[R] Switching to Mac, suggestions? (was switching to linux)

[Siegfried Gonzi]

Jari Oksanen wrote:

>
> On 13 Dec 2004, at 19:53, doktora v wrote:
>
>> I'm looking to switch to Mac platform. Anyone had any experience
>> with that? I'm expecting on a power G4 laptop later this week.... hope
>> R behaves...
>
>
> I have been a Linux user since 1999, and I got my first ever Mac 
> (iBook G4 laptop) last December. There is just as little to comment on 
> MacOS X as there is to comment on flavours of Linux distros: there is 
> no large difference as regards to R. I still prefer emacs & ess as a 
> shell (but you can get some kind of real emacs in Mac as well), but 
> MacOS X/ R is more of an eye candy (though I find it really hard to 
> get any real use for transparent windows in R: I still prefer to see 
> what I type instead of looking the background through the text). As 
> regards to R, it is just the same if you have any brand of Linux or 
> MacOS X or even a fringe system like Windows. The differences are 
> somewhere else than in R.
>
> By the way, Ubuntu "GNU"/Linux works nicely in Mac, with blas who 
> knows about the vector processor in G4. 


Hello:

When relating Mac OSX to Linux there is one thing always worth to note: 
'virtual desktops'. I have seen some mad Mac addicts who neglect the 
fact that 'virtual desktops' are one of the most useful things among X11 
environments. Expose comes nowhere near though!

Typically virtual desktops on the Mac are an add-on feature and cost money.

I prefer to use "Desktop Manager 0.5.1 by Rich Wareham', though, it is 
beta but it is damn stable -- at least in my case. The beta version was 
free but I think I should start my plan of sending the great guy behind 
the project at least a good cigar:

http://wsmanager.sourceforge.net/

 I happen to have engaged typically 6 to 8 virtual desktops at the same 
time.

And when we are at that: one should try to install the Emacs from 
source. There is also an Emas version tailored to "Carbon" out there, 
but the X11 Emacs is more what one is used to comming from Unix or Linux.

That is all what one needs on Mac OSX.

Regards,
S. Gonzi