Re: [Flashcoders] Recommendation for budget development mac
The other thing to keep in mind is to test early and test often when doing cross-platform testing. Keeps you from find bugs at the last minute. Also, when working with a team, its helpful to consider having one of your team members work on the mac. Then ongoing testing occurs. On Oct 17, 2008, at 11:54 AM, eric e. dolecki wrote: I think that you made a good decision there, for what it's worth. Eric On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 10:45 AM, Paul Steven [EMAIL PROTECTED]wrote: Thanks for all the advice - I have made a quick decision and ordered a Mac Mini 2 GHZ (Intel one) with an extra gig of RAM. Sounds like this will be sufficient to package my games for the Mac and also provide a means for testing. I do have a 450 mhz G3 in the attic but I thought that would be way too old to be of any use for my needs. Cheers Paul -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ian Thomas Sent: 17 October 2008 15:17 To: Flash Coders List Subject: Re: [Flashcoders] Recommendation for budget development mac On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 2:09 PM, David Benman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I agree with Ian, though I'd caution going to low-end for testing because then you can get too focused on slowness issues that don't affect your average, target machine. Sorry - I meant slowest of the current crop, by which I meant Mac Mini. :-) Ian ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders _ David Benman sixredmarbles One Alewife Center Suite 210 Cambridge, MA 02140 p. 617.492.9668 x120 f. 617.492.9778 Bringing Beauty, Creativity, and Intelligence to Educational Technology www.sixredmarbles.com P Please consider the environment before printing this email. ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] Recommendation for budget development mac
Yes, you can also consider to buy a Mac and use VMWare Fusion to test under Windows etc. ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] Recommendation for budget development mac
I am hearing the Mac Mini might be discontinued (as of right now). Not sure if that change your mind about one. On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 10:52 AM, Weyert de Boer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yes, you can also consider to buy a Mac and use VMWare Fusion to test under Windows etc. ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] Recommendation for budget development mac
I suspect it depends how many pixels you're throwing around! We create fairly straightforward educational 'games' for young kids, and the Mac Mini (which is Intel these days, by the way) has been perfectly adequate as a testbed for our software. What's more, if you're actually authoring on the PC and testing on the Mac (which is how we do it) you'll probably want to be testing on the slowest of the Macs anyway, to ensure that your end-users don't have something that's too slow. The Mac Mini is a nice piece of compact kit. It has another big advantage over many other macs if you're using it as a second machine (e.g. for testing); you can plug in external keyboard, mouse and monitor. Which means I've got my Mac Mini hooked up to the same screen, mouse and keyboard as my PC (via a switcher). That way I can do a build on the PC, switch to Mac for testing, switch to PC to fix that annoying bug, repeat until fixed... I heartily recommend it. Ian On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 1:01 PM, Paul Steven [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Up until now I have never needed to develop anything for the Mac, however I have been asked to develop a series of games for Mac and PC so need to get a Mac to enable me to do so. The games will be delivered as downloadable executables. I would therefore appreciate any advice on what to get. I currently develop using Flash CS3. I would prefer to spend as little as possible and was therefore considering the Mac Mini but believe this may be a bit long in the tooth. I would prefer if it was intel too so I can have a dabble with the iPhone development software. I need to get this Mac within the next couple of weeks too so I can't wait too long. My budget is £1000 maximum but less would be better as I don't know if I will get any more jobs that require development on a Mac or not. Any advice much appreciated.. Paul ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
RE: [Flashcoders] Recommendation for budget development mac
Thanks Ian - that is great advice and I now feel a lot more confident buying a Mac Mini. The games I am developing are for kindergarden age kids so there is nothing fast paced to deal with. I will continue developing on the PC. I also believe they are simple to hook up to a living room TV with a wireless keyboard to surf the net in the living room. Cheers Paul -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ian Thomas Sent: 17 October 2008 13:25 To: Flash Coders List Subject: Re: [Flashcoders] Recommendation for budget development mac I suspect it depends how many pixels you're throwing around! We create fairly straightforward educational 'games' for young kids, and the Mac Mini (which is Intel these days, by the way) has been perfectly adequate as a testbed for our software. What's more, if you're actually authoring on the PC and testing on the Mac (which is how we do it) you'll probably want to be testing on the slowest of the Macs anyway, to ensure that your end-users don't have something that's too slow. The Mac Mini is a nice piece of compact kit. It has another big advantage over many other macs if you're using it as a second machine (e.g. for testing); you can plug in external keyboard, mouse and monitor. Which means I've got my Mac Mini hooked up to the same screen, mouse and keyboard as my PC (via a switcher). That way I can do a build on the PC, switch to Mac for testing, switch to PC to fix that annoying bug, repeat until fixed... I heartily recommend it. Ian On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 1:01 PM, Paul Steven [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Up until now I have never needed to develop anything for the Mac, however I have been asked to develop a series of games for Mac and PC so need to get a Mac to enable me to do so. The games will be delivered as downloadable executables. I would therefore appreciate any advice on what to get. I currently develop using Flash CS3. I would prefer to spend as little as possible and was therefore considering the Mac Mini but believe this may be a bit long in the tooth. I would prefer if it was intel too so I can have a dabble with the iPhone development software. I need to get this Mac within the next couple of weeks too so I can't wait too long. My budget is £1000 maximum but less would be better as I don't know if I will get any more jobs that require development on a Mac or not. Any advice much appreciated.. Paul ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] Recommendation for budget development mac
