I'm in my second computer science course right now. I've enjoyed programming so far, but really have just scraped my way by. I've not done much programming outside of required class work. For similar reasons, I never really invested in downloading/learning software to help me program (IDE's, editors, compilers, etc).
I know it sounds tedious, but my current setup is: notepad++ for coding; Filezilla to transfer .cpp & .h files to school's aludra/unix and compiling; unix tells me where my bugs are and I go back to notepad++ to debug; repeat until done.
This isn't fun - and I know it could be easier. But I put it off knowing that I was soon going to switch to a Mac. And, tomorrow, I'm switching.
So...
How should I set up my Macbook for the best programming experience?
What IDEs and editors and debuggers and so on should I download?
How will Mac programming differ from PC?
I'm open to all ideas and comments, even the most basic.
(Background - I'm learning/programming in C++ right now. Next semester, my classes switch to Java. I'm also going to take a class in web development, with HTML/CSS/Javascript/PHP. My new laptop will be a late 2009 Macbook Pro with Leopard, or maybe Snow Leopard. Free would be preferrable for all programs.)
Thank you all.
How exciting for you, I'm sure your new lappy will be able to make your life as a novice programmer much, much simpler.
Here's what I would do.
Download and install eclipse. It's free, and it's a very good IDE to have if you're going to program java. There are versions available for c/c++ and php as well, and there is a silly amount of great plugins for just about anything you'll ever need. Get it here.
Get the subversive plugin to your eclipse. It will make your life so easy when it comes to managing your code through svn. You can download the plugin through eclipse.
Download Ruby. Ruby is (imho) a great language for beginners, and the irb environment is very handy for trying little things out. Get it here.
Get emacs. Emacs is a great editor, and it's free. Use it for editing your system files, or for coding if you find it suits you. Get it here. (I can also recommend Textmate, it's a really good editor, but unfortunatly not free. If you want to spoil yourself a bit, though, I'd really recommend it.)
If you're doing modelling, you should definitly treat yourself to a licence of omnigraffle. It will definitly make your life easier, and it will let you draw models like nothing else. Get it here.
I would advise you not to bother with macports. Generally I find it will install everything, everyone and their dog on your lappy evertyime you use it, and that gets tedious pretty quickly.
If you're doing any php-stuff, get MAMP. MAMP puts you three clicks away from a running apache, mysql and php-setup without you so much as thinking. Very good piece of software, I think. Get it here.
For the rest of it, just download stuff when the need arises. Most of the things you'll need to install comes in handly little installer packages, and you won't need to know much in order to get them installed and working on your computer.
All the best of luck to you!
You definitely need Developer Tools from Apple. They include:
XCode, a very good IDE and editor
InterfaceBuilder
gcc, g++ and clang to compile code, in various versions
gdb as debugger
Instruments for performance analysis
as well as a lot of other utilities to program in C, C++, Java, Objective-C and Objective-C++.
Python, Ruby and PHP interpreters and libraries come preinstalled with every Mac so don't bother installing it by hand. (the Apache web server is also included, so you only need MySQL to have a full MAMP stack)
The Developer Tools package comes with every MacOSX DVD but I recommend you to download the latest version directly from Apple (it requires a free Developer account).
Once you installed it put XCode in the Dock and that's it! No other stuff needed.
NB: This is the simplest and only supported way of getting compilers and debuggers for C-based languages, even if you won't use XCode as an editor.
Speaking of editors, I recommend you to stick to XCode for a while because it is simple enough, yet very powerful, and it's free.
If you don't like it try TextWrangler (free) or TextMate (paid).
Vim and Emacs are two other good editors, but I don't recommend you to try them right now because they use obscure and non-standard key combinations, so you will spend a lot of time learning how to use them instead of programming.
Anyway the best thing you can do is to learn one editor very well, the effort in learning it will surely pay off every day.
Eclipse is the best editor for java. It's available on a mac for free, just as it is on windows.
There's a good text editor made by barebones software called text wrangler. It's free, and is good about syntax coloring for basic editing.
The best of the best for web development on mac is a tie between text mate and coda. If you're going to be doing a lot of web development, they're worth the investment.
To run a test environment in mysql/php, download MAMP (the mac counterpart to WAMP). Google search it - it's free, and really easy.
