[Chicago] Unix Development on OSX was Re: OSX Python

[Chris McAvoy]

I'd like it very much if this email were a televised "switch back"
commercial.  That would be pretty funny.

On 4/5/06, Chad Glendenin <chad at glendenin.com> wrote:
> I've tried to switch to OS X for scientific visualization, but it's been
> a pain. On Linux, everything I've needed to do has just worked, but I
> keep running into problems on OS X.
>
> Here's an example. I needed to malloc a 3-gig buffer. With Linux on a
> 64-bit Opteron with 8 gigs of RAM, it just works. With OS X on a 64-bit
> G5 with 8 gigs of RAM, it fails. I've been told that you only get a 2 GB
> address space on OS X, and to use more memory, you need to have a
> separate worker thread that talks to libSystem to get the memory,
> because, apparently, OS X is only partially 64-bit, and 64-bit stuff in
> your code only works as long as it only talks to 64-bit components of
> the OS. It was a lot quicker and easier to copy my data to the
> Linux/Opteron box and run the code there.
>
> The problems with OS X haven't been insurmountable; it's just that
> things seem to be quicker and easier on Linux. I've also run into some
> OSX-is-not-quite-Unix problems like Atul mentioned. For example, X11.app
> on the Mac has given me problems with its alpha channel, but XFree86 and
> X.org on Linux have worked fine.
>
> Also, the Powerbook keyboard layout is not very good, even though OS X
> 10.4 now makes it easy to remap certain keys, e.g., Caps Lock to Ctrl.
> It's not possible to press Home, End, Page Up, or Page Down with one
> hand (unless you're Shaq). The left Ctrl key is in the wrong place (IBM
> is guilty of that too). There's no right Ctrl key. Nobody seems to know
> what the difference is between Enter and Return, but Apple gives you
> both, and they put the Enter key where an Option or Ctrl key should have
> gone. And the function keys are too small.
>
> ccg
>
>
> On Wed, 5 Apr 2006 13:35:25 -0500, "Peter Fein" <pfein at pobox.com> said:
> > On Wednesday 05 April 2006 12:40 pm, Peter Fein wrote:
> > > Not that I have the $$$ for a new Mac anyway. ;)
> >
> > I should add that I like the erasermouse and Synaptics touchpad on my
> > Thinkpad
> > too much.
> >
> > Stupid hardware lock-in. ;)
> >
> > --
> > Peter Fein
> > pfein at pobox.com
> > 773-575-0694                                      Jabber:
> > peter.fein at gmail.com
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