I agree with Ian, though I'd caution going to low-end for testing because then you can get too focused on slowness issues that don't affect your average, target machine. If you are looking at one machine, I'd recommend an average speed Intel Mac which would could be used and save you money. This will give you indications of potential slowness issues and its the predominant processor now. Plus there are can be infrequent issues with the new processor, especially if there's old PPC code in the application running on the Intel. If you want to be thorough and have extra money, then you can consider getting older slower macs such as a PPC. We tend to have them laying around, but you might check with friends to test or to sell you a cheap old machine. On Oct 17, 2008, at 8:24 AM, Ian Thomas wrote: I suspect it depends how many pixels you're throwing around! We create fairly straightforward educational 'games' for young kids, and the Mac Mini (which is Intel these days, by the way) has been perfectly adequate as a testbed for our software. What's more, if you're actually authoring on the PC and testing on the Mac (which is how we do it) you'll probably want to be testing on the slowest of the Macs anyway, to ensure that your end-users don't have something that's too slow. The Mac Mini is a nice piece of compact kit. It has another big advantage over many other macs if you're using it as a second machine (e.g. for testing); you can plug in external keyboard, mouse and monitor. Which means I've got my Mac Mini hooked up to the same screen, mouse and keyboard as my PC (via a switcher). That way I can do a build on the PC, switch to Mac for testing, switch to PC to fix that annoying bug, repeat until fixed... I heartily recommend it. Ian On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 1:01 PM, Paul Steven [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Up until now I have never needed to develop anything for the Mac, however I have been asked to develop a series of games for Mac and PC so need to get a Mac to enable me to do so. The games will be delivered as downloadable executables. I would therefore appreciate any advice on what to get. I currently develop using Flash CS3. I would prefer to spend as little as possible and was therefore considering the Mac Mini but believe this may be a bit long in the tooth. I would prefer if it was intel too so I can have a dabble with the iPhone development software. I need to get this Mac within the next couple of weeks too so I can't wait too long. My budget is £1000 maximum but less would be better as I don't know if I will get any more jobs that require development on a Mac or not. Any advice much appreciated.. Paul ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders _ David Benman sixredmarbles One Alewife Center Suite 210 Cambridge, MA 02140 p. 617.492.9668 x120 f. 617.492.9778 Bringing Beauty, Creativity, and Intelligence to Educational Technology www.sixredmarbles.com P Please consider the environment before printing this email. ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] Recommendation for budget development mac
On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 9:09 AM, David Benman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If you want to be thorough and have extra money, then you can consider getting older slower macs such as a PPC. We tend to have them laying around, but you might check with friends to test or to sell you a cheap old machine. At this point you can find alot of old G4's on Craigslist, eg: http://newyork.craigslist.org/que/sys/882550805.html ($225). These are still relatively fast, but also old enough so that you'll get a pretty good sense for what older machine performance will be like. A G4 like this is a couple gens back by now. ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] Recommendation for budget development mac
On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 2:09 PM, David Benman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I agree with Ian, though I'd caution going to low-end for testing because then you can get too focused on slowness issues that don't affect your average, target machine. Sorry - I meant slowest of the current crop, by which I meant Mac Mini. :-) Ian ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
RE: [Flashcoders] Recommendation for budget development mac
Thanks for all the advice - I have made a quick decision and ordered a Mac Mini 2 GHZ (Intel one) with an extra gig of RAM. Sounds like this will be sufficient to package my games for the Mac and also provide a means for testing. I do have a 450 mhz G3 in the attic but I thought that would be way too old to be of any use for my needs. Cheers Paul -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ian Thomas Sent: 17 October 2008 15:17 To: Flash Coders List Subject: Re: [Flashcoders] Recommendation for budget development mac On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 2:09 PM, David Benman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I agree with Ian, though I'd caution going to low-end for testing because then you can get too focused on slowness issues that don't affect your average, target machine. Sorry - I meant slowest of the current crop, by which I meant Mac Mini. :-) Ian ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Re: [Flashcoders] Recommendation for budget development mac
I think that you made a good decision there, for what it's worth. Eric On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 10:45 AM, Paul Steven [EMAIL PROTECTED]wrote: Thanks for all the advice - I have made a quick decision and ordered a Mac Mini 2 GHZ (Intel one) with an extra gig of RAM. Sounds like this will be sufficient to package my games for the Mac and also provide a means for testing. I do have a 450 mhz G3 in the attic but I thought that would be way too old to be of any use for my needs. Cheers Paul -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ian Thomas Sent: 17 October 2008 15:17 To: Flash Coders List Subject: Re: [Flashcoders] Recommendation for budget development mac On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 2:09 PM, David Benman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I agree with Ian, though I'd caution going to low-end for testing because then you can get too focused on slowness issues that don't affect your average, target machine. Sorry - I meant slowest of the current crop, by which I meant Mac Mini. :-) Ian ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders ___ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