Mac programming doesn't differ at all from windows programming if you're writing java, php, etc., because it all goes the same place. Java just boils your code down differently depending on your machine, but it does the same stuff. PHP will probably be held on some sort of linux distro, so it's the same on both. C++ is the same given the appropriate compilers.
Enjoy your mac!
Related
I know of FlashDevelop for windows but how about developing actionscript or haxe on a mac? besides flex plugin for eclipse, flex builder and FDT is there anny good IDE out there for actionscript development on mac? I would really like to se a good plugin for netbeans but it looks like all the projects on making something like this has halted.
I have tried using MacVim with various plugins but i never get it to work and it looks to be a hard learning curve to get starting using vim.
What is people using to develop actionscript/haxe on a mac?
I use TextMate with the ActionScript bundle. But, that is a far cry from a decent development environment.
FlashBuilder or FDT are probably the best options. I've spent a lot of time looking for a good free option - though I haven't done a check in the last 6 months, or so. The actual Flash IDE might be the best no-additional-cost option, if you use Flash.
There is supposedly a way to set up your environment to use XCode, a stand-alone compiler, and one or two other things, but I could never find good documentation or evidence of someone actually getting things working.
There is, or was, a Mac version of SePy, but it was horrible, as of a year and a half ago when I gave up on it.
I've been using FlashBuilder on my work machine for Flex work, but I think I'll start using it on my personal machine for Flash work. Just haven't come across anything else that even approaches a modern dev environment for Flash.
Sorry I don't have more helpful information. Would love to hear someone say different.
UPDATE: Found some so-so info on setting up various elements of a full development environment on Mac, using free tools. Doesn't look like a lot has happened on this front in the last two years.
OpenCode - AS2 and AS3 language definitions for XCode. This goes back to 2006, but may still be completely useful.
Xcode and the Flex SDK - A tutorial on setting up a code and compile environment with XCode and the mxml compiler. Author notes that the information may not be 100% accurate and lost interest once he started using FlexBuilder.
Make Xcode a Full Featured Actionscript IDE - FlaXIDE - A tutorial on setting up a full dev environment with opensource tools. Last updated in 2006. Could be modified to work with current tools (i.e. haxe instead of mtasc).
Flex Support for Xcode 3 - Somewhat more recent info on using Xcode as an AS editor. Posted November of 2007.
Core SWF: Flex/AS3 for Xcode - Even more recent info. This seems to be the latest thing going for using open source or free tools to build an AS dev environment on the Mac. Posted July of 2008. This project is up on Google Code and contributors are welcomed.
I have heard good things about IntelliJ IDEA lately but haven't really tried it out myself. I use TextMate, the AS3 bundle and Flash CS4.
The best thing would probably be if FlashDevelop was ported to Mac, but as I understand it, that is not about to happen, despite years of requests for it.
Check out the "sugar-hx" textmate bundle. There's an overview here:
http://haxe.org/com/ide/textmate/sugar_hx_textmate
It includes the compiler-based contextual autocompletion, import helpers, build helpers, and output embedding for swf and js.
I know this is old, but I stumbled upon it, so I suppose other people might as well.
I'm using Sublime Text 2 for AS3 development, and I'm quite happy with it. I use alongside the Flash IDE.
http://www.sublimetext.com/
It's a very powerful and customizable text editor. It's similar to TextMate but much faster and modern... and also cross platform. Many people (like me) got fed up waiting for TextMate 2, and started using ST2.
ST2 is way too deep to number all it's features, but here's a good introduction:
https://tutsplus.com/course/improve-workflow-in-sublime-text-2/
Instead of bundles or plugins, there are packages. ST2 includes a basic AS3 package, but many people are developing their own. Here's mine (still in beta):
https://github.com/PierBover/as3-utils
For Haxe, I'm using gedit on both Mac and Ubuntu. There is a plugin for Haxe which includes syntax highlighting and code completion.
For installing the plug-in on Mac, put the folder
"haxecodecompletion" and the file "haxecodecompletion.gedit-plugin" inside "/Applications/gedit.app/Contents/Resources/lib/gedit-2/plugins".
Similar for the syntax highlight but a different folder.
