Thank you very much, both Simon and Prof. Leeuw. My focus is on the ease of development. Based on your feedback, Mac will be a good choice. About the raw speed, I am using a Pentium M 1.7 Ghz notebook and am extremely impressed by its speed (had been so frustrated by the slow Sun Sparc workstation).
I am not worried about cross-platform at this point. I am working on some preliminary result for a grant proposal. I also like to listen to music while I work and Mac would be a better choice than Linux for that purpose. Jason --- Jan de Leeuw <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > There are various reasons why the Mac is not the best option if you > want raw speed. > > -- The current dual core Intel chips used in Macs are mainly > developed > for portables (i.e. they emphasize power saving). The next > generation, > available in July/August, will do a better job and will be used in > the > new towers. > > -- The G5 is not designed to do fast floating point, and generally > does > not do a very good job at it. > > -- OS X is handicapped by the Mach microkernel parts. This is > becoming > more and more obvious in webserving, database management, and > distributed > computing. Rumor has it that Apple is working on both replacing the > kernel and the HFS+ file system. > > For my work this is all pretty irrelevant, but many others care. And > > with > good reason. > > I do think, however, that the Mac, expecially the MacBook Pro, is a > > pretty good > development machine -- especially my MacBook Pro, since it now > painlessly virtualizes > XP Pro, Debian, and Solaris 10 as well. > > > On May 8, 2006, at 23:11 , Simon Urbanek wrote: > > > Jason, > > > > On May 5, 2006, at 12:07 PM, Jason Liao wrote: > > > >> Good morning. I am considering buying a new computer to develop an > >> R package for multi-dimensional Monte Carlo simulation. One > >> requirement is to call, from R, a Fortran 90 program about 1000 > >> lines of code. A C++ version of that program is also available if > >> desired. Will the new Core Duo Mac be a good development platform > >> in the sense that I will not need to struggle with too many > >> technicalities in linking R with the compiled code? I am asking > >> this because I saw that the binary Mac R distribution in fact has > >> compilers bundled in it. I currently work mostly on Windows and > was > >> told that I will have a lot to download and configure if > developing > >> on Windows. > >> > > > > in general I think Macs are pretty painless in terms of developing > > packages for R. Most tools come right from Apple with the operating > > system. To complement that the fortran compiler supplied with R > (GNU > > Fortran 95) supports F90, so you should be safe (although I'm not > > sure how versatile such package would be). At the development stage > > you shouldn't worry about universal binaries, either. Admittedly, I > > develop even Windows programs on my Mac, because I find it easier > to > > cross-compile for Windows on a Mac than to do it in the horrible > > Windows GUI, but that's another story ;). I don't know if that > helps, > > but those are just my 2 cents. > > However, if you're interested in raw speed (i.e. you actually want > to > > run the simulations), you may be better off using dual-core AMD > > Opterons with Linux or Quad-G5 PowerMacs - the Intel CPUs are not > > necessarily fast (although Apple tries to make you believe > > otherwise ;)). > > > > Cheers, > > Simon > > > > _______________________________________________ > > R-SIG-Mac mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac > > > > === > Jan de Leeuw; Distinguished Professor and Chair, UCLA Department of > Statistics; > Editor: Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Journal of Statistical > Software > US mail: 8125 Math Sciences Bldg, Box 951554, Los Angeles, CA > 90095-1554 > phone (310)-825-9550; fax (310)-206-5658; email: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > .mac: jdeleeuw ++++++ aim: deleeuwjan ++++++ skype: j_deleeuw > homepages: http://gifi.stat.ucla.edu ++++++ > http://www.cuddyvalley.org > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > ------------------------- > No matter where you go, there you are. --- Buckaroo Banzai > http://gifi.stat.ucla.edu/sounds/nomatter.au > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > ------------------------- > > > > Jason Liao, http://www.geocities.com/jg_liao Dept. of Biostatistics, http://www2.umdnj.edu/bmtrxweb University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey 683 Hoes Lane West, Piscataway NJ 08854 phone 732-235-5429, School of Public Health office phone 732-235-9824, Cancer Institute of New Jersey office _______________________________________________ R-SIG-Mac mailing list [email protected] https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac
