Objective-C, and Java template applications which come with Apple tools along with many examples.

You'll find it a rich and varied experience and not look back. 🙂
 
Re: PC -> MAC for programmers?

Originally posted by fc89gtr
Hi, I'm a newbie to this forum, and currently looling to buy a powerful mobile notebook for use in school. choosing between 12" Alu PB and Dell's D400.

i already have a desktop PC at home, but lately i've been spending a lot of times in school and at partner's house doing projects.

i'm am a computer engineering major and requires to code in C++ and Java.

my question is, will does the Mac platform has those kind of compilers? like IntelliJ and Visual Office and such? i've invested quite some money in the software for my PC (Macromedia studio, Office, Visual Studios and other programming software that i need). will VirtualWindow allow me to run my needed apps? if you were me, would you do the swtich?

Thanks in advance 🙂
Click to expand...

I use Eclipse for Java, and XCode for Objective-C, C, and C++. Both are free. Codewarrior (which allows you to compile for windows, although that's not needed for Java) isn't free. GCC is free, but command line only (except through XCode, which doesn't target Windows). If you're comfortable with the command line, it works fine. VirtualPC works, but it's not pleasant. The free stuff that can be downloaded (or that comes with the machine) is typically going to be nicer than running an emulator. Also, it's Mac, MAC means Media Access Control, and PCs have it too.
 
Just remember these three magical words:

MacOS is Unix.

Everything you'd be getting on a Unix or Linux system -- gcc compilers, command line build tools, make, configure, etc. -- is all built-in to the Mac. And of course it's all free.

I second the notion of using Eclipse for Java development, though during my undergrad engineering days I did it all with pico and javac. 🙂

My only concern is that the Mac implementation of some of the Unix tools (sed in particular) is apparently not quite up to standard. I have had build problems specifically related to an issue within Mac OS. Got them resolved eventually though.

Hope that helps.
 
Addressing the original post ... don't run Visual Studio (especially VS.net) on VirtualPC unless you've got a death wish. I guarantee it'll be so slow you'll want to tear your eyes out. If you must develop MFC, Win32, or .NET applications, your best bet is obviously a PC.

Although compilers vary quite significantly across platforms (despite the fact that they are supposed to compile source files written in the same language), you should be able to get away with writing C++ for homework on your Mac.

"Pure" Java development (i.e. JFC + Swing) is no sweat -- works fine on Windows, Linux, and OS X.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back