There is Flasm (which is a working AS2 Disassembler) and perhaps with permission by its creator, who is not updating, re-produce it into an AS3 Disassembler?
I have had this working, and was for me as close to RABCDAsm / Yogda as I could get.
I've been using MacBook Pro for a few months at home, and I was wondering if there's a good book or guide that can help me be a better programmer on Mac. Maybe Mac-equivalent of Beginning Linux Programming. Note I am not looking for resource on how to program Mac application, instead I am looking for more general guide of using Mac for general development environment.
As a background, I am a Windows programmer by day. I've also done some Linux and BSD over the years, esp in school, like socket programming, graphics, make install type stuff. At home, I'll be doing Java, Scala, PHP, etc. on Mac.
So far, I've been using Eclipse, QuickSilver, and TextMate. VMWare Fusion, XCode and NetBeans are set up, but I don't use them. A DVI KVM switch is hooked up to real keyboard, trackball, and monitor. Recently stayed up till late fighting with MacPorts, and figured out I needed x86_64. The most struggle I had was configuring PHP. I don't know why they don't ship with MySQL and GD library. I eventually figured it out Googling around, and built the extensions from source. I have a feeling that I didn't get the memo and didn't read some basic guide on how to become a programmer on Mac, like how the whole architecture works. How can a Windows programmer be sufficiently productive on Mac OS X?
Related: Setting up a Mac for programmers
Edit: The specific type of application I want to develop doesn't really matter in my opinion. It could be Java, Scala, PHP as I mentioned or Cocoa, C++, or whatever.
What I am looking for is specific book, resource, advice on how to be more effective programmer on Mac, preferably something beyond "install XYZ".
Having converted from Windows to Mac OS X about five years ago, I often find myself thinking the same thing. I just cannot be productive on Windows (as much, I can be productive) as I can on Mac OS X.
To be honest, there are lots of small differences between Mac OS X and Windows. I find the biggest reason for people thinking like this (at it normally only applies to gamers and developers) is that they are trying to use the Mac like a Windows machine. You need to learn to accept that you have to use the command key, not the control key, etc.
It sounds like you are using a Mac because you have to as opposed to because you want to. It really is a much better platform than Windows once you get used to it.
I think a lot of Windows programmers come to Mac and don't try to learn it properly because they are complacent thinking they know it all because they have "used Windows all their life". I guess once you discover Spotlight, Expose, Mac OS X Keyboard shortcuts, etc. You will find your self being MUCH more productive that you ever were on Windows.... and its actually a fun OS to use.
Checkout some of the best Mac applications you can get here and here. You can also do a search for "top 100 mac apps".
Also, I noticed you were trying to setup some kind of web server directly into Mac OS X. It does ship with one, but if you are going to add MySQL and some other extensions I wouldn't go the MacPorts route. Get VMWare Fusion or VirtualBox (open source) and run the server in a VM. Much cleaner. I have a subversion/trac FreeBSD VM that handles my local version control.
I would like to add that if you don't presently use Xcode, you should definitely learn it and use it asap. It's a much nicer IDE to use than Visual Studio and it will make your life much easier.
Don't forget you have probably spent years on Windows help sites, you're going to a small degree need to do that with the Mac. Whenever you have a problem about using the Mac, ask a question on ServerFault. We are all more than eager to help you out.
Good luck.
You seem to want an overview of how Mac OS X works at a system level, more than recomenations about tools and so forth. If that's the case, I'd start with the (very basic) Mac OS X System Architecture Guide from Apple, then move on to Getting Started with Mac OS X, which should give you enough of an overview to get started.
It's not clear from your question what you intend to actually make with your programming time, but if you decide to persue Cocoa/OS X development, I recommend Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X by Aaron Hillegass.
I have a similar situation like yours. I use Windows for development and about a year back purchased a MBP for home (as I shifted to an office). I find it really difficult to get any real work done on my MBP. Somehow am used to the Windows environment with dual screens. But let that not stop you. A couple of software which I suggest you should get are:
Transmit - Good ftp client
MAMP - Runs a webserver nearly out-of-the-box. Good for basic development
Quicksilver - Helps in quick finding of applications
Spaces along with gestures (Configure your gestures to move from one screen to another, I use three fingers glide. its amazing)
Entourage - for email
Terminal - for ssh (putty alternative) (included)
Dreamweaver/BBedit/Textmate (all pretty decent. but i love editplus on windows. not a fan of IDE)
I assume your question is not about learning COCOA and more about being more effective using a MAC. Well, the above tools might help you.
