@ Mike
The short answer to your questions: yes, and yes.

To date there's only 3 Mac models with the M1 chip: two laptops and the Mac
Mini.
I've just bought the Mac mini running under Big Sur for dedicated Xcode,
which is painfully slow on my old MBA.

Well…!
This is the most painless Mac I've ever bought (I own 4 now, some very
old). Setup was fast, and went as it should.
Mind you, I'd only installed Xcode from App Store and transferred none of
my code and data. I hadn't even installed J.
But seeing your post I thought I'd install first j901 then j902.

Both installations proceeded identically, and just as they had for my MBA
running Catalina.
I wrote a log as I did the steps, which I'll omit here. Ask to see it if
you want.

Basically I followed the instructions on the jwiki page:
System/Installation/j902/zips
first clicking the link: j902_mac64.zip

Once installed, j902 offered me 3 icons on my desktop. I ran the green J
named jqt902.
After 24 bounces in the Dock, the jqt "Term" window appeared.
(don't worry: it re-launches with scarcely one bounce.)

I then entered:
   load'plot'
   plot 2000?2000
The plot window appeared immediately, filled with a dense scribble.

Summary: the Mac mini runs absurdly fast, and I've found it no trouble to
use. To-date it has done everything I've thrown at it.

Bill is right: there's no J engine for the M1 chip as-yet. So it's got to
be transparently running the new Rosetta emulator for Intel code. I haven't
timed any J benchmarks: would someone care to offer me one?

Ian Clark


On Sat, 13 Mar 2021 at 20:00, Michael P. Manti <[email protected]> wrote:

> I am considering buying a new M1 Mac to replace my aging 2014 MacBook Pro.
> Is J supported on macOS Big Sur? Is it supported on the M1 chips?
>
> I any members of the forum have tested J out on the M1 Macs, I would
> appreciate any advice that they have to share.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Mike
>
>
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>
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