Wanna get a Powerbook G4


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Hey all, having just been accepted to college, my parents decided to get me a present in the form of a laptop. Now I have to choose which one to get :D I'm pretty much set on getting a Mac, but I don't know which one. Any suggestions for someone going into the Computer Science field?

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From what I heard, you should clarify with your school or professors. I guess some professors would prefer you to write your codes on a PC? :rolleyes: You can still get a Mac but if you want a laptop that really meets your need, you need to know what you're expected to use for computer science assignments. Moreover, I wouldn't suggest you to use VPC really. If you're required to do every assignment on PC, but you get a Mac and have to do everything on a Mac with VPC, then get a PC instead

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I played around with the 17" at the Apple Store in Soho, NY and it's just too big for my liking. The 15" fits me perfectly but i don't know what customizations it should have.

Session, actually my school has a Custom Apple Store, which makes me think that they're all for the students using macs. I'll look into it some more though.

Btw, speaking of the Apple Store, do you guys know if they sell customized powerbooks? :blink:

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Short summary: I'm a CS major and the only programs that were absolutely required to complete course work that didn't have drop-in replacements that worked as well

VisualBasic/C#.net, VisualC++6, and Microsoft Project.

Those courses have accounted for less that 20% of my overall education, and they can still be accessed by VirtualPC or remote desktop.

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I'm in my last year of computer science and I've made out pretty well using a macintosh.

DON'T waste you time talking to professors - or at least don't rely on what they say specifically about what platform you should use because I've found biases there to be just as bad or worse than what you see around neowin. Ask what you'll be learning, what tools you'll need, and format the files you'll be handing in are going to be. Here's what I found so far:

Early computer science classes:

We were learning C/C++ using either borland or microsofts IDE. Because this was all console work I just used ProjectBuilder - as long as you remember to convert from mac style line-feeds to windows style CRLF people will never know what you did. A lot of people in my class prefered DevC++ on windows and that was fine too.

In my *nix operating systems courses we worked with various scripting languages and C. The recommended OS was Redhat Linux 6. I found that BASH, PERL, Python, and gcc work exactly the same on OS X as on linux so I didn't bother using anything else.

With java we were using Microsofts IDE: I found eclipse to be just as useful for the labs we had. ProjectBuilder left something to be desired when it came to java. Apparently xCode is better.

In my advanced C classes we had to use VisualC++ 6. Because the code was written against MFC I really had no choice. I used VisualStudio in virtual PC and it was fast enough for the kinds of projects you're likely to work on in school. I read that codewarrior had support for MFC but I didn't peruse that.

For the web architecture class (aka: html and more!) we used a variety of server side languages and technologies. The platform was supposed to be IIS6 on Windows 2000 or 2003 server but I find apache on os x works every bit as well (sometimes better). Once again the source is platform independent so nobody is the wiser. PHP, ASP, Perl...it's all the same.

For the databases class I've been mostly successful just using MySQL on OS X. I used Oracle 9i - the recommended software - briefly over SSH and later in virtual PC. There was one or two labs where I actually needed to be on oracle - they were ones where we were supposed to learn what made oracle so expensive. Everything else worked fine locally. There was a couple of months were we were forced to use Microsoft access: it was only four labs so I just used the schools machines; you could look at something like filemaker but i didn't care that much.

Right now I've got a class in .NET languages, it seams to focus on VB.NET. I find visualstudio .net on win2000 runs too slowly in virtualpc and I don't care much for having Microsoft software on my notebook anyway. What I've been doing lately is using RDC to connect to an old P2-300 with windows xp, office, and visual studio - I write the code on that. It's a little slow as you can image (crappy computer) but usable.

I had a course where we were required to use Rational Rose. That package is extremely expensive and wasn't included in the freebie software bundle they gave us so I had no choice but to use the labs anyway.

In early classes we were required to include pseudo code and flowcharts for assignments in addition to the source code. The idea was to encourage us to plan applications before actually writing them. Most people wrote in C then "ported" it to pseudo code later anyway. Flowcharts were 'supposed' to be made using Visio but omnigraffle substituted nicely. Just about every time someone has required me to use Visio for flowchats, class diagrams, or network diagrams that I can get away with omnigraffle - unless they want the visio file at the end of it all. I here that omnigraffle pro can export to that format - i only have the standard version.