Unfortunately, your question isn't very clear as to what you really want.
If you're looking to write anything cross-platform, it can be very helpful to have a virtual machine for testing. When in Linux, I've always used VirtualBox, and it works on OS X as well.
Also, as for choice of IDE, a lot of it comes down to your preference. Eclipse is nice because there's a plugin for almost everything for it. My experience with TextMate is limited, but my local Ruby Users Group swears by it.
Finally, a suggestion for not just Mac, but any platform really. Learn your hotkeys, set up new ones for things you commonly do, and use them frequently. Not having to take your hands off the keyboard to click a mouse through a few menus can really improve productivity. It may take a little time for them to grow on you, but once they become second nature, you'll wonder how you lived without them.
Basically, you can apply all your Linux/UNIX knowledge that you already have to the Mac. If you use the Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) you can run all your favorite UNIX commands. Mac has a special command called "open" which is equivalent to the Windows "start" command (used to launch programs and files). You can also use "open -a" to open an application by name (e.g. "open -a Finder").
You might want to reconsider Xcode. Xcode opens more quickly than Eclipse and provides very good syntax highlighting, brace matching, block indenting, and more. Xcode doesn't have to be used as an IDE, you can also use it as a code editor, just like you are currently using TextMate.
For code editing (and everything else), try Aquamacs (http://www.aquamacs.org). It's a Cocoa-native build of Emacs, and it's brilliant for any programming task.
my background: i've been developing web applications using php and javascript for the past ten years. before that, i've developed applications using turbo pascal for DOS. in my opinion application and web application development are two different kinds of development (at least it's what i think when i remember back the old days of DOS application development).
now i am in the need to go back to "normal" application development for various reasons. the application i want to build needs a GUI and it has to run on osx and windows. as mac os user it would be very nice for me to get an application as result, that really feels like an osx application. i don't need any special UI components: an explorer/finder like tree, a datagrid and some form-elements would be enough for my needs.
now the problem is, that i don't know where to start: i would classify me as newbie, because it's that long time since i last developed anything other than a web application. are there any recommendations of programming languages and gui toolkits with a not to steep learning curve? or can you recommend any book i should read for getting into cross-plattform osx/windows app development?
many thanks!
thanks everyone! i think i'll have a look at realbasic!
Edit Nov 2011 - a retraction
Most of what I say below is still true however I have now got serious reservations about recommending REALbasic for anyone trying to release commercial-quality applications. To save me remembering to edit this post later, see if RealSoftware have managed to release a robust version of their IDE using the Cocoa version of their frameworks. If not, be very cautious.
It's with a heavy heart that I write this because I still really like the language and think the framework and IDE are well-done. The problem is apparently one of under-capitalization and possibly a software development culture inside the company that consistently fails to deal with a bug regression problem. Many bugs are fixed each release but there appears to be a huge tax on the developers in the number of introduced bugs. They have a very small team for the complexity of the product, especially considering the newly released Web Edition which is effectively an entirely new platform.
It's still theoretically a great product but take advantage of the trial period, test it thoroughly on each of the platforms you plan to target and decide if you can live with any bugs you find because they may be there for a while.
REALbasic.
The language is a powerful, modern OO language that won't be hard for you to adapt to from your vaguely remembered Pascal or current JavaScript. It has most of the power of C++ without the dangerous bits that make debugging a nightmare. You will also find the IDE simpler and easier to deal with than say Visual Studio.
The IDE makes it very easy to throw together a GUI and have it just work on multiple platforms. The Pro version has one of the best cross-platform debuggers I've used and it is easy to just work (say) on a Mac and develop for Windows and Linux, compiling and testing with one click.
There is also a thriving community including many people at your level of expertise so you won't be mocked for being a newbie.
I am a professional software developer with over 25 years experience and currently mainly working in REALbasic, C++, C#, Objective-C and a bit of Ruby. For apps such as you mention, REALbasic is my tool of choice.
edit: I can't believe someone downvoted this but didn't have the guts to add a comment explaining why. I'd heard about prejudice against REALbasic but this is the first time I've encountered it. In what way was my answer inappropriate for this question?
