Santa brought me a mac iBook - how do I use it

Miscellaneous Topics
#1

So, I’ve been having fun learning about this new computer of mine. So far, I’m a happy camper. I’ve tried posting some questions at the Apple Forums, but most people there seem to be interested in how hard it is to upgrade the RAM. :stuck_out_tongue:

I wondered if some of you macAddicts could point me in the right direction?

  • I’m left handed. How do I swap the mouse buttons on the USB mouse I use? Prefs doesn’t offer any such option.

  • Will adding more RAM speed up DVD burning? Making the image took 40 minutes for 4 gig of data files. Then it took another 15’ish to actually burn the DVD.

  • How will I live without being able to test new versions of Gravity Battle (winks to KevGlass)?

  • Is it possible to get my win XP machine to use AppleTalk? Would that make more sense than using the Windows sharing protocol?

  • I’ve got an HP print server, should I set up AppleTalk on it or just use the JetDirect protocol?

  • Anyone have any experience moving a CVS repository onto their mac? I was running cvsNT on my win laptop and want to move the repository to the iBook.

Enough for now!

Cheers,
Dr. A>

#2

[quote]- I’m left handed. How do I swap the mouse buttons on the USB mouse I use? Prefs doesn’t offer any such option.
[/quote]
No idea. I’m right handed. Besides, a “proper” Mac mouse only has one button. :wink:

[quote]- Will adding more RAM speed up DVD burning? Making the image took 40 minutes for 4 gig of data files. Then it took another 15’ish to actually burn the DVD.
[/quote]
Ummm… no. Do you have any idea how much data is on a DVD?

[quote]- How will I live without being able to test new versions of Gravity Battle (winks to KevGlass)?
[/quote]
Have you tried it? It should work fine.

[quote]- Is it possible to get my win XP machine to use AppleTalk? Would that make more sense than using the Windows sharing protocol?
[/quote]
Appletalk is more like TCP/IP. Just use Windows Sharing and be happy. Besides, this isn’t your mother’s Mac. This is actually a full Unix OS. Windows sharing is provided by Samba, which honestly tends to do a better job than Windows. My only complaint is that admin users are not allowed to be Samba users.

[quote]- I’ve got an HP print server, should I set up AppleTalk on it or just use the JetDirect protocol?
[/quote]
Just install the HP drivers and be happy. Actually, I think you can just select the printer off the share and run it. The proper drivers should already be there.

[quote]- Anyone have any experience moving a CVS repository onto their mac? I was running cvsNT on my win laptop and want to move the repository to the iBook.
[/quote]
An iBook is an odd place for a CVS repository, but it shouldn’t be any different than a Linux or BSD machine. That is to say, that it should work better than on CVSNT. BTW, I highly recommend that you drag the Terminal onto your Dock. You’re going to be using it quite a bit. :slight_smile:

#3

If you can’t play Gravity Battle… play Rimscape! ;D

#4

Anyone have any software suggestions? Any cool demos I can run just for effect?

jbanes -

Thanks for the info.

  • DVDs - Yes, I realize they have 4+ gig of data on them. I wasn’t referring to how long it took to do the actual burn, I was referring to the first part. When I drop files onto the DVD, it ‘copies’ them for about 40 minutes. This is the part where I figured more RAM might help. The CPU is doing almost nothing according to the performance monitor. My RAM was maxed out, using 245’ish of the 256 available.

  • Mouse - True, hardcore mac users only use 1 button I suppse, but I’m a newbie on a Mac, so I don’t have to. :slight_smile:

  • Terminal - No no no no no no. I didn’t get a mac from Santa so I could use the command line. I got one to simplify my life. :slight_smile: I used GUI and Command Line on my Amiga lots, but those were different days. :slight_smile:

  • GB - Doesn’t work. At least when I last tried it. :frowning: Shame too, as I really like it.

Mal… -

  • GB - Yes, I will have to try Rimscape on the new machine. :slight_smile: I’ll drop you a line on it.

Dr. A>

#5

OS X makes great use of RAM, i.e. the more RAM you have the better your system will run. And 256 is too little, I’d put in as much as you can afford. It will help everything.

#6

[quote]- DVDs - Yes, I realize they have 4+ gig of data on them. I wasn’t referring to how long it took to do the actual burn, I was referring to the first part. When I drop files onto the DVD, it ‘copies’ them for about 40 minutes. This is the part where I figured more RAM might help. The CPU is doing almost nothing according to the performance monitor. My RAM was maxed out, using 245’ish of the 256 available.
[/quote]
It may help. Hard to say, since the process may be I/O bound. (i.e. writing to disk) Either way, MojoMonkey is right. 256 MB is WAY too little for a Mac. My iBook is 1 1/2 years old, and it has 640 MBs.