I've had a class or two where MS Project was a requirement. that was another one where either virtualpc or RDC filled in.

Obviously the standard functions of email, word processing, presentation graphics are all identical.

i use keynote over powerpoint - but that's a personal choice.

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I heard from a college student who handed in his homework accomplished on a Mac that his assignments are rejected. I'm going into computer science in the university this Sept and I plan to get a PB too but I think I will still keep my PC :)

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People shouldn't know what you used to do your work provided you spend half a second making sure you're submitting compatible work.

Word documents (for example) from office x are for all intents indistinguishable from those created on windows. Same with photoshop files, mpeg movies, etc.

Typically you'll **** off your instructors if you submit plain text files (which most source code is) with "bad" line endings. Windows uses Cr+Lf, Mac OS uses Cr and Linux uses Lf. If you try to view a document with linux or mac os style linefeeds on windows it will appear as one long line with a "little box" wherever there should be a tab or new line.

Obviously if you use cocoa to finish a lab thats supposed to be done in Win-API you're not going to have any luck.

Also, make sure you code compiles on whatever compiler your instructor will use. Not all compilers are perfect and sometimes they produce errors. This goes even if you use Microsoft or Intels compiler at home on a pc and gcc at school on a pc.

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Powerbook g4 1ghz (get the 1.25 if you can, comes with the superdrive and a fiberoptic lit keyboard) 15inch (17inch is too bulky in mnsho) with 512 meg of ram, the combo drive (or superdrive if you can talk them into it), ilife 04 (alot of stores will give it to you with a new computer), an external HD would be nice...backup and extra storage...

I have a friend doing CS with his powerbook and he doesnt have a problem except in machine code stuff (instructions are waaaay different) but he's learned ALOT having to translate from one to the other...so a little bit more work at first but in the end you'll be better off

If you wait till you're in uni you can get the education discount...on a 15inch powerbook its US$300 off so :D

Edited by Gary_Player
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What college are you going to specifically? I would go to the school's website and look up course descriptions to see what sorts of things you'll be needing to learn.

Here at Georgia Tech, the school is fairly cross-OS friendly. We don't learn C++ or any Windows programming. Most of the stuff we learn is geared towards either cross platform stuff (in Scheme, Squeak, or Java) or *Nix stuff (in C). I haven't had a single problem using my mac for school assignments. I do the bulk of all my coding with BBEdit, which I would recommend over PB personally, and just edit on one of our cluster machines. The only thing I couldn't do on my mac came up this year. I have an OS design class, and we're working with the Linux kernel on iPaqs. The only way to connect to the system is via serial cable, which my iBook doesn't have. So, I use my PC or just head over to the labs to do my work.

Often at our CoC, I see more Mac laptops than PC laptops. We have a fairly large mac lab. Our library has a bunch of iMacs and a bunch of dual 23" displays PowerMac machines (our library got a massive grant...). I guess it's all just relative to what school you go to :)

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Just a question. Have you ever used VPC on a Mac? For me, it's unbearably slow. I've tried it on a few Macs, so I know it's not just my config or setup. If you've never used it, try it soon because you may find it unworkable.

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...Squeak...

They still teach smalltalk?!

looks like I know where I'm going for my masters.

oh, it's in georgia. so i guess I should say:

"WhoooooWeeee! I dun found ma-self a uni-the-versity cuz ya'll done be learning smalltalk" ;)

(I kid)

Seriously though, that's on language I wish I would have spent more time learning. I would have traded one of the UML classes or even a COBOL course for that just because it plays a fairly significant role in the history of computing.

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What college are you going to specifically? I would go to the school's website and look up course descriptions to see what sorts of things you'll be needing to learn.

I'm going to attend Columbia University. This is the direct link to their course description: http://www.cs.columbia.edu/bulletin.html. Of course I don't understand any of that mumbo jumbo too well...... yet :happy:

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i talked to a professor of computer science at the university i'm going to, and they encourage osx because of the lower support requirements, xcode, and the fact that it's basically unix. i don't know why it being unix matters much, but whatever. even at the all-dell college i do dual-enrollment at right now, my professor only uses console mode in visual c .net. aka, i could write the same thing on osx.

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