Just to add to my cred, I've implemented cross-platform frameworks used by systems deployed to tens of thousands of end users - I have the C++ cross-platform experience to applaud someone else doing a good job and the REALbasic frameworks are very nice.
The best cross-platform tool I've dabbled in with a relatively small learning curve...especially if you're familiar with Visual Basic...is REALbasic. With REALbasic Pro you can compile a program to target Win32, Linux, and OS X from the same codebase, as long as you're not using OS-specific calls and features (which you can do with plugins or direct calls). Their support has been pretty responsive to my questions, the personal edition (which compiles to only the single target platform you'd downloaded the IDE for) is free for Linux and inexpensive for other platforms, but really you might want to download and try it out. One IDE, relatively inexpensive, and can compile native applications on OS X, Windows, and Linux...it's less hassle, and for me that's important when you want to get a job done.
I'd advise against C and Qt and would also recommend REALbasic.
With your background in Pascal and probably JavaScript you'll feel much more comfortable with REALbasic. I've done a lot of coding in Pascal and C/C++ - where Pascal guides you to avoid programming mistakes, C lets you step right in, even invites you, and then you'll have a hard time figuring out why it went wrong. Qt is a very abstract framework and requires you to learn a lot before you can get something working, just like with C. When compared to the easyness we used to have with TP back then.
RB is much more like Pascal in this regard. And its IDE is quite modern in regards to supporting your programming, with an easy-to-use GUI designer, straight-forward editor to fill in the gaps for handling UI events, code completion, etc.
Only when you get into huge program sizes, RB loses some of its appeal because it is missing tools to give you a good overview of complex class interactions etc.
Another thing is that Qt is more likely to cause ugly-looking Mac apps than RB would. RB visually guides you to get it all aligned nicely - in Qt you have to work with numbers, offsets, etc. to position your objects (at least it was that way when I used Qt 2 years ago).
I've written quite a few x-platform apps in RB and am pretty happy with the results.
You won't probably write those super-nice looking apps that compete with the best on the open small business market, but if you just want to get some solid code working, with an easy-to-design UI that's acceptable to the average user, give RB a try.
It's not free, though. But its rather small community is on your side - they're eager to help, instead of bashing everyone who's trying to talk sense :)
I'm new here but picked up on this thread through the REALbasic User Group. I think my position was similar to yours. I did website design for my work, using mostly javascript (with a little php, not much). I had a Pascal and BASIC background. I'd dabbled it C but didn't like the level of detail you needed to monitor it. It reminded me too much of assembly (which I still have nightmares about from my high-school/college days).
I was looking for a cross-platform language, with a familiar feel to it, but initially started with VB because it was free. I prefer programming in MacOS however, so I tried REALbasic. I found that REALbasic's UI builder was much easier to use than VB's. I'd echo other comments that the community is the most responsive of any user groups I've been involved with. I've since used REALbasic and my Mac to make several programs that over 100 users use every day at my work (on PCs, mostly XP and 2000). I've received compliments on the polish and ease of use of these programs. You DO have to remember to adjust the 'little' things to make it look right cross platform (ie: default button placement is opposite on PC vs. Mac, button sizes are different on Linux, etc). Many people have donated custom classes that do this stuff for you though.
People seem to assume that a "BASIC" language cannot be powerful enough for their purposes. While it is BASIC at it's core (with For..Next, Do..While, and If..Then commands), it ain't your daddy's BASIC. It's much more OOP than anything else I've used, based upon an event-driven structure, which for me was easy to pick up. They have a free trial, so grab a demo and run through the tutorial. If you get stuck, ask for questions on the NUG or Forums at the website and you'll likely get an answer quickly.
You may be interested in the following questions and answers:
Cross-platform development - Go with a cross-platform UI toolkit or native on multiple platforms?
Easiest cross platform widget toolkit?
Should I use a cross-platform GUI-toolkit or rely on the native ones?
Using a Mac for cross platform development?
and many others suggested in the Related sidebar of these questions.
Some answers suggest gtk (which is used by cross-platform gimp). Others suggest native approaches. Some suggest that a Mac is a nice platform for developing for Mac OS X, Windows, Unix and Linux.
