I prefer to code on:
- Windows
- MacOS
0 voters
Feel free to share with us why you prefer one or the other in the comments.
@Bobino shared his own preference in the post “Why Mac?”
mac. Plugins for development are better (mbs). WebViewer can be debugged. Mac also is easier to use with other development (web, php, js etc).
I use windows for testing and making minor ui fixes for client apps if they use windows. My windows laptop also is always ready to be a temporary work computer if something happens to my mbp.
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unfortunately, it is not just a question of what I do prefer - it is a question of what OS the customers are running…
For ‘industrial’ use cases, it is windows
Worst of all: The more filemaker refuses to run on macOS older than the latest 2 version, the more customers need to check for a plan B - means windows
)-:
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Windows, mainly due to the continuity over the years and not being constantly forced to upgrade to match Apple’s annual updates, lack of backward compatibility and lack of support for anything over 3-years.
FileMaker solutions are usually critical to running a business/organisation. Dull, boring and ‘it just works’ is usually what business owners require, avoiding budget spend on changes forced upon them. Hence - Windows! (from someone who still uses a Mac and has done so since 1985).
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Yes… forgot to mention that in our company, we all have Mac’s (Windows on virtual machines) - but on customer sites, we are on windows
Here we each choose what to use, mostly MacBooks or Surface Pros (have been tempted, but a new MacBook Air has now tempered that).
Virtually all development on Windows streamed over the Internet using RemoteApp servers, so can use Linux, ChromeBooks, Android or whatever if we really wanted to. Occasionally some local development and occasionally for a Mac client.
The customer with whom I am currently working on a FM project evolved from a Win-only office to a mixed Mac-Win landscape. People can have the machine they are comfortable with. This looks like a reasonable approach in office work.
macOS for me
MBS makes me stay with macOS in FileMaker, experience is far more productive, although many of my customers work on Windows and a Windows environment is always available
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Willkommen hier im Forum (-:
Welcome!
Must admit there are pros and cons to both platforms, but very grateful we have the choice to use either.
Prefer the Mac’s drop down menus, searching for layouts and scripts in FileMaker, but it drives me nuts in the script debugger when pressing F6 quickly to step through, whereas Windows doesn’t seem to put any limitations on the speed of this.
Now we have SDI in the Windows version, it is much easier to write for both platforms.
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One more plug for the poor relation here (remember being the poor relation all the time through the 1990s trying to convince companies from ditching the ‘soon to go bust’ Apple Macs for the all conquering Windows, but with the likes of the PowerBook 180 and 5300, almost couldn’t blame them LOL!).
Back on track, the restriction of 12 indents on the Mac within the calculation engine can create havoc with the display of some calculations. This is particularly relevant now using a combination of Let() and While(). This was improved in the Mac version from a lower number to the 12 some versions back, but as a ‘serial indenter’, Windows seemingly unlimited number wins for me.
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One I didn’t realise until recently, that the script debugger and data viewer can be selected from the menu while actively using a card window on the Mac, whereas Windows has to have at least the script debugger running before the card is opened. One up for the Mac.
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The function editor would benefit from a refresh, even on Mac 
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Ah, however I’ve just discovered that using Microsoft Desktop for Mac (beta in our case) and FileMaker via RemoteApp, if we have 2 windows open, then it is possible to select the second window as part of RDP, have full access to all menus, including the Tools menu, so open script debugger, swap back to the window containing the card window and start debugging.
Something you can’t do on a standard Windows install. Plus one for streaming!
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I must admit, I’m not a fan of the Fields/Groups and Inspector lists tagged to either side. The redraws and windows size changes are horrible on both Mac and Windows.
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Same here. I prefer almost everything on the Mac, except for how slow it is to step through script execution in the Script Debugger. I also use Microsoft Remote Desktop to connect to a Windows session on a terminal server to debug a script. That has the added benefit of making it easier to fix bugs, as well, on my local Mac.
I also have a lot of custom-built utilities that process clipboard XML in various ways to dramatically improve development time, mostly built using AppleScript. That, combined with Keyboard Maestro, helps me avoid a lot of repetitive tasks.
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While the Windows coding experience has gotten much better the Mac is really superior in many ways the most significant is the third party tools that only work on Mac (MBS mac os only features are huge), and noun project to name the most significant in my opinion. If FM had a better suite of support tools built in the gap may closer further but I would never use a Windows computer as my work computer only for FM programming so even if they were identical in every way in that regard I would still be on a Mac.
But MacOS is free 
. The updates for your software are not. For those who do not understand why Claris does not support more than on previous versions of MacOS, now they know why. This explains that.
never thought I would hear that. As much I hated Vista, I love Windows 10. Windows 7 was pretty good also.
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lol ... that's funny. My Apple hardware has lasted more than 2x as long as any Windows hardware. My 2008 Mac Pro just last year was unable to support the newest OS. Well, it could if I really wanted it to, it would just break the wifi. It has run 10 different Operating Systems. My 2015 MacBook Pro, same thing. Five OS version and running really strong.
That's as stable and compatible environment as you can ask for.
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In a walled garden 
There’s no such thing as Windows hardware. The machines formerly designated as IBM compatible are Lenovo, Samsung, Dell, etc.
My Lenovo tower was sh* from the start 6y ago. My Dell Studio is still a bomb after ten years. The quality and tech choices of the components and cores plays a lot in terms of stability and compatibility. Chose 64 bits over 32; My i5 cores were more solid than the i7 that came after. Chose the most promising video card put as much Ram as I could at the time (8g) All I did to keep up was replace the hard drive for an SSD and paid 160$ 4 years ago to get it clean inside and replace the cooling fluid. Well, that thing fires up three times faster than my 6yo 32g RAM tower and almost as fast as my 2019 6 cores mac mini. It never crashes while the mini does 1-2 times a month and the tower crashes 1-4 times a month.
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