Using OSX for PC coding

[Xalthorn]

Hi folks,

Yep, the subject really is as daft as it sounds.  My main computer is an Apple running OSX and I really want to get back into coding PC stuff again but would rather not have to dig the laptop out each time.

I know I can dual boot the thing, but that's annoying.  I know there is a WINE utility for running windows stuff, but that fails to run the first demo I tried, let alone give an environment in which to code.

I was wondering if anyone had ever had the need to do this and if they did, how far did they get?

I'll probably end up digging the laptop out, but it would be great if I can have some sort of virtual windows environment to mess around in without having to drop out of OSX.

[zawran]

BlitzMax runs on OSX, Windows and Linux. And although you originally needed access to each platform to compile for them, a guy called Brucey, who has his own forum section on the official forum has now made some changes so that its possible to compile windows exe files on OSX. So that might be a way to go. It all depends on what kind of programming environment you prefer and the language you would be most comfortable with. Another factor that might play a role is what you would be coding as some languages are more suited for certain things than others.

[Jim]

Parallels is one way
http://www.parallels.com/

Wine is another possibility, but I have no idea how much it will run.  Previous versions have been a mess, but maybe it's got better recently.

If you program in C or C++ then it's possible to build gcc to create Win32 apps (it's called a cross compiler) - lots of people use Mac to build PSP and PS2 homebrew too - but you can't actually run the exes on the mac that way.

Jim

[benny!]

@Xalthorn:
Please let us know how parallels - or any other solution you try out - work
out for you. Personally I am saving up some bucks at the moment to switch
to Mac, too. But it would be ofcourse interesting to know how stable windows
is running on a Mac.

[Xalthorn]

Thanks for the replies folks, and for not laughing yourself silly at the topic

I know I can cross compile for different OS's, my issue is with testing the resulting exes.  If I still have to boot a PC up, that kinda defeats the purpose.

Parallels looks promising though, I'll go and investigate further and report back.

[Clyde]

Freebasic is also cross platform. And they've got seperate forums for different machines, over at the official FB site. Perhaps there is more info available there dude.