Is my Mac Boor Air good for development?

IamtheWalrus

I am a Java developer contractor and use a laptop provided by my client to do development work (JEE, Tomcat, Accurev, etc). I would like to use my own personal laptop. I own a Mac Book Air that I use at home. I was thinking of buying a new Mac Book Pro but was thinking maybe I can just use my MBA. Is it powerful enough? I have 2 large screens I connect to.

Can anyone tell me the pro's and con's of using my own machine? Will commercial dev work destroy it? The spec of my Air is below.


13 inch
4GB 1600 MHz DDr3
Intel Graphics 4000 1024 MB
1.8GHz Intel Core i5
250 GB Flash Drive

Creamy Goodness

Yup. I use a MBA for dev only problem is screen size bit I've a 27" Cinema Display to help with that.

IamtheWalrus

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Yup. I use a MBA for dev only problem is screen size bit I've a 27" Cinema Display to help with that.

Thanks. Would you say using my own personal laptop for commercial dev is a good idea? I have a perfectly good Window's machine, supplied by me client, but I hate using it. Will my MBA 'age' faster?

jester77

Screen size would be an issue but if you are using 2 external monitors then that would be OK. The only other issue i see would be the 4gb of memory. If you have an IDE running, some builds running in the background and a local sandbox, application server or VM of some sort running then you will really struggle.

Tar.Aldarion

Yeah I'd worry if you need vms, I constantly need 3 or 4 running so if that's something you would be doing go nowhere near the laptop. Anything intensive really, I wouldn't even like to try making a build on a laptop. If it's lightweight then a laptop is no problem, as you said you have 2 big screens so it doesn't matter what form the computer is in.

Creamy Goodness

I forgot to think of VMs, might struggle for sure with VMs on and using eclipse (if you're insane enough to do that).

Actually if you're running eclipse stick with the company laptop and put in a PO for more RAM.

Tar.Aldarion

My computer if I try and run VMs and Eclipse at once.

Kensington

Flash (SSD?) drive will wear out quicker with lots of simulation or compilation work.

Your client may also have issued you with a company laptop because they expect you to do all your (their?) work on it - their IT policies may not allow you use your own machine so you could land yourself in difficulty on that front too.

IamtheWalrus

I do not run any VMs and I use intelliJ.

Basically, I write web application Java code using IntelliJ, build with Maven, deploy locally on Tomcat and check into Accurev repo.

Sound ok?

I've asked the client and they're ok with it.

ChRoMe

IamtheWalrus wrote: »

I do not run any VMs and I use intelliJ.

Basically, I write web application Java code using IntelliJ, build with Maven, deploy locally on Tomcat and check into Accurev repo.

Sound ok?

I've asked the client and they're ok with it.

It would be fine, however I have to ask why are you using maven and deploying to tomcat. Do your self a favor and use the jetty plugin with auto reloading, its a huge producivity gain over the tomcat restart cycle.

IamtheWalrus

ChRoMe wrote: »

It would be fine, however I have to ask why are you using maven and deploying to tomcat. Do your self a favor and use the jetty plugin with auto reloading, its a huge producivity gain over the tomcat restart cycle.

Interesting.. Might look into that.

IamtheWalrus

ChRoMe wrote: »

It would be fine, however I have to ask why are you using maven and deploying to tomcat. Do your self a favor and use the jetty plugin with auto reloading, its a huge producivity gain over the tomcat restart cycle.

I am considering Jetty but does this change your mind?

http://raibledesigns.com/rd/entry/jetty_vs_tomcat_vs_resin

ChRoMe

IamtheWalrus wrote: »

I am considering Jetty but does this change your mind?

http://raibledesigns.com/rd/entry/jetty_vs_tomcat_vs_resin

Been using jetty for years, why would that article change my mind. It shows jetty being faster and the only one I think with auto reload?!

IamtheWalrus

ChRoMe wrote: »

Been using jetty for years, why would that article change my mind. It shows jetty being faster and the only one I think with auto reload?!

I'm having issues getting it to run my app. Do you know any good tutorials?

ChRoMe

IamtheWalrus wrote: »

I'm having issues getting it to run my app. Do you know any good tutorials?

The page you linked to is from the excellent Appfuse maven archetype. If you want a working example to check against create their standard spring mvc application. The config I aways use for maven is:

<plugin>
<groupId>org.mortbay.jetty</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-jetty-plugin</artifactId>
<version>6.1.21</version>
<configuration>
<contextPath>/</contextPath>
<scanIntervalSeconds>3</scanIntervalSeconds>
<connectors>
<connector implementation="org.mortbay.jetty.nio.SelectChannelConnector">
<port>80</port>
<maxIdleTime>60000</maxIdleTime>
</connector>
</connectors>
<scanTargetPatterns>
<scanTargetPattern>
<directory>src/main/webapp/WEB-INF</directory>
<excludes>
<exclude>**/*.jsp</exclude>
<exclude>**/*.html</exclude>
</excludes>
<includes>
<include>**/*.page</include>
<include>**/*.properties</include>
<include>**/*.xml</include>
</includes>
</scanTargetPattern>
</scanTargetPatterns>
</configuration>
</plugin>

IamtheWalrus

ChRoMe wrote: »

The page you linked to is from the excellent Appfuse maven archetype. If you want a working example to check against create their standard spring mvc application. The config I aways use for maven is:

<plugin>
<groupId>org.mortbay.jetty</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-jetty-plugin</artifactId>
<version>6.1.21</version>
<configuration>
<contextPath>/</contextPath>
<scanIntervalSeconds>3</scanIntervalSeconds>
<connectors>
<connector implementation="org.mortbay.jetty.nio.SelectChannelConnector">
<port>80</port>
<maxIdleTime>60000</maxIdleTime>
</connector>
</connectors>
<scanTargetPatterns>
<scanTargetPattern>
<directory>src/main/webapp/WEB-INF</directory>
<excludes>
<exclude>**/*.jsp</exclude>
<exclude>**/*.html</exclude>
</excludes>
<includes>
<include>**/*.page</include>
<include>**/*.properties</include>
<include>**/*.xml</include>
</includes>
</scanTargetPattern>
</scanTargetPatterns>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Thanks - I'll try that in the morning.

IamtheWalrus

Does anyone know if it's possible to connect 2 Acer monitors to a Mac Air?

I know I'll need a USB to VGA adaptor but would like to know if it's possible before I buy.