First time mac owner

[frankib]

I've recetnly just my first mac. It's an ipad 3 and despite it's limitations of what software is available for it, I absolutely adore it.

I would like wrting apps for it and i know there is ne developement environemnt that works in the ipad 3 for some reason, so i would like to but a mac for the job. I am not a wealthy person so money is tight but what would be the minimum sppec i could run an app development environment such as visual studio, x-code etc?

Also would it be more cost effective to build a hackingtosh for the job. I'm no stranger to pc building but i've never built a mac before.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[superscape]

Hi,

If you want to run Xcode 9 then you need macOS 10.13.2 or later.

I don't use Visual Studio, but system requirements are here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/productinfo/vs2017-system-requirements-mac

Personally, I wouldn't touch a Hackintosh with a bargepole for development. I want to develop on as close to what the user is likely to be running as possible. Odds are most of your users will be on a proper Mac, not a hackintosh.

If you're trying to avoid having two development machines (entirely understandable!) then one solution might be getting a Mac and running Windows on it too using BootCamp or on a VM.

https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac-software/run-windows-on-mac-3497251/

Hope that's of some help!

r.

 

[frankib]

probably a silly question but i'm assuming development can be done on a mac laptop. I have some spare licenses for visual studio, but what software do you use?

 

[superscape]

probably a silly question but i'm assuming development can be done on a mac laptop. I have some spare licenses for visual studio, but what software do you use?

I develop exclusively for macOS so I only really need Xcode.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"I've recetnly just my first mac. It's an ipad 3"

iPads ARE NOT "Macs".
They are "iOS devices".

 

[TC_GoldRush]

I've recetnly just my first mac. It's an ipad 3

You bought a tablet, not a computer. There is a MASSIVE difference. Still, welcome to the Apple ecosystem. Since you're tight on money, and bought a tablet... hackintosh is the way to go, good luck!

 

[GGJstudios]

I've recetnly just my first mac. It's an ipad 3 and despite it's limitations of what software is available for it, I absolutely adore it.

As stated earlier, an iPad (which is an iOS tablet) is not a Mac (which is an Apple personal computer). There are thousands upon thousands of apps available for both, so I don't know what limitations you're talking about. If you want to do software development, buy a Mac, which has plenty of development apps available for it.

 

[superscape]

You bought a tablet, not a computer.

...can't believe I missed that! ;-)