[quote]- Mouse - True, hardcore mac users only use 1 button I suppse, but I’m a newbie on a Mac, so I don’t have to. :slight_smile:
[/quote]
It was a joke. :slight_smile: Mac OS X users actually benefit from the use of a two button mouse, as all the context menus make life easier. BTW, I looked up your left-hand problem. There are two ways to solve it:

  1. Get a mouse with drivers that support left-handed use.
  2. Grab a copy of uControl.

[quote]- Terminal - No no no no no no. I didn’t get a mac from Santa so I could use the command line. I got one to simplify my life. :slight_smile: I used GUI and Command Line on my Amiga lots, but those were different days. :slight_smile:
[/quote]
Umm… you want a CVS repository, but you don’t want to use the command line? You got me there. Truth be told, you WILL find yourself using the command line if you do any development. Even if you’re just doing a:

javac MyProgram.java
java MyProgram

The Unix utilities are nice, though. Nothing like being able to grep through a large file, or use SED to produce a valid file for a shell script that tars up all the files you want to move in one easy step. And sudo works out of the box! God I love Unix. :slight_smile:

[quote]- GB - Doesn’t work. At least when I last tried it. :frowning: Shame too, as I really like it.
[/quote]
I looked at the JNLP file, and it looks like KevGlass didn’t bother with OS X libraries for LWJGL. The solution is either to find a downloadable copy you can run on your machine (using an OS X copy of LWJGL), or pester KevGlass to fix it. My vote goes to the later. :wink:

Edit: If you ever find yourself needing software, everything you could possibly need for your Mac is here: http://www.versiontracker.com

#7

Get eclipse for your happy lil’ mac. It’ll be beautiful, the new versions are much faster (used to be horribly slow on macs) and you won’t need to do ANYTHING on a command line! :slight_smile:

#8

Ugh. I HATE Eclipse. Sorry. I use NetBeans on my Mac, but there are far too many times when I just need to compile a simple test program. A complete IDE is an overkill for those situations. :slight_smile:

#9

Hey, now - an IDE will help with your little test cases as well! Right-click project, select New, select Class, check the “public static void main(String[] args)” checkbox, click Okay. Write test. Right click, select Run, select Application. Viola!

One hell of a lot faster than doing it without.

#10

[quote]Hey, now - an IDE will help with your little test cases as well!
[/quote]
Wait a minute and a half for the IDE to start…

[quote] Right-click project, select New,
[/quote]
Wait for the old project to close as all the settings get written to disk.

Create a new folder, or mount a temp directory.

[quote]select Class, check the “public static void main(String[] args)” checkbox, click Okay. Write test. Right click, select Run, select Application. Viola!

One hell of a lot faster than doing it without.
[/quote]
Or not. My workflow for simple tests is:

cd ~/temp
vi MyClass.java
(write code)
javac MyClass.java
java MyClass

It’s a LOT faster than going click, click, clack all over the place. As a bonus, I don’t even have to switch out of my current IDE project! :slight_smile:

#11

Now now now, if you have a project currently open you don’t need to wait two minutes for the IDE to load now do you? ;D

And I don’t suggest opening a new project at all - just create the test case right where you’re working. If it’s a quick throwaway test, you can delete it right afterwards anyway.

Two right-clicks, four left-clicks, four keypresses (“Test”) and a CTRL-S have got to be easier than your 121 keypresses, plus whatever you need to open a terminal… :stuck_out_tongue:

poke Your turn! ;D

#12

But to get back on topic, there are two blockers to me buying a Mac. Trailing behind on Java releases is one of them, and the lack of two buttons built into the touchpad is the other. If they ever fix those two, I’ll buy one within a week.

After working on one project with a guy who used a Mac laptop, I’m convinced that they are the only sensible choice for a work machine. (It did suffer from occasional complete lockups, but only when the VPN went down while the Mac was using it, and it sounds like a software issue that will be fixed eventually.)

#13

[quote]Now now now, if you have a project currently open you don’t need to wait two minutes for the IDE to load now do you? ;D
[/quote]
That’s a big if. Most throwaway test code I write happens when my IDE isn’t running. i.e. A quick class to test an algorithm, or a class to post here. :wink:

[quote]And I don’t suggest opening a new project at all - just create the test case right where you’re working. If it’s a quick throwaway test, you can delete it right afterwards anyway.
[/quote]
That’s always an option, and I occasionally do that. Unfortunately, many projects have something of a build super-structure, and I tend to not want to mix nonsense class files in there. Other people are going to be looking at my code, and I want it presentable. :slight_smile:

[quote]Two right-clicks, four left-clicks, four keypresses (“Test”) and a CTRL-S have got to be easier than your 121 keypresses, plus whatever you need to open a terminal… :stuck_out_tongue:
[/quote]
cd ~/t\t [7 keypresses]
vi MyClass.java [15 keypresses]
javac M\t.\t [9 keypresses]
java M\t\b [8 keypresses]

I only get 39 keypresses. ;D At 40 WPM, that’s about 10 seconds!

