Category: Blog

There is a serious lack of decent hardware in the Mac development world.

I tried an old Mac with a regular hard drive/CD combination and it was just too heavy to deal with.  It went back to Best Buy and I got a Surface 4 instead,.

This time I tried the latest MacBook. The first one came home with a “replace battery now” message.  It went back to Best Buy.

The second one worked until I took it to the Genius Bar.  When the tech ran the diagnostics it died.  It was returned to Best Buy yesterday.

I’m going to try to do iPhone development on my MacMini.  If that works than I will probably upgrade it.  Mine is a few years old.  I think 2010.

I got stuck a few months ago.

I had been wanting to update the Beagle Rescue Fund site – I wanted it to be modern looking, load fast and work on any device.

I had written a great site using .NET and test hosted it on Azure but then couldn’t get it to work on the GoDaddy site. 

I had a couple of options at that point, which I explored.

First, I tried to get GoDaddy to help – no dice.  I also tried to get Azure to host it but they aren’t doing nonprofits yet.  I did some research but found nothing that could help.

What helped was that the business that I web host and design for moved so I had to modify their site.  That’s done, and was pretty painless.

Stall a bit more and finally bit the bullet.  Instead of using .NET technology, I went to bootstrap.  I also tested on the GoDaddy server as I went and it was working.

And before people think I’ve lost my mind.  Yes, I have hated the advertising that GoDaddy used early in their business career.  They have been trying to improve and have a hosting plan for non-profits.

I also came to the realization that using Bootstrap wasn’t a whole lot different than using .NET 

Waiting for the board to suggest changes before I make it public.  Though the new site is live.

So to be able to do IOS development with Visual Studio, my IDE of choice, I had to get my Surface to connect to the MacMini.

Things I like about the Surface over the MacBook:

OneNote – I log all my JHU CTY work with OneNote.  I could have found another solution but…

Form Factor.  I can tuck my Surface just about anywhere and have access to it. The MacBook is bulkier and you have to open it.  Both did work on the exercise well.

Touch Screen.  Biggest win for the surface.

I suspect the Mac On the Cloud would work, but it is a bit easier with the Mac Mini.

The killer was that One Note does not work well with the Mac.

I do have a MacMini and I could do something really interesting — Mac In the Cloud.  So either should be available for finishing up a iPhone or Mac program.

So I returned the MacBook — by the way, since I wasn't sure I went to BestBuy and tried out OpenBox Macs.  That meant that my initial investment was low, and they weren't really hurt by the experiment.

I did end up with a new computer — Surface Book 4. 

I am willing to part with a Surface Book 3. 

But brought home a MacBook – this one is about the size of my Surface 3.  Below are the specs.

The MacBook Pro had an old style hard drive and was just too heavy for me to manage.  This should be better, and if not, it's going back.

  Model Name: MacBook

  Model Identifier: MacBook8,1

  Processor Name: Intel Core M

  Processor Speed: 1.2 GHz

  Number of Processors: 1

  Total Number of Cores: 2

  L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

  L3 Cache: 4 MB

  Memory: 8 GB

Haven't gotten far, but all three platforms have the same "stuff".

Ways to draw the app on a computer and ways to write code to make stuff work.  App Inventor, Visual Studio, and XCode, all have a graphical interface that allows the user to draw the user interface and then you write code to make things work.

If you want to do stuff that's already done on the web — you HTML5 and JavaScript.  Data is stored on the web and you use API's to get the data.

Most of your mobile apps are just interfaces into a web app or server.  Even the games.

Here's the rub and why people aren't developing for the Windows platform.  When I worked on the mobile app most people used Macs.  That's because they can develop for both Mac and Java at the same time.  Most people who develop on the Windows platform don't get Unix (actually I do).

And this is putting a bunch of stuff together — I've been to a ton of workshops by Microsoft where we developed for the Windows Phone.  I've been to a IBM workshop where they showed us how to develop on Unix using their databases.  That's my first Android experience.  And I've started just playing with Apple.

The Windows Phone is the easiest user interface to master, it looks like Apple is second and then Android.  However, a developer can develop Android on any machine.  To do Windows Phone or iPhone, they are limited to an OS  and hardware.

So why buy another  set of developer machines for something that only has a limited market share?

And that's the answer.

So I've gone through the language and like more languages it has the important things:

variables, types and how to assignment them

math

conditionals

methods and functions

arrays

classes

objects

Now not all languages have everything, but a good programmer can implement what they want out of the language.

Yes, this stuff all has difference syntax.  No problem, keep a cheat sheet around.

The thing about programming — and why I couldn't get hired as a contract programmer because they want someone who can do something on day 2 — is that programming is programming, and it doesn't matter the language.  While I can't do something on day 2, I certainly will by the end of the week, and I would probably be as productive in week 2, maybe week 3.

The tutorial I'm using:

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/referencelibrary/GettingStarted/DevelopiOSAppsSwift/index.html

Is an Swift playground.  Apparently playgrounds are interpreted and have their own mark down language.  You can actually write code in Swift, and see it execute as you go.

Not a bad idea.  Apparently Apple means some people to use a playground to mock up and create projects….

First, I've had this conversation with other programmers.  The more programming languages you've worked in, the easier the next one is.

Which is rather shocking to find out that a friend who followed me in computer science at Southern Mississippi didn't have the same experience as I did.  Also, it's apparently an unique experience which is why most employers don't get me.

I learned BASIC and FORTRAN in high school.  Special program — outreach by Jackson State (FYI – I am NOT from Mississippi, just spent 2 years of high school and undergraduate there).  At Southern Miss, I did FORTRAN in introductory, then Assembly, then COBOL, and then Programming Languages, where we did at least three programs in each major type of language.

I played a lot with APL, and friends and I were working on an IDE for APL, written in APL as a side project.

As required classes, we had to write an Assembler and a Compiler.

As a professional, I've done work in COBOL, Pascal, Assembly, C#, Java, PHP and have written apps for both Windows Phone and Android.

I've taught Pascal, Visual Basic, and Java and C#.  So yeah, programming languages are just programming languages.  In fact, a lot of the time, I have to have a Window open with basic commands.  I was known to start writing in Visual Basic when we were in Java.  Hey, it make the kids pay attention 🙂  Played with Python too, and outlined a course for kids in it.

So Swift is just another programming language with it's own flavor, and it doesn't look like that big of deal.  Just started delving into it.  By yeah, Alfred, I think it is doable.

And Xcode isn't a bad IDE, I like that the tutorial I found was written by Apple and is a playground.

I've been installing the tools I teach with.  Microsoft Office products, Scratch, setting up bookmarks etc.  So far, the only thing I don't like is that everything is backwards.  I'm also not sure I like the trackpad.

Oh, and I have the memory coming for the MacMini.  Oddly enough, it's a mid 2010 machine.  I'm short of surprised it's that old.

I have Java and Eclipse installed, and able to write and run a small program.  So I'm basically using what I'm familiar with.

It's not bad.  Though I still can't work with it on an exercise bike (I do that with my Surface tablets all the time).  Too big and bulky.