macOS Odd Eclipse Issue/VBS Alternatives

[iStudent]

Greetings faithful Mac programmers, I have a series of two questions for anyone familiar with programming using the Eclipse and Visual Studio IDEs.

a) I created an environment in Eclipse through Windows XP and it is stored on a remote Windows server. I mounted a disk on OS X to access this remote location, and I can successfully see all of the data on that volume. However, when I attempt to tell Eclipse that my workstation is in that directory, it spits out an error message that the workstation is already in use (when it isn't, since it was 2 AM when I tried it and I had it open nowhere else on campus). Is Eclipse on OS X just playing poorly with the Windows directory or is this a competely unrelated issue and something else entirely?

b) How well is the cross-platform integration for a program like REAL Basic? I am in a Visual Basic course that programs on the Windows-only Visual Studio IDE (no SQL databasing yet, but it is possible we might go into that this term). Could I safely program in OS X through REAL Basic and have it load up without any questions in Visual Studio on a Windows machine?

Thanks in advance.

 

[mufflon]

a) the environment might have been closed in a bad way - see if you can open it again on a windows comp.

b) no visual basic at all on the mac, but real basic from real offers a nice cross platform implementation which is both nice looking and rather efficient - works much in the same way as cisual basic on windows.

 

[Thom_Edwards]

b) How well is the cross-platform integration for a program like REAL Basic? I am in a Visual Basic course that programs on the Windows-only Visual Studio IDE (no SQL databasing yet, but it is possible we might go into that this term). Could I safely program in OS X through REAL Basic and have it load up without any questions in Visual Studio on a Windows machine?

the syntax and the ides are very similar between the two, but they don't play well with each other. that is why you hear a lot of people saying realbasic is "visual basic for the mac". very similar, but definitely not the same.

the "cross-platform integration" they speak of applies only to the compiled apps. one code set compiles for the big 3 platforms. (you get a separate file for each platform, not one like in java. also, no runtime engine for rb apps.)

you can open a project created in realbasic on one platform and edit it on another platform *with realbasic*. however, a project made in realbasic will not open in visual basic, and vice versa. last i checked, real had a vb converter that would (try to) convert vb projects to realbasic.

so, after all that, if you are doing this *only* for a class, stick with visual basic. (eek!) if you want to make apps for windows, macos and linux (while sticking with the *basic path), get real.

disclaimer: i do NOT work for real software, but i highly recommend it. i used real basic a great deal at my previous job, and it love it. a lot more "power per effort" than a lot of people realize, i think. i know some people will scoff at me and that idea, but that's ok. and i do realize it has some limitations if you're doing some "hard corps" stuff, but i've seen realbasic doing some pretty amazing things with a LOT less code and complexity than any other compiled language.

 

[jeremy.king]

What filesystem are you using on the remote Windows server? If its NTFS, you won't have much luck opening the project since its read only in OS X.

Instead, please consider using a version control system such as CVS or Subversion. That way you can work on any platform.