I'm a professional programmer. I personally like OS X and use it most of the time on my own equipment. While the Finder is a bit creaky (TiBook 800), most things work okay and I've learned to enjoy the interface for the most part.
I'm currently responsible for a fair sized commercial program (several hundred thousand lines of code.) It's a Carbon application (we have to be practical here!) and is built with CodeWarrior (Project Builder is okay for small, X-only projects. Considering that it's free, CodeWarrior wins hands down for $600 if you need to get stuff done.)
For work, I have pretty much given up and moved back to OS 9. For our purposes, OS X is just not usable yet, primarily becuase of debugging. It takes 10-20 seconds to start up debugging on X (compared to about 2), and everything moves s-l-o-w-l-y. OpenGL and AppleScript (in particular) run so glacially under the debugger that it constantly looks like it has hung (which it often does, on 10.2.) This is on a G4/450 tower, but it's the same on the TiBook.
I have found that I can reboot OS9 several times a day and actually save time. And with 9 I get the time in several large chunks, not dozens of small, annoying ones. Oddly enough, CW8.2 on 10.2 compiles the project much faster than any other OS version, but has other problems that limit it mostly to testing. CodeWarrior has improved steadily over the last 2 years and I remain hopeful.
I've concluded that most X-developed apps are small so far (including OS X itself (many small pieces.)) I've done several smaller projects that worked well. I frankly can't imagine how things like Office or Photoshop could have been done. Maybe they get to use those rumored G5 prototypes?
I can't agree that Windows is better. Most of my Windows time lately has been on a P3/733 running Win2K (admittedly not cutting edge), where Visual Studio 6 is dramatically slower than CodeWarrior on the G4/450 (compiling a single small file takes several times as long, and starting up debugging is almost as slow.) While I don't "know" all the shortcuts like I do on the Mac, the general rottenness of the interface and controls (as usual) slows Windows apps down more than any processor could compensate. Shift-Alt-Control-F42-right click anyone?
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I'm a professional programmer. I personally like OS X and use it most of the time on my own equipment. While the Finder is a bit creaky (TiBook 800), most things work okay and I've learned to enjoy the interface for the most part.
I'm currently responsible for a fair sized commercial program (several hundred thousand lines of code.) It's a Carbon application (we have to be practical here!) and is built with CodeWarrior (Project Builder is okay for small, X-only projects. Considering that it's free, CodeWarrior wins hands down for $600 if you need to get stuff done.)
For work, I have pretty much given up and moved back to OS 9. For our purposes, OS X is just not usable yet, primarily becuase of debugging. It takes 10-20 seconds to start up debugging on X (compared to about 2), and everything moves s-l-o-w-l-y. OpenGL and AppleScript (in particular) run so glacially under the debugger that it constantly looks like it has hung (which it often does, on 10.2.) This is on a G4/450 tower, but it's the same on the TiBook.
I have found that I can reboot OS9 several times a day and actually save time. And with 9 I get the time in several large chunks, not dozens of small, annoying ones. Oddly enough, CW8.2 on 10.2 compiles the project much faster than any other OS version, but has other problems that limit it mostly to testing. CodeWarrior has improved steadily over the last 2 years and I remain hopeful.
I've concluded that most X-developed apps are small so far (including OS X itself (many small pieces.)) I've done several smaller projects that worked well. I frankly can't imagine how things like Office or Photoshop could have been done. Maybe they get to use those rumored G5 prototypes?
I can't agree that Windows is better. Most of my Windows time lately has been on a P3/733 running Win2K (admittedly not cutting edge), where Visual Studio 6 is dramatically slower than CodeWarrior on the G4/450 (compiling a single small file takes several times as long, and starting up debugging is almost as slow.) While I don't "know" all the shortcuts like I do on the Mac, the general rottenness of the interface and controls (as usual) slows Windows apps down more than any processor could compensate. Shift-Alt-Control-F42-right click anyone?