Coding in the Air ... Advice

[iDisk]

Happy New Year!

I have an important question. I'm obviously waiting until January 26th to purchase a Mac NoteBook.

I would like to know, if I can do heavy coding on the current high end version? 2.13 128GB SSD

It's going to be my primary machine. The type of coding I'm going to be doing is the following:

• Heavy CSS, HTML & JAVA SCRIPT (DOM Scripting & OO JavaScript)
  
• Heavy C Programming
  
• Moderate QUARTZ programming 2D & PDF graphics in Mac OS X
  
• Open GL use (I will play around with it)
  
• Medium Photography use (I plan to install Aperture & illustrator along with Photoshop) I plan to use the Two adobe softwares lightly though (I'm BIG on APPLE ONLY USE so if Aperture X comes and can replace then need for adobe PS just slightly I'll stay within my own ecosystem and uninstall it immediately)
  
• Heavy Cocoa along with OO-C programming and I also play around with Core Animation & will have to use Core Data.
  

Will the MacBook Air be able to handle such a work load?

I will have two USB flash drives at my disposal and I will implement iDisk to free up some space if need be.

I LOVE Time Capsule but my Apple hasn't quite got it right yet with the HD failures (I know it's not their fault BTW, just technology).

So I ask you my New MacBook Air family (I hope) will the Air fit my needs??

Again it's going to be my primary machine, I'm willing to carry USBs to save space for my files.

I also plan on getting the SSD version. I think naive users buy the HD version, 4,200rpm is old technology but I still love Steve and Apple.

Your thoughts on the cpu usage and 9400m are important also.

After the MacBook Air I do plan to purchase a Mac Pro (If New Cinema Displays come) or iMac (High End)to take care of the heavy video and photography use I plan on doing later down the road.

Thanks Air family. I await your feedback.

iDisk

 

[ayeying]

I'll try and answer whatever I can since I don't do any "heavy" coding, just some basic Java/C++.

Photoshop CS4 in OS X and Windows Vista seems to run very well. Depending on how heavy or intensive it is, it shouldn't cause a major slow down or even close to the point that you'd want to throw it out of the window. I work on 10MB RAW images and they usually speed by without any issues.

For Aperture, a 10+ MB Raw file would slow down the system a little but mostly on the render part. This is due to the slow processor (compared to the other mac laptops) and slower graphics card (aperture uses the gfx card).

The SSD is not a speed demon either. Honestly, using both the 4200RPM and the SSD, SSD is fine for normal uses, but the 4200RPM drive does have some advantages such as the heavy concurrent write/read of virtual machines. You'll see less "pauses" but obviously you'll wait a bit longer for things load. There's always a plus and negative.

Now the Air will get a bit hot. The fan will probably run at maximum all the time due to the code build or rendering in photoshop/aperture or openGL renders. Keep that in mind.

I, also, use my MacBook Air as the primary, and 99% of the time, the only system. This includes gaming also.

 

[iDisk]

I'll try and answer whatever I can since I don't do any "heavy" coding, just some basic Java/C++.

Photoshop CS4 in OS X and Windows Vista seems to run very well. Depending on how heavy or intensive it is, it shouldn't cause a major slow down or even close to the point that you'd want to throw it out of the window. I work on 10MB RAW images and they usually speed by without any issues.

For Aperture, a 10+ MB Raw file would slow down the system a little but mostly on the render part. This is due to the slow processor (compared to the other mac laptops) and slower graphics card (aperture uses the gfx card).

The SSD is not a speed demon either. Honestly, using both the 4200RPM and the SSD, SSD is fine for normal uses, but the 4200RPM drive does have some advantages such as the heavy concurrent write/read of virtual machines. You'll see less "pauses" but obviously you'll wait a bit longer for things load. There's always a plus and negative.

Now the Air will get a bit hot. The fan will probably run at maximum all the time due to the code build or rendering in photoshop/aperture or openGL renders. Keep that in mind.

I, also, use my MacBook Air as the primary, and 99% of the time, the only system. This includes gaming also.

Thanks.

I don't use VM, but thats good to know just in case friends ask me about it. I've heard about Apples slow (but progressive) thermal issue. Progress is progress.

My term of "Heavy" is possibly misunderstood but to put it in simpler terms I plan to do 4-6hrs of code per day maybe more in all the areas I mentioned. I will have USBs though so space should not be an issue.

Thats also good to know about the RAW sizes. After I purchase my stationary computer (as I mentioned above), I'm going to upgrade from my Minolta Film to a Nikon D3s (it's going to be tough leaving Minolta) but sony cameras are just not what they could be and I've saved more then enough to do a complete transition over to Nikon.

Do you really find the 2GB Ram limiting with your use of the machine?

 

[ayeying]

Thanks.

I don't use VM, but thats good to know just in case friends ask me about it. I've heard about Apples slow (but progressive) thermal issue. Progress is progress.

My term of "Heavy" is possibly misunderstood but to put it in simpler terms I plan to do 4-6hrs of code per day maybe more in all the areas I mentioned. I will have USBs though so space should not be an issue.

Thats also good to know about the RAW sizes. After I purchase my stationary computer (as I mentioned above), I'm going to upgrade from my Minolta Film to a Nikon D3s (it's going to be tough leaving Minolta) but sony cameras are just not what they could be and I've saved more then enough to do a complete transition over to Nikon.

Do you really find the 2GB Ram limiting with your use of the machine?

When I said heavy, I don't mean how long you code but how much performance/processing it would be for the build or render of a photograph. Working a long time on a code or photograph will not hinder a laptop's performance whatsoever. The system won't slow down after a while unless there's more and more applications opened/used that eat up the system resources.

The 2GB is very limiting after a while. My "normal" swap size is upwards of 3GB to 4GB. Once I've hit 5GB and the system nearly crashed. However, for me, my ram usage is caused by virtual machines and/or aperture. Ram usage is really up to the end user on how much he/she uses.

To be honest, for me, ram is never enough. Even on the iMac with 6GB, I use up all 6GB into active very quickly. Even with 6GB, I still manage a nice 2GB swap file without any effort, sometimes bigger.

 

[iDisk]

When I said heavy, I don't mean how long you code but how much performance/processing it would be for the build or render of a photograph. Working a long time on a code or photograph will not hinder a laptop's performance whatsoever. The system won't slow down after a while unless there's more and more applications opened/used that eat up the system resources.

The 2GB is very limiting after a while. My "normal" swap size is upwards of 3GB to 4GB. Once I've hit 5GB and the system nearly crashed. However, for me, my ram usage is caused by virtual machines and/or aperture. Ram usage is really up to the end user on how much he/she uses.

To be honest, for me, ram is never enough. Even on the iMac with 6GB, I use up all 6GB into active very quickly. Even with 6GB, I still manage a nice 2GB swap file without any effort, sometimes bigger.

Thanks for the clarification and response. Yeah I love more ram also (I like tot future proof my products).

iDisk