PC User - Questions about switching esp XCode

Yes, Microsoft do a Remote Desktop client for the Mac. www.microsoft.com/mac under "other products."

As to XCode, I haven't done much serious work with it, so I won't comment on the code editing/debugging abilities, but I will say the GUI designer tool is the best I've seen. (Having worked with Visual Studio and various Java IDEs)

 

Forget Microsoft, Apple has a great solution already:
http://www.apple.com/remotedesktop/

As for developer tools, it should be a dream come true for you. Apple offers most of their tools for free, included on CD with the OS X releases or as a download. If you are a student I would suggest joining the Apple Developer Connection for Students (I just did this myself). You get an excellent hardware discount, developer's kit, news, etc.

 

Yes,
Yes.

Xcode is very nice. Its a little slow in some places, and it forces MVC by haveing a separate GUI tool (they work together though) so you might have to get used to that coming from VS... Code sense is very usefull, if a little slow, Xcode 1.5 (coming soon) should help with the speed. And thier other debugging tools (CHUD) are really great.

 

How fast is Remote Desktop between a Wintel machine and the Mac?

 

You mean using terminal services/XP Pro remote login, or the two different remote systems in comparison?

 

Remote systems in comparison. Like Microsofts or others that are reasonably good or great. Basically is Apples the best or is there better in the price range?

 

Remote Desktop for Mac

I may be wrong, but I don't think that you can use the Apple Remote Desktop software to control a PC.

So you are basically stuck with Microsoft's implementation. However, if you use this software, the account you logon to the PC with MUST have a password or it won't work. This is a security requirement for the Remote Desktop (RDC) software for both PC's and Mac's; i.e. you don't leave a PC that can be controlled (or more accurately logged on to) with no password requirement as anyone with the RDC software can access the box.

 

Xcode is OK, I can't get java programs to compile on it worth crap, but the editor is fantastic.

The indenting is really great as is the syntax coloring.

 

Xcode is great, but Interface Builder is phenomenal at what it does. 'Nuff said. As for Xcode, I love it. Just about everything about it is customizable, even if it does take a trip to the Terminal occasionally to directly write to the prefs file. Code completion, if used correctly, can be a great time saver. Be sure to turn off distributed builds though, as the network overhead just isn't worth the speedup.

 

Xcode took a bit of time to get used to for me, especially Interface Builder, but now I like it. Code sense is nice, most of the time, but it is also annoying when it tries to autocomplete every time I try to hardcode a floating point number.

 

Just a thought, another alternative to remote desktop on Windows is VNC. That'll work with a Mac.