Antair Games An independent game developer blog

It’s been a while since I wrote about my transition over to the Mac, which you can probably take as an indication of how smoothly it’s gone.

I have very few issues with the Mac now, I’m getting the hang of the whole cmd vs ctrl thing, except when I have to spend time in Windows. I still have a few issues quickly typing special characters with the keyboard, but I think that’s mostly down to spending a few years with the same compact laptop keyboard, I think I’d have be having that same issue with any new keyboard. One of the happiest days in the last few weeks was when I found these instructions to enable home, end, page up and page down in most Mac software. That made everything so much easier for me.

I’m enjoying working in Xcode, Objective-C, Cocoa, I’ve found the transition very smooth so far. We’re already about half way into our next PC/Mac game in C++ using the same framework as DoubleTake, so I won’t be making a full time transition to Obj-C/Cocoa anytime soon, but any side projects will most likely be Mac natives… and there is always the iPhone projects :).

I feel like I’ve tried more software since I got the Mac than I had in years on the PC. The other day I was trying to find some nice graphics software I’d feel comfortable with. My primary tool on Windows is Fireworks, which if you haven’t used it is an unusual mix of vector and bitmap graphics, with great tools for slicing, exporting and optimizing images. Even though Photoshop is better for bitmap work, and Illustrator is better for vector work, I’ve always found myself most comfortable in the middle ground with Fireworks. I still have it on Windows, and the upgrade fees are putting me off transferring the licenses to the Mac for now.

My search for an alternative didn’t go well. First up I tried Gimp and Inkscape, both open source, they do a pretty good impression of Photoshop and Illustrator respectively, but they both use X11, and it feels uncomfortable using them on the Mac. The conventions are more like Windows, in terms of where the menus are, and in that they use ctrl instead of cmd for shortcuts. The weirdest thing with Gimp was that it makes no effort to copy Photoshop’s keyboard shortcuts, which seemed like a missed opportunity. So Gimp is useful for basic graphics tasks and Inkscape is useful for vector based stuff, but I didn’t feel at all at home in either of them.

I tried a few commercial options too. I liked Pixelmator a lot, but it lacks a few basics (like an info window) that make it a bit awkward to work with. If it was a little further along I think I would have found it an adequate replacement for Photoshop. I also liked VectorDesigner, but I didn’t spend as much time with it. But everything is either like Photoshop or like Illustrator, and I only ever feel truly at home in Fireworks, so it looks like I’m stuck for now. If I could some how mash Pixelmator and VectorDesigner together, and add in support for slicing and exporting, then I’d possibly have a new best friend…

But all this doesn’t really have a lot to do with a Windows guy trying to switch over to the Mac.

One nice thing I found out today is that the USB port on my Mac keyboard will support a Wacom tablet in OSX. When I connect it to the keyboard in Windows it claims the hub doesn’t have enough power and refuses to mount the device.

I was using the super simple TortoiseSVN for Subversion on Windows, so it was a bit of an adjustment to get to grips with the terminal svn commands on the Mac, but after making a little bit of an effort with it instead of just bitching to Andrey about it, I’m getting the hang of it. It’s quicker and easier really, for the day to day stuff.

I was having to switch over to windows to watch some football that was streaming in Windows Media format, because my Mac was refusing to connect to it. It must just have been an issue with the authentication or something on that site with Safari though, because it seems to work fine in FireFox.

One thing that’s really hit me about using the Mac is how much faster it starts up. Remember when you first switched from dial-up to broadband and you had that realization that you could click on video links or pdf files without being stuck waiting. It felt like that for me with the sleeping Mac vs the hibernated PC. I press a key and it’s right there to use instantly, it means I often use it to quickly check something online when before I might not have bothered.

That’s all I can think of for now.