I wholeheartedly recommend RealBasic too. I have been using RB for about 8 years now and find it to be a perfect tool for my Companies development needs, from small apps, to large multi-user systems.
It is perfect for beginners and those that are getting back into programming, and also for professional developers.
Highly recommended.
As Andy Dent and others here have indicated, for a newbie to create cross-platform applications it is hard to beat REALbasic (now Xojo).
Sure, there are plenty of other cross platform solutions such as QT (C++), Java, .NET (to some extent) and wxWidgets but they are not something a beginner would be able to use effectively.
I have many years of professional development experience in a wide variety of languages and technologies and I prefer to use REALbasic most of the time.
With that said, you might also consider Runtime Revolution or Adobe Air.
Whilst it might seem tempting to use a language thats platform independent and allow you to write the app once and use anywhere, you will undoubtably be sacrificing something on each, particularly in the UI and user experience.
If you can your best creating something using a native API that lets you take full advantage of the features of the OS to make your application shine.
I would definitely go for C++ and Qt, the code you write once will compile and run without problems on Windows, Mac and Linux. The new IDE that comes with Qt - Qt Creator is brilliant, works and looks the same on Windows, Mac and Linux, you don't need to anything else to start writing cross-platform applications.
I tried WxWidgets but didn't find good IDE, the best one was Code Blocks but GUI Designer is not perfect and has different problems on different systems and the IDE itself is still under heavy development.
Other options are Java and C# but those are not cross-platform languages, those are platforms themselves. Although you wouldn't need to compile code for each platform there will a lot of different issues on the way...
If your GUI's simple enough, why not just create a generic GUI layer, then program to that? Compile a version for each OS using native widgets. That's the best way to ensure native L&F on multiple platforms.
Both the Qt and REALbasic suggestions are good, although they tie you to that particular technology (which I can't imagine would be an issue in this particular case).
Personally, I'd go with Java, because it's worked for me before (I had an app that ran on my PDA, my phone and my desktop), but it doesn't use native widgets.
Adding a late comment here:
Take a look at Revolution. It's sort of like a modern Hyper-card on roids. And it's cross platform (Mac, Linux and Windows). This is a serious competitor to RealBasic and is coming on strong. Though I still use RB (and like it) I'm giving Revolution a serious look at.
I would also look into either Realbasic or Revolution. They both create cross platform native apps. Personally I think Realbasic would be a better choice as it is very similar, language wise, to VB. You can learn some valuable skills with RB and it can grow with your experience. I have been using VB and RB for more then 10 years combined and I think you will be happy.
If you need your code to be cross platform, you would have to go with something like QT.
Although, I would recommend using native API for each one (Cocoa for Mac OS X, .NET or the Win32 API for Windows). User experience will be much better. But of course, that will cost you more money in terms of developers hours.
How long does it take for an experienced Windows programmer to learn writing simple software for Mac OS X?
Where does one start and what tools will be necessary?
THIS. I came from a Win32 API background programming lately a lot in C# and I was able to pick up on Objective-C and Cocoa very quickly by working through the book. You will be pleasantly surprised, the APIs are very rich and just wonderful. Reflection is a first class citizen which makes things very easy.
Xcode is of course free and available on your Mac OS X installation disk.
Edit: it took me about 2 weeks to come up to speed and write simple applications. I think this is because the language and API are easy to learn and use and Aaron Hillegass's book was a big help.
You might want to check this post for info - pretty much a duplicate question to this one. Definitely just go with Xcode and I think you'll find the Mac community pretty helpful - I have, at least.
Start by checking out the Apple Developer Connection. There's a lot of documentation there. OS X comes with all the development tools you need to get started, just install XCode from the OSX CD.
I would start here:
http://www.cocoadevcentral.com/
It's a great site with good resources on learning obj-c and cocoa.
This is also a great book:
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596003012/?CMP=AFC-ak_book&ATT=Learning+Cocoa+with+Objective-C
Well, first you get a hoodie and a smug sense of entitlement....
All kidding aside, the Aaron Hillegass book, a great idea, and the Apple doco are all you need to get started (oh yeah, and a Mac). I think the biggest barrier for me was figuring out Xcode since I come from a Visual Studio background.