Compare that to clicks per minute. Your process would take at least 30 seconds to complete, AND I have to move my hands between keyboard and mouse. Not to mention the pauses inherent in switching Projects, loading Wizards, etc. in IDEs. :wink:

I love my IDE for large projects, but for a single class it is a massive overkill.

[quote]poke Your turn! ;D
[/quote]
Back at you. ;D

#14

[quote]But to get back on topic, there are two blockers to me buying a Mac. Trailing behind on Java releases is one of them,
[/quote]
They’re not far behind. 1.5 releases have already entered Beta testing. Not to mention that Java is a first class citizen on the Macs. You can even call Cocoa APIs from Java, and Java APIs from Cocoa!

[quote]and the lack of two buttons built into the touchpad is the other.
[/quote]
I have a small optical mouse I carry in my pack. It plugs into the USB port on the side and gets me going in two seconds. For times like working on the bus, I’ve gotten quite adept at hitting CTRL+Click.

[quote]After working on one project with a guy who used a Mac laptop, I’m convinced that they are the only sensible choice for a work machine. (It did suffer from occasional complete lockups, but only when the VPN went down while the Mac was using it, and it sounds like a software issue that will be fixed eventually.)
[/quote]
I agree. The Windows laptops assigned to me by my various employers have always been heavier, slower, less feature complete, HOT, had useless battery lives (2 Hours? WTF?), and were simply not as useful overall. My Mac is small, light, fast, has all the gizmos build in (mic, speakers, 2 USB, Ethernet, Modem, Firewire, and I can get Bluetooth and WIFI), runs supercool and quiet, has a four hour battery life, and runs just about anything I need. As laptops go, I simply wouldn’t choose anything else. :slight_smile:

#15

Welcome to the wonderful world of the Mac.

Some software you might want if you haven’t already found it:

Adium - Multi-protocol IM program

VLC media player (http://www.videolan.org/) for playing media with Windows-centric codecs that aren’t supported by Quicktime.

MPlayer (alternative to VLC)

Panic software (http://www.panic.com/) has a nice FTP program (Transmit), and other great stuff

jEdit works well on the Mac. It might be a good solution to your light-weight java editor issue. Though I find Xcode starts up pretty quick. I find the Xcode UI has quite a learning curve if you want to use it as a full-fledged IDE though.

Check out http://www.macosxhints.com/ for all the stuff you have to find out the hard way.

#16

[quote]They’re not far behind. 1.5 releases have already entered Beta testing.
[/quote]
No, not far behind at all. But until Sun and Apple get their act together and start treating Mac OS X as a primary build target, a Windows, Solaris or Linux box will always be the best platform for cutting-edge Java development.

Before it was cancelled, we were intending to undertake a large greenfield project using the best technology Java has to offer. The current state of things would have been a dealbreaker - rather than drop compile-time type-safety via Generics, we would have likely dropped the Mac. What a shame.

[quote]Not to mention that Java is a first class citizen on the Macs. You can even call Cocoa APIs from Java, and Java APIs from Cocoa!
[/quote]
Now that is cool!

[quote]I have a small optical mouse I carry in my pack. It plugs into the USB port on the side and gets me going in two seconds. For times like working on the bus, I’ve gotten quite adept at hitting CTRL+Click.
[/quote]
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Wrong answer! :wink:

Every Mac user I mention this to says, “yeah, that’s really stupid, but I just carry around a two-button mouse!” Does no one else but me think this is a preposterous situation?

Do they really think people who buy their kit aren’t clever enough to handle two buttons? Do they think two buttons are unnecessary? That’s rather been proved wrong by the fact that pretty much every Mac user buys themselves a two-button mouse - and they buy it because it makes their life easier! Do they really need people to point this kind of thing out to them?

It can’t be a technical issue - PC laptops have been shipping with multiple buttons for decades. My current personal laptop has four buttons built in, and they make my life even easier than do two!

If Apple really think people aren’t able to deal with two buttons, then the solution is simple - use two sensors so they can detect which end of the button was pressed, and add a new option to the Prefs: “[X] Enable touchpad two-button support”. It ain’t rocket science!

