OSX dev machine - Neeed Advice

[didiergm]

Hello,

I am asked by a client to port a small app made with FPC/Lazarus to MAC OSX. This application displays JPEG images.
- What machines specs would you recommend to comfortably develop with a Mac ?
- Would you say that FPC/Lazarus is ready for the job (not trying to start a war, just asking a plain, honest question)

thanks in advance

Didier

[Paul Ishenin]

To it port from where?

[didiergm]

Port from FPC/Windows. I will be making a port to Linux later, first Mac OSX

[Jonas Maebe]

Hello,

I am asked by a client to port a small app made with FPC/Lazarus to MAC OSX. This application displays JPEG images.
- What machines specs would you recommend to comfortably develop with a Mac ?

Any Intel Mac from the last two years with 2GB ram should be fine (1GB is also quite workable -- my MacBook has 1GB --, but can be a bit limiting from time to time).

- Would you say that FPC/Lazarus is ready for the job (not trying to start a war, just asking a plain, honest question)

FPC definitely is. I think Darwin/Mac OS X is currently the best maintained FPC platform.

Lazarus is hard to say for me. I only use it as a text editor/code navigator, and have no experience at all in developing GUI applications (with Lazarus or anything else). Lazarus-developed apps, especially if ported from Windows, tend to look/behave not 100% like most other Mac apps, but it's certainly possible to make high quality Mac apps with it. E.g. http://www.earmaster.com/ was ported to the Mac with Lazarus, and looks/behaves ok.

The more custom your interface is, the less problems probably. On the other hand, it'll also blend in less with other apps, which is generally fairly important in the Mac consumer market.

[didiergm]

thanks for your opinion;

Didier

[didiergm]

I went ahead and bought a Mac Mini; at first glance, what a fantastic piece of machinery; very impressive stuff; now on to setting up Lazarus

[Phil]

Should be pretty straightforward:

- Install developer tools from OS X disk. You'll need these for any programming you do, not just FPC.
- Install the 3 .dmg's if you're using a stable version or snapshot.
- Drag Lazarus to dock so you can start it from there. It should be under /Developer.

Thanks.

-Phil