Programming on a Mac -- How/Where to Start?

[John Picard]

I have heard and read quite a bit about writing applications on a Mac and have decided I want to enter the foray. I'm not seeking fame or fortune but rather want to expand my abilities and knowledge. My background is mainframe batch and online Cobol, ADABAS Natural, and I am currently a VB.Net programmer. I do have a minor bit of knowledge with Unix.

My machine is a Mac Mini running Leopard (not Snow Leopard - yet).

So, what package(s) will I need, languages are advisable, etc.

 

[Hermiod]

Well, for starters, you could try installing Xcode. It's on your Leopard DVD for free. I suggest you get yourself a copy of Snow Leopard as a more up to date version will be on there.

It supports a variety of languages including C, C++, Objective-C, Java, Python etc.

 

[John Picard]

Well, for starters, you could try installing Xcode. It's on your Leopard DVD for free. I suggest you get yourself a copy of Snow Leopard as a more up to date version will be on there.

It supports a variety of languages including C, C++, Objective-C, Java, Python etc.

You know, I've had the Mac for over a year and haven't bothered to read the manual or even get the magic book that explains Macs to former Windows users.

That's excellent information to know. Which language or script do you suggest I start to learn?

 

[Hermiod]

^Objective-C is the way to go for Mac OS X or iPhone development.

 

[Lindley]

I'm partial to C++, but if you're interested in programming specifically for the Mac, then Apple's language of choice is Objective C. That's what the Cocoa GUI layer uses.

I haven't had a chance to play around with any of Apple's GUI interfaces (I stick to the cross-platform ones, mostly GTK+), but from what I've heard, if you do GUI stuff, you're better off with Cocoa than with any of the older APIs like Carbon.

 

[FlyingLemons]

I have heard and read quite a bit about writing applications on a Mac and have decided I want to enter the foray. I'm not seeking fame or fortune but rather want to expand my abilities and knowledge. My background is mainframe batch and online Cobol, ADABAS Natural, and I am currently a VB.Net programmer. I do have a minor bit of knowledge with Unix.

XCode is good, as was mentioned before. Another piece of advice I'd have is to use your Unix knowledge as a base as the Mac environment uses the standard GCC that Linux et al use. Aquamacs also has my wholehearted recommendation as well. While the X11 versions can be compiled on the Mac, they don't "fit" as the GUI of the Mac isn't X11 based as such.

Aquamacs has all the extensibility of Emacs, which is very useful (and in my opinion makes it the best IDE bar none - if you need to do something specific you can find an extension or write your own) but also has the advantage of fully integrating with the OS X GUI and thus obeying the conventions of the Mac rather than the X11 system.

Also, with regards to languages it depends what you want to do. If you want to do cross-platform development, then C++ might be the best to stick to as you can use any cross platform library that will compile on POSIX compliant systems. On the other hand, as has been mentioned before, Objective C is the best for things that are pure Mac.

I use a lot of Unix software in my work, so I normally stick to C++, but the great thing about the Mac is that it supports development in a wide variety of languages and so will usually have a solution to suit your particular interest and focus. Apple Developer Connection has pretty much everything you'll need - usually the solution to most problems that may arise when migrating from another platform to the Mac when programming is there, at least in my experience.

 

[John Picard]

^^ Very informative, FlyingLemons. Many thanks!