Poll: do you prefer coding on Windows or MacOS?

The function editor would benefit from a refresh, even on Mac :slightly_smiling_face:

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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 :wink:. 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.

:rofl: 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 :blush:

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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Yeah, it's a pretty nice garden. And the ecosystem that most complain about lends to a ton of productivity if you use it. I was an all Windows guy for a long time. Working on a Mac is just easier, for me. Cost of ownership is also lower. Resale value is higher, so getting a new machine isn't a hard cost.

If a mac is crashing, something is causing it. My 2008 Mac Pro has been running since 2008, non-stop, never had a crash. The two minis in my house, running non-stop for 3+ years ( and they were used ). My Windows machines, 2 laptops and 2 desktops...also had no problem.

I'm not one to force one over the other. I've used and loved both. I just know my experience has been 10x better on a Mac.

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This is so true from a hardware perspective. I'm typing this on my mid 2012 MBP, which I bought used on eBay in 2016. I've swapped out the dvd drive for a second SSD, and upped the RAM.

I am itching for a shiny new computer but this one just won't die! I'm afraid some "accidental" water damage may befall it if it doesn't started dying on its own soon. It's easily the best purchase I've ever made in terms of the productivity, enjoyment, and longevity it's provided.

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The discussion is headed away from "alternative to discourse hub", but I'll do some topic surfing by saying the following:

  • It looks like a good number have a preference for MacOS (and the underlying hardware). Or at least Mac users are more vocal about it. If you have not voted to indicate YOUR preference, do so now.
  • As for myself, I've already made my preference clear: Why Mac?

Of course, we are simply talking about preferences. Everyone is entitled to have his own.

Josh

I’ve been working with Apple products as both user and provider of support services since 1985, remembering with horror trying to support clients and arrange hardware repairs in the days long before the days of AppleStores.

I’ll repeat one story, but have a list as long as your arm. We were managing a multiple Xserve rollout for a local school, wifi everywhere and every pupil using a Mac controlled using Open Directory (I think Xgrid was involved as well). This project needed phasing and part way through, Apple released a (as usual, unannounced) Mac OS X Server upgrade. This was incompatible with the Open Directory of the version it replaced and with immediate effect the older version was no longer available. This caused chaos for us and for the client.

Don’t get me wrong, mostly I love Apple products, I have 2 HomePods for goodness sake😉. However, I have no love for Apple the company. They introduced the annual upgrade cycle that has resulted in backward compatibility shrinking to supporting only 1 version back (and of course the current one) a maximum of 12 months of backwards compatibility.

Since the iPhone, Apple have dropped many of their business products and focussed on the consumer. I’m not sure I would want to support a very large Mac installation anymore, they are too blasé about breaking things with each annual update.

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I agree totally except HomePod // to digress even further
which aren’t for audiophiles .. IMHO

I have exactly the opposite feeling. We have a large Mac installation. IBM also agrees, from a business standpoint, their study is one of the largest scale analytics from a company converting. Our MDM handles most everything. Hardware issues are so few. We are a very long way from 1985. Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, they all are terrible with the right criteria.

Ah well Josh. I suggest we can this. I’m glad you’re happy😀

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I remember a similar nightmare about windows. I calculated the loss incurred by companies all over the world when the ribbon was introduced and 8.0 disrespect for the needs of companies who never asked for touch screen and media bling bling. Not without warning or options at least. I should check my old notes but it was in the order of 1.7 b a DAY in North America.

I also remember an MS Office update that emptied the user’s custom add-ins folder. A folder that should have never been touched by the software. I was awakened by my freaked out client who thought my code was bugged while everything was great before I went to bed. It occurred to me that the only change could have been a ms update. So I located where the file was missing. We had to make do with the last version of that building blocks add-in and grieve the loss of all the blocks that were added by users over the previous months.

The sad reality is that they will all f**** up at some point. Some are worse than others to deal with when it happens.

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I got a FM4 Version under Windows 10 running - there are customers with FM3 or FM4 who want to migrate their solution...
There is also a FM6 on that VM besides of current versions - so we can do the migration on one machine up to FM18

Not that I would run solutions that old for my business - but it feels good to be able to run older versions on an os...

And often really helpful if a customer claims that something does no longer run after the upgrade (often, the old solution was the same...)

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I Prefer coding on Mac and Testing on Windows :smiley:

Most of specific-windows FileMaker Layout Mode UI behavior are horrible like that in drop down list when it is impossible to type more than one char to find a value, or determine if an element like a combo list is active or not, or to know if a value is selected or just hovered etc... etc...

For testing, Windows is like a crash test. If it works, it will “generally” works also on Mac, but of course there are exceptions.

Fred

I must add that i have enabled the “tabbing” for all controls like buttons and menus on macOS to have more chance to be able to do the most of the work without using the mouse, even if its not a default on a Mac and it sounds like the better of the two worlds :wink:

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I follow Fred ...

Salut à la Suisse :slight_smile:

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