This is a dealbreaker for me less because of the practical issues; I know I can always buy a two-button mouse, or if there isn’t space for a mouse then I can Option-Click instead. It’s a dealbreaker because it’s just so stupid that Apple aren’t giving their users what they want, even though they’re paying over the odds for the hardware. It’s ludicrous - it just makes no sense whatsoever! :-/

#17

[quote]That’s a big if. Most throwaway test code I write happens when my IDE isn’t running. i.e. A quick class to test an algorithm, or a class to post here. :wink:
[/quote]
Well, that was rather in response to your comment of “As a bonus, I don’t even have to switch out of my current IDE project!”

[quote]That’s always an option, and I occasionally do that. Unfortunately, many projects have something of a build super-structure, and I tend to not want to mix nonsense class files in there. Other people are going to be looking at my code, and I want it presentable.
[/quote]
Not a problem! If you want to remove the class, that’s just a , and if you want your test code to appear somewhere else, that’s just a click-and-drag. Any good IDE should take care of relocating source files, clearing generated classes, changing package statements and imports for you.

[quote]cd ~/t\t [7 keypresses]
vi MyClass.java [15 keypresses]
javac M\t.\t [9 keypresses]
java M\t\b [8 keypresses]

I only get 39 keypresses. ;D At 40 WPM, that’s about 10 seconds!
[/quote]
That’s with sub-second compilation times then? :stuck_out_tongue:

And, oh! Regrettably you appear to have forgotten that after starting vi you need to type:

ipublic class MyClass {<Cr><Tab>public static void main(String[] args) {<Cr>

And after writing your program logic you’ll need a:

<Tab>}<Cr>}<Cr><Escape>:wq<Cr>

Which adds an extra 76 keypresses I believe. And at your theoretical 40 WPM, that just about takes us up to 30 seconds…

By the way, after a quick test, creating a class called “MyClass” with a main method, compiling, and running it takes me just under 10 seconds. However, I fear I must point out that this process cannot really be shortened any further by any action on my part, and further speed-ups can only be gained by the purchase of a faster CPU. I do concede that ignoring any application startup/shutdown time for vi, and ignoring startup/compilation/shutdown time for javac, theoretically if you increase your typing speed to about 120 WPM, you’ll be done in under 10 seconds.

[quote]Back at you. ;D
[/quote]
Zing! :-*

#18

[quote]Some software you might want if you haven’t already found it:
[/quote]
By the way, if you work with databases at all, the Aqua Data Studio comes highly recommended.

What CVS client do you gurus recommend under OS X?

The Microsoft bundle of Word, Excel and Entourage looked pretty good, if a little pricey. Are there any better office and email packages available, or are those the best you’re going to get?

#19

[quote]By the way, if you work with databases at all, the Aqua Data Studio comes highly recommended.
[/quote]
Actually, last time I tried Aqua DS, it didn’t work quite right on my Mac. The menubar was in the wrong place, and several minor features didn’t seem to operate. Of course, they may have fixed it since then.

At the risk of self-promotion, you may want to give DataDino a try. The professional version does some pretty cool stuff, including extracting source code for table and views!

[quote]What CVS client do you gurus recommend under OS X?
[/quote]
If you don’t like your IDE support, try SmartCVS

[quote]The Microsoft bundle of Word, Excel and Entourage looked pretty good, if a little pricey. Are there any better office and email packages available, or are those the best you’re going to get?
[/quote]
If you need Outlook support, Entourage is the only game in town. Otherwise, try NeoOffice/J. I find it much more pleasent than Office v.X.

#20

jbanes - Thanks a million for the ucontrol link! I had to compile the source code, but it works great so far! I’m a happy left handed mac user now. :slight_smile:

I looked at some of the other stuff as well. I had already got vlc, based on a recommendation from another forum. It does seem to be great.

I’m going to shop around a bit and see about getting at least 512meg of ram, possibly just max it out at 1gig. I finally saw the computer having to swap on the drive, so its time. :slight_smile:

I love eclipse as well. I’ve got it on all three systems on use (mac, win, lin). It works just great on all of them. I had already been using it for awhile swp, but thanks for the other infos.

smartCVS is THE greatest cvs client IMHO. Thats another I’ve been using on win/lin for awhile, but haven’t had the chance to put in on the iBook yet. I’m sure it will be just as happy there. winCVS is complete yuck. It shows just why its free with that completely nasty UI.

2 quick questions -

  • Does anyone have any recommendations on burning software? Everyone seems to say - Roxio Titanium Toast, but nothing else. Surely there is something else out there. I’m not happy with how long it takes to copy striaght data to the DVD with the preimage it makes.

  • How do you make a disk image show up with a background when you open it. I’ve downloaded several .dmg files. When they get mounted and then opened, they sometimes have backgrounds in the finder window. How is that done?

Regards,
Dr. A>