Hi all,
Considering buying new laptop. Being a style-over-content kinda guy I’m drawn to the (low-end) Apple iBook.
Any known (and limiting) issues regarding Java (particularly game) dev on these?
Thanks for your time,
John G
The Java VM releases tendto lag Sun’s a bit… There is no JAva 1.5 preview that is publicly available for the Mac yet for instance. AWT graphics in Java 1.4.2 can be a little slow - depending on a few factors. (They have made some improvements there.) but if you are using JOGL then you are all set.
The Mac has Java 1.4 built-in with Web Start. The OS is slick, I believe it was Jame Gosling that said that Mac OS X is linke Linux with Style and QA. You get a solid BSD Unix core OS, with a UI that is a zillion times better than anythign I’ve seen on X windows or Windows.
I’m not sure what sort of graphics chips they are putting in the iBooks these days. You might get more if you go for a Powerbook.
You can compare the hardware details on the Apple website of course.
Eclipse runs fine on OS X, (was slow - still might be a bit slower than on Windows, but they have improved the speed so it very usable).
Java 1.5 should be a big deal for Mac, with the OpenGL rendering pipeline and OS X using openGL for the core graphics engine of the desktop (Apple calls its use of OpenGL for the UI Quartz Extreme).
There are currently some issues with LWJGL. There are a few people looking into that. But Alien Flux does run fine on Mac, it just doesn’t play nice with AWT on Mac.
The Java2D performance isn’t just a bit slow, its actually non-accelerated altogether. Its the only factor thats stopped me buying a powerbook for the last 6 months.
Although looks like waiting might have been the right option anyway, G5 time.
Kev
Thanks guys
Just the screen size really:
I just upgraded from a 12inch iBook I bought last November to a maxed out 17inch powerbook. I seriously think this is the best choice I could have ever made and won’t be ever able to switch back to a small screen laptop (however much I like the cute little ibook).
???
I am going to make a laptop purchase soon. I wish to do java gaming development on it, what brand and spec of laptop would anyone suggest.
Price Range £1000 to £2000
Spec Below
- Either an Athlon or Intel Centrino
- 15 inch screen.
- 512MB Ram (?1024MB)
- 40GB Hard Drive
Thanks and Regards
dtjavanet
Just thought I would add to this thread that Java 1.5 (5.0) will be available for OS X 10.4 (also named Tiger), It was shown to a degree at the Apple developer’s conference. And of course it will have the hardware accelerated OpenGL pipeline for Graphics2D.
Oh, and my choice for a laptop - a Powerbook. (Sorry, I have seen the light, no more wintel crap for me :).)
Whatever you choose, go for 1GB RAM.