How long it takes is a function of the level of your interest and your passion about your project.
The tools have come a long, long way since the days of Interface Builder in Mac OS X 10.0, that's for sure.
I guess the "how long" question would depend on what languages you are used to using.
In terms of reference material, I have heard good things about "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X", and I'd love to have time to play with it for myself. Unfortunately, the day job takes up enough of my time. :)
CS193E (from stanford) is a nice course. Lots of material. Really understanding the use of class clusters, delegation, etc. takes some time, getting started does not.
"Step into XCode" is a great intro to the development environment; since the book works through taking a simple command-line linear regression program all the way to a fairly sophisticated application (Core Data, Spotlight importers, etc.), you'll learn quite a lot by osmosis.
It's the little things... On
Windows, I liked the PowerToy called
"Open Command Here" that allowed me
to open a DOS CMD window from
Explorer and automatically set the
current directory. On the MAC, I got
"On My Command" which allows you to
create simple macros easily, and
comes with a library of useful ones,
like "Open Terminal Here", "New text
File...", etc.
Install Eclipse. I loved using
Eclipse on Windows, and it works
great on the MAC, making me feel
right at home. I even found that
Eclipse has plugins for Perl and
ActionScript.
Learn Unix (if you don't know it
already). I had years of Unix
experience prior to programming
Windows, and it comes in handy.
Knowing Perl helps a lot as well.
I started my new position last
October, which was when I made the
switch from Windows to MAC. By March
I was fairly comfortable in my
understanding of things. Then again,
my development platform is AS2 and
AS2 in Flash, which is
cross-platform.
An alternative is to try out the Qt SDK, and write cross-platform applications that run on Windows, Mac and other platforms.
I started learning Qt when I joined Qt software, and it didn't take long for me to start writing simple software, even though I don't work as a developer.
I'm teaching (or trying to teach) computer programming to a grad-student. Her previous experience amounts to little more than writing spreadsheet formulae. Which IDE or text editor should I recommend?
Please bear in mind that:
I only meet my student about once a week.
She uses Windows and I use Linux.
She doesn't have a community of users on hand.
She doesn't have much money to spend.
Edit: The languages she's learning at the moment are Perl and R. (Sorry ... for forgetting to mention them earlier.)
Edit: Thanks for all your answers!
The most highly recommended editors are jEdit and Notepad++.
If I can find a way to give my student adequate support for Notepad++ (e.g. by running it under Wine) or if I think that she can manage without support from me, then I'll recommend that. If not, I'll go for jEdit.
Apologies, once again, to those who saw the question before I got around to listing the languages that I'm teaching.
The Visual Studio Express products are all free. Unless the fact that you're using Linux changes things :)
Start off simple. Do not not scare her with an IDE! They are overwhelming at first and are not core to developing software. I learnt rudimentary Java with Crimson Editor.
If I started again I'd probably go for Notepad++.
Eclipse might be a good option (if a little overwhelming at first).
You obviously need to look at a cross-platform IDE. Eclipse is one of the best in this regard, as well as having support for many languages. It also comes with a good set of tutorials.
Since you didn't mention what programming language (guess it doesn't matter) you were teaching, I'll stick to something that supports multiple programming languages and multiple platforms. Given your situation, I would use jEdit (http://www.jedit.org).
jEdit is a programmer's text editor with hundreds of plugins, auto indent, and syntax highlighting for more than 130 languages and since it's written in Java, it runs beautifully on Linux, Windows or MAC. Hope this helps.
The best, most documented, IDE that is free in my opinion is Visual Studio Express. There are tons of blogs, howtos, videos, training, etc. You can find more information about them here:
http://www.microsoft.com/Express/
Also, if you are a student, Microsoft provides an entire stack of software free to students just for this purpose. This is through a program called DreamSpark. Included is an operating system, the professional version of the IDE, SQL Server, XNA Game studio and Expression. Any student can get this. More information is here:
https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/
Hope that helps.
I have used Notepad++]1 a lot for various editing tasks, and I find it quite useful and competent.
Depends on the programming language. FoR C/C++ and anything .net Visual Studio is the way to go. The Express edition is free.
Eclipse or Jedit, if Eclipse is too complicated. jEdit is cross platform, free and supports a number of different languages.
