Programming for Mac

[CGiuliano]

I have a Mac... Constant trips to the computer lab are becoming cumbersome and annoying. I am about to buy a PC just for convenience. Does anyone know if I can get Visual Studio/MATLAB for Mac? Are there some equivalents?

If I were to get a PC, does anyone have suggestions. I want to minimize cost but keep 4Gigs (3 could do it) and >=2Ghz.

Thanks

 

[Eugene Krel]

xcode should work. run virtualbox for matlab probably.

 

[CGiuliano]

can I download xcode for free? Like version tracker or something?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

I bought a Thinkpad T60 at the start of my MFE study and it has served me well. You can't have more than 3GB ram running XP and x32 OS.

 

[bluechimp]

MATLAB is available for Mac -- check with your school's software distribution center, I'm pretty sure any good university will let you install and run it on your computer, within the university confines.

Not too sure if you insist on running Visual Studio.. but if you are, then an alternative would be to run Windows-specific programs via emulation. Check out WINE, Parallels, or VMWare Fusion to do this.. Or just do Bootcamp and install Windows.

 

[alain]

You can buy MATLAB for the Mac. You can develop in Xcode using gcc and g++ for C/C++.

However, if you want to use windows, do you have a copy of XP? or could you buy it? You could buy VMWare Fusion and install XP inside of a virtual machine and use it there. Or you can download Virtual Box 3.0 and install XP in that VM.

I use VMWare in my Mac and I have a friend who uses Virtual Box. We are both happy with our choices.

 

[CGiuliano]

Alain- Is this going to be costly and difficult? Or, is it a matter of installing two programs? Can you point me in the right direction.

Thanks

 

[Shlomi]

Dude, you dont have to buy a PC.
Even if you dont want to run a virtual machine you can use boot camp, which is already on your mac.

 

[Shlomi]

This may help you:
http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#tutorial=windows

 

[alain]

XCode is free. It comes with the Mac DVD.

 

[CGiuliano]

I have tiger.. So for bootcamp I would have to buy leopard.

 

[Shlomi]

Is it an intel mac?

 

[alain]

Virtual Box is free. http://www.virtualbox.org/

VMWare is $80 although you can get a discount as a student. I bought my copy for $40. I run Linux and Windows on my Mac and I'm extremely happy.

 

[Shlomi]

Virtual Box is free. http://www.virtualbox.org/

VMWare is $80 although you can get a discount as a student. I bought my copy for $40. I run Linux and Windows on my Mac and I'm extremely happy.

You can buy it at amazon for $35

 

[CGiuliano]

Yes, it is intel based.. I'm downloading xcode now and I'll check out virtual box if I run into problems.

 

[CGiuliano]

What is this g/g++ stuff??

Thanks everyone this has been super helpful.

 

[Shlomi]

What is this g/g++ stuff??

Thanks everyone this has been super helpful.

Its the GNU C++ compiler

 

[CGiuliano]

Do I just code in C++ like on visual studio?

 

[Shlomi]

Basically yes, but don't be surprised if you'll get more warnings and errors since the compiler is less forgiving

 

[CGiuliano]

Does anyone know where I can find a link to download MATLAB for a mac OSX 10.4 intel.. I found a couple, but none worked.