Eclipse, carbon or cocoa (and 32 or 64 bit)

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Level 1

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Eclipse, carbon or cocoa (and 32 or 64 bit)

So I am getting back into programming. My schooling was in programming (C mostly), but obviously it's been some time since I've really had my hands in it. I wanted to use Eclipse, since I have that on my laptop (Linux) and would like to keep things as universal between my Mac and that. Anyway, was going to go download the stuff I needed for the Mac, and I see the options include Carbon, and 32 or 64 bit Cocoa. I'm thinking the way to go is 32 bit Cocoa, is there any reason I'd want carbon or 64 bit cocoa?

Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Dec 24, 2009 1:18 PM

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Answer 1

ericmeyers

Level 4

1,410 points

Dec 24, 2009 3:38 PM in response to texicali

Carbon is a C API, but low level. I don't recommend it for beginners and for other reasons (I don't want to start a Carbon/Cocoa war.)

Go with Cocoa (keep in mind it consists of mostly Objective-C API's).

The "bitness" doesn't matter for anything you're going to do.

Eric

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Answer 2

etresoft

Level 9

56,656 points

Dec 24, 2009 4:53 PM in response to texicali

jpeery wrote:
I wanted to use Eclipse, since I have that on my laptop (Linux) and would like to keep things as universal between my Mac and that.

You are free to use what you want, but you would have to be a masochist to choose Eclipse over Xcode.

Anyway, was going to go download the stuff I needed for the Mac, and I see the options include Carbon, and 32 or 64 bit Cocoa. I'm thinking the way to go is 32 bit Cocoa, is there any reason I'd want carbon or 64 bit cocoa?

All you need is Xcode. You don't have to download it as it comes on the Snow Leopard DVD. Do not mess with any of those options. Install all of it. You aren't on Linux anymore.

Carbon is dead. There is no need to worry about flame wars. The war is over. That being said, you still need it. Install all of Xcode. You need both 32 and 64 bit Cocoa. 64-bit is the native architecture for all current systems. 32-bit is still required for a few things and for compatibility's sake.

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Answer 3

texicali Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 25, 2009 12:48 PM in response to etresoft

Well, my reason for using Eclipse is that I am still on Linux, at least that's what's on my laptop, and where I spend part of my time coding. Basically I want to have the same environment on both of my coding boxes. Since I am also just getting back into it, it's easier for me to learn one development environment at a time; this may be a misconception of mine, but all I really want to learn right now is straight up Java, once I get back in the swing of things it shouldn't be hard for me to move between the two for what I need. If that makes sense... The thing is, I don't know how limited, if at all, I would be using xcode only... Now if it's nothing more than a better Java development environment, case closed; if it's easier to use, then I'll not fool with Eclipse. Having said that, I've been going through the tutorials (admittedly the Java and Eclipse for Beginners), and so far so good... I am getting the feel for Eclipse, and it's not unlike what I've been around before. Anyway, back to lesson 4....
Thanks!
Jason

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Answer 4

etresoft

Level 9

56,656 points

Dec 26, 2009 8:56 AM in response to texicali

In that case, you should probably stick with Eclipse. Apple is removing Java support from Xcode anyway. Now that Sun is going away, Java could follow.

Why so concerned about Carbon vs Cocoa and 32 vs 64 bit then?

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Answer 5

BobHarris

Level 9

56,927 points

Dec 26, 2009 9:54 AM in response to etresoft

It is highly unlikely that Java the language will go away. If for no other reason then a large amount of Oracle middleware and appliation suites are written in Java.

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