Crimson Editor is also very nice; it's similar to Edit Plus. Syntax highlighting, tabs, etc.
Notepad++ for editing is awesome to me: it's Windows only, but maybe you can use it with Wine under Linux. But if you want someting more like an IDE, then Eclipse, or NetBean (both use java) can be very useful, although they are very resource expensive on old PC.
My suggestion is Textpad. You can teach her javascript, all the basic, and some advanced concepts are there. It's fun for the student see the output in a browser, and you can even teach a little HTML if the mood strikes.
Komodo Edit from active vision is free, open source, and available for Windows and Linux. Very nice features.
Otherwise, Emacs as it is available on both platforms and can be configured for CUA controls.
The Cream version of VIM is also a good option.
It really depends on the language you are teaching her.
EditPlus is a good simple editor. Free trial version and pretty cheap license.
Dev-C++ as a non-MS alternative.
Quote: "Bloodshed Dev-C++ is a full-featured Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for the C/C++ programming language. It uses Mingw port of GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) as it's compiler. Dev-C++ can also be used in combination with Cygwin or any other GCC based compiler."
Code::Blocks is also another good one, free and cross platform. Unless you need something for using VB / C# or other .NET languages as it is mostly C/C++. For the .NET languages on linux I would recommed MonoDevelop
Aptana is very handy for web-oriented programming.
http://www.aptana.com
That depends at least in part on the programming language you intend to teach her. That said, you might want to take a look at Eclipse. Though it started primarily as a Java IDE, it's been extended via plugins to support many others (including C/C++, Flex, Haskell, and ColdFusion, to name a few), and can fairly easily be adapted to a new language if support isn't already out there.
Add to that the fact that the IDE is cross-platform so you can both use the same tool on your platforms of choice, and it looks like this might be a good fit.
I'd recommend SciTE, as it's both available for *nix and Windows and free (as in beer). It supports pretty much anything you'd expect from a decent editor and, if she goes on to use it, quite customizable. It also isn't too complex, so it should be easy for her to get going with it.
+1 to the Notepad++ suggestion - Anything I do that's not .Net-related I do in that.
For Java, BlueJ is an excellent teaching IDE. It doesn't confuse the new student with a lot of advanced functionality (stuff they won't use for years to come). Eclipse is a great IDE, but there is a LOT of stuff there they could drown in. The same is true for Visual Studio, but I don't know of a simpler IDE for .NET languages.
You may also consider Ruby with Scite as a teaching option. The IDE isn't that fancy, but along with the ease-of-startup of learning Ruby this could work very well. Ruby certainly has some advantages over Java/C#/C++ for the beginning student (mostly in that you don't have to create a full class with a main method just to get a program running).
For the easy to teach Component Pascal language (a successor to Niklaus Wirth's Pascal and Oberon) try the free, open source BlackBox IDE and the book Computing Fundamentals by Stan Warford.
Regards,
tamberg
If you are writing software targeted at a Windows platform then Visual Studio is more or less the standard IDE. Since you are teaching a graduate student I would recommend getting the academic license for the professional edition if they are going to be writing a lot of software, otherwise the express editions should be enough for leaning purposes.
In terms of text editors, the one that I currently use the most is Notepad++ which is free, open source, and support a wide variety of features that are useful to software development. There are also also a number of useful plug-ins available for it as well.
I can't believe nobody has mentioned vi. I'll argue that the less your tool does for you in the beginning the better coder you'll be in the end. For a newbie, give them syntax highlighting and some helpers for dealing with blocks and lines. Something like vi is great, emacs is also fine, or if you absolutely must be on Windows, something like notepad++ or jedit will be decent. The main point is to learn to program before you learn to let your IDE insert code that you don't understand for you.
MultiEdit
Extremely powerfull (and extensible on emacs level) text editor with many IDE features (integration with compilers/debuggers etc). Beats all other suggested editors on every aspect.
Much easier to learn and use than editors with UNIX/terminal roots like vi or Emacs.
Not free (not too expensive though), and requires some learning to use effectively.
Another full blown IDE is SharpDevelop. It's OpenSource.
http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/
Zeus - http://www.zeusedit.com
I have to mention PSPad.
It is very good, feature rich free editor. I have used UtraEdit and finally found free alternative in PSPad