Lóránd Somogyi

After a lot of work and some traveling I’m back, and I’m about to write about how do I manage to use Mac for Java development. (Note: This is the last part of the Apple Project series.)

First of all, let me describe what I use and how do I/we use it.

Eclipse is our choice of IDE. We use Subversion as SCM, Maven as a build system/dependency management/reporting/documentation/etc.. Beside these we use, (just to mention few that could be in relation with OS):

• AspectJ
• Spring
• Hibernate for JPA
• TestNG

Primarily we are building web applications, backed with RDBMS – so I need a some local database for my Mac, and our choice of RDBMS is PostgreSQL, but we use Oracle and DB2 as well.

PostgreSQL is much lighter than Oracle or DB2, so for workstation/laptop it proved to be a natural choice.

We try to stick with latest versions unless there is some undesirable feature or bug. This proved to be a good practice, as we get the latest features and the switch is usually smooth.

So the list of tools/apps I need for my Mac is:

• Java 1.6.x (JDK)
• Eclipse 3.4
  • AspectJ / AJDT 1.6
  • SpringIDE 2.1
  • Q4E 0.8
  • TestNG 5.8
• Subversion 1.5
• PostgreSQL 8.3
• Maven 2.0.9

Installations

Subversion

I’ve already installed Subversion client a while ago, and now that 1.5 is here I wanted to upgrade. Now that was not straight forward. I could not remember how and from where I installed it.

I went to subversion site downloaded the latest and installed it. This new installation, as I found it were not installed on the same location as the previous one, but under /opt/subversion folder. I don’t know if this vicious behavior should be charged to subversion or just a way Mac handles installs.

After I tried to remove the older one, but I fail to find a way. I still think there should be a way, and that it’s just me, who does not know how to do it.

PostgreSQL

With PostgreSQL the situation was even worst. I head an installed version, I forgot about. I installed a new one, which failed. The old one is not functioning: fail to start the server.

Just when I was about to give up and ignore this problem, and as a workaround use my desktop machine as a PostgreSQL server, I found a way. I had to remove the postgres user and start the reinstall.

That did it.

Java

Now here I had some interesting experience. As I have an older Mac, with Core Duo which is 32 bit processor. Apple has is no official Java 1.6 for it, only for 10.5.x 64-bit Mac.

That was a huge disappointment for me.

First of all, upgrade to 10.5 is not free. It’s not much, but for 130 USD I could buy for example LightZone Basic or some nice software from Nik Software. On the other side if I even upgrade, I would not be able to benefit from it, as there is no 32-bit version of java. Ouch.

But there is solution for that: SoyLatte Java 6 Port. So I installed it, and with a bit of magic it works just fine.

Maven

Nothing interesting here. Installed, works as expected.

Eclipse

Eclipse install was as expected. P2 failed on AJDT, so I reverted to Update Manager.

After that install of plug-ins went fine. I’ve even managed to set up Subversive with JavaHL in the same manner I did for Ubuntu.

Usage

I use the tools from above in a bit different way that most of the people I know.

I have two workspace folders, one for maven projects grouped usually by maven groups and another folder for eclipse workspaces. I check out projects from SVN to maven workspace and import (or remove) them into Eclipse workspaces as needed. That how I can have different views of projects in eclipse in non-intrusive, non-redundant fashion.

Subversion and Maven works just as under any unix. Command line is fast and reliable. PostgreSQL after the installation looks stable. The bundled pgAdmin III is a smart tool, I start to like it. I also installed SquirrelSQL as I’m used to it. Works as expected.

Eclipse behaves more or less same as on Linux. I had minor problems setting up some Q4E projects, but after some tweaking, all looks just fine. Tomcat launches as expected and our fine little web application shines.

Only the keyboard gives me trouble. Function keys behave strange. It does not matter what I do if any of OS X stuff is bind to it, it will overwrite any application’s hot key. So F8 for “continue” in debug view brings me spaces… need to change that. (Yeap, that’s on 10.5) – I would like that those function keys (F8-F12) behave like other Fn keys. If I press fn to bring me the function key and otherwise a built in function, like expose.

Okay. That’s all not that bad, I’ll find a way to reconfigure the keyboard.

I have to say that high resolution screen is more than great. I can see almost as much as on a normal display. – That is not nearly true for my workplace laptop which is 1024×768 and I have to put a lot of thing is fast view to be able to see the editor.

Also I really like the two finger navigation on trackpad. Fast and easy.

Conclusion

Installation and removal of software is lousy. APT is much more sophisticated way to handle packages and installation.

Because of the screen and fine trackpad development even on this small MacBook is a joy. After you set up your environment everything is great.

Will I use this MacBook for development? Well if I’m on the road and I need to do the job, YES. Otherwise I keep with my Ubuntu desktop machine as I’m more used to it, and there I have much much more space looked from any angle: bigger screens, storage, etc..

Would I like more another non-MacBook notebook? Well I would need to try, but until this time, this is far the best laptop I tried.