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macOS Windows to Mac. What next?

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lawsofphysics

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 13, 2011
9
0
India/USA
Hey all!

So I learnt pretty much everything C++ had to offer (from arrays to pointers to any other OOP concept). Although I CAN code in Java as well, I don't have as good command of this language as I have of C++. But this was on Windows (remember the blue screen of TurboC?)

Having said that, which language do you guys think I should now start off with, now that I've switched to a mac? Also, how difficult would the transition be? (if I learn those Cocoa, AppleScript, Python, Objective C or whatever language that comes up with the keywords 'programming OSX')

A couple of points:
1) C++ and a bit JAVA are all I know. Period.
2) I am no hotshot programmer by profession. A solid 2 years of programming on Windows is all I've done in high school (but with a nice rigorous curriculum of CS) and will be off to college in 3 months. I want to program ON a mac not FOR a mac. At least not until I can have some basic grasp of programming on OS X.

Thanks !!

EDIT: I am set with the basics of what is to be done (XCode, texteditors etc.) Just need to start off now.
 
Last edited:
lee1210

lee1210

macrumors 68040
Jan 10, 2005
3,182
3
Dallas, TX
You can write C++ and Java on a Mac without issue. You need to install the developer's tools from your OS X DVD or register for free on Apple's dev site and download XCode. From there you can either use the XCode IDE for C++ or use g++ from Terminal, the OS X command line interface.

For Java you can also download many other IDEs if you desire.

If you do want to program GUI programs for OS X Objective-C is the way to go. Everything you need will be installed by the steps above.

-Lee
 
KnightWRX

KnightWRX

macrumors Pentium
Jan 28, 2009
15,046
4
Quebec, Canada
lee1210 said:
If you do want to program GUI programs for OS X Objective-C is the way to go.
Click to expand...

Of course, if you're more comfortable with C++ than Objective-C and would rather not have to rewrite your GUI layer for every platform you ever port your app to, you might want to check out QT : http://qt.nokia.com/

It works on Macs, Windows and X11 based platforms like Linux, the BSDs and Solaris.
 
P

PatrickCocoa

macrumors 6502a
Dec 2, 2008
751
149
Not sure

lawsofphysics said:
I want to program ON a mac not FOR a mac. At least not until I can have some basic grasp of programming on OS X.

Thanks !!

EDIT: I am set with the basics of what is to be done (XCode, texteditors etc.) Just need to start off now.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you want. If you've got a MacBook or MacBook Pro and want to use that in college for computer science classes, then contact someone in the computer science school and see if they've run into that before and how they suggest you handle the situation. They may have a specific requirement for hardware/software that doesn't include the Mac. Or they may allow the Mac but expect you to figure out the translation from the coursework to the Mac. Or they may have run into this many times and can handle it.

Or, in some alternate universe, they may not be Windows-bound and may use Macs themselves (I'm sorry, I can't continue with a straight face).
 
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