Long being a windows user, it's not easy for me to come up with the decision of switching to Mac. Thanks to the following things, my decision is finally nailed down.
1. Firefox
Firefox on Mac is not any less powerful than the version on windows. Since I spend nearly half of my computer time with Firefox, half of my demand is fulfilled. What's more, the fact that the forthcoming Firefox 3 will have native OSX in-page widgets seems promising. That effectively eclipses Safari and Camino, letting me enjoy the simplicity of single browser experience.
2. Google
The big G family, Gmail, Google Notebook, Google Bookmark, Google Docs, Google Reader, Google Calendar etc., is eliminating local machine dependencies and operation system dependencies. That makes it easier to switch between computer and even between different types of computers.
3. Bootcamp
As a windows user and developer for years, I inevitably depend on some applications that are unique to windows, and it's not likely to have alternatives on Mac for long time (or for ever). Visual Studio is one of them. I've evaluated the cost of switching to Mac other than money. I'm willing to give up games, they are time waster anyway, but there are just things I can hardly give up. And Bootcamp comes to the rescue, the capability of dual booting windows and osx is beautiful.
4. All sorts of great free cross platform software
Vim*, Open Office, eclipse, Jing, Skype, Pidgin, Remote Desktop, and many more.
* [See the title of my blog (Lyxite.Blog.Publish();ESC:wq) and you will understand why Vim comes in first.]
5. Thousands of Great Mac Software Applications
Mac applications are generally more carefully designed, easy to use and pleasant to look at. Best of all, many of the best ones are free, e.g. Pixelmator, Journler (the list would be longer if i was using osx now). And hopefully they will inspire me to build first-class software.
24 July 2007
22 July 2007
The Three Musketeers of Firefox Extensions
Firefox extensions are absolutely fantastic. The three extension I found the most useful are:
1. GMarks
Stores all the bookmarks save on Google instead of local machines. They will never be lost again, unless, of course, Google one day decide to delete all your bookmarks, in which case you probably can make a good fortune out of it.
Some may prefer del.icio.us over google bookmarks, in this case the equivalent extension for del.icio.us is here:
2. Tab Mix Plus
The tabbed browsing is made much more flexible.
3. Flashgot
It can't be missed if downloading is a common task of browsing. [10 Aug 2007: DownThemAll! is a better choice if no download manager is already installed on the system.]
Those three are the the extensions that I would want for every Firefox installation. I will even refuse to upgrade to Firefox 3 before they all support it.
There are definitely much more great extensions available. If I'm to expand the list a little longer, these will be on the list too:
Adblock Plus
Download Statusbar
Google Notebook
I would suggest IE Tab too if its security issues were solved.
1. GMarks
Stores all the bookmarks save on Google instead of local machines. They will never be lost again, unless, of course, Google one day decide to delete all your bookmarks, in which case you probably can make a good fortune out of it.
Some may prefer del.icio.us over google bookmarks, in this case the equivalent extension for del.icio.us is here:
2. Tab Mix Plus
The tabbed browsing is made much more flexible.
3. Flashgot
It can't be missed if downloading is a common task of browsing. [10 Aug 2007: DownThemAll! is a better choice if no download manager is already installed on the system.]
Those three are the the extensions that I would want for every Firefox installation. I will even refuse to upgrade to Firefox 3 before they all support it.
There are definitely much more great extensions available. If I'm to expand the list a little longer, these will be on the list too:
Adblock Plus
Download Statusbar
Google Notebook
I would suggest IE Tab too if its security issues were solved.
02 July 2007
Great Python? Snakes Scare Me.
I don't know much about python. As I do some research on it, two features on its faces just totally turn me off.
1. Indentation based structure
It's error-prone and ineffective. Saving two keystrokes '{' and '}' can bring a programmer tons of troubles. Having an editing tool to do auto-indent for you is officially impossible, because indentation is your logic and editing tools can't do your logic. Auto-formatting will be an always-missing feature for python editors.
2. Compulsory self keyword to access class members
It not intuitive and unreasonably unnecessary. It's crazy!
They are more like syntax problems, but as I said I don't know much about python. If python designers make this kind of decisions, I can't imagine what I will see if I go on researching.
1. Indentation based structure
It's error-prone and ineffective. Saving two keystrokes '{' and '}' can bring a programmer tons of troubles. Having an editing tool to do auto-indent for you is officially impossible, because indentation is your logic and editing tools can't do your logic. Auto-formatting will be an always-missing feature for python editors.
2. Compulsory self keyword to access class members
It not intuitive and unreasonably unnecessary. It's crazy!
They are more like syntax problems, but as I said I don't know much about python. If python designers make this kind of decisions, I can't imagine what I will see if I go on researching.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)