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November 18, 2011

Delphi and My MacMini

A short description of the configuration I use to do Mac OSX development from Delphi.

Readers of my FireMonkey white paper and attendees of the FireMonkey webinar has asked me about the configuration I use to build Mac applications. Rather than hosting Windows and Delphi in a virtual machine on a Mac (targeting the virtual machine host), when I got the first betas of Delphi XE2 for Mac I decided to follow a different root. Since I want to have the best performance for the main Windows computer, I decided to stay on Windows as my primary system. However the problem is you cannot (legally, and partially also technically) host a complete Mac system on a VM. So I did buy an actual Mac, picking a Mac Mini because it is cheaper that most other solutions and not bigger than a laptop. 

 

Of course, using the Mac Mini on the road with a full screen and a keyboard will be cumbersome. So what I do is to control the Mac Mini from my Windows system using a VNC client (the VNC remoting server is built into the Mac). So I don't need a screen or a keyboard or a mouse: I have a direct network cable (one of those with reversed connection that let's you hook two computers directly without a hub) connecting the Mac and the PC, the Mac has a fixed IP address, so I can just boot the Mac and log in from within the PC.

All good, but a small but relevant detail. If the Mac Mini boots without a video cable, it disables the graphic card optimization and the GPU. The mac works perfectly, but if you run a FireMonkey application (which is my main reason for having a Mac) it will just crash. However I found that plugging in a small cable (I have one of 10 inches) with no actual monitor is enough to enable the graphic card to its full power and its GPU. So that does my trick.

In other words, when I need the Mac I travel with the Mac Mini, the power cord, the direct Ethernet cable, and the short video cable.  Seems to work at best for me, but you might have further suggestions... 

posted by marcocantu @ 3:32PM | 11 Comments [0 Pending]




 

11 Comments

Delphi and My MacMini  

Hi, Marco.
I'm using a Mac Mini too for the same reason. In my
case, I use a KVM:
http://www.conceptronic.net/product.php?id=38&linkid=39

 
Comment by Flavio on November 18, 15:51

Delphi and My MacMini  

I have an "Early 2009" model Mac Mini that I use for my main work.

I upgraded it to 8GB of RAM and put in a 500 GB Seagate Momentus XT 
drive that has a 4GB flash cache built-in, which really speeds things up.

I run two monitors, and have Parallels set up to host Win XP with XE2 
inside of it.

With 8GB of ram, I could run two or three Windows VMs with no 
problem, as long as I close all of my browser windows -- browsers 
seem to eat up RAM like crazy.

My "Windows machine" is actually a 6-yr old Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop 
with a 1.6 GHz Centrino CPU and 2GB of RAM.  

The VM on my Mac Mini is faster than my laptop.

Anyway, my point is, I'm not sure you're getting any particular 
performance benefit running separate boxes.  The overhead of running 
Windows inside of a VM on a Mac is very minimal.

You really should try loading up VMWare or Parallels onto your Mac Mini 
and sucking your Windows box into it and do a comparison.  The nice 
thing about that approach is, if your laptop dies, you can still continue 
working completely on your Mac!
Comment by David on November 18, 16:43

Delphi and My MacMini  

 The top image above is broken -- nothing shows up here. (you don't 
need to publish this.)
Comment by David on November 18, 16:44

Delphi and My MacMini  

Good suggestion installing Delphi a VM of the Mac Mini, 
but my current primary system (quad-core i7, 8gm ram, 
SSD drive) is quite hard to beat in a VM. 
Comment by Marco Cantu [http://www.marcocantu.com] on November 18, 17:26

Delphi and My MacMini  

"a direct network cable (one of those with reversed 
connection that let's you hook two computers directly 
without a hub)"
Marco, you are talking about cross-over (MDIX) cable 
and I believe you don't need exactly this cable 
anymore, because every patch-cord (MDI) will connect 
two computers, one of which has Auto crossover, just 
fine nowadays 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_crossover_cable#
Automatic_crossover
Comment by IL [] on November 18, 18:29

Delphi and My MacMini  

Crash when OpenGL in software modus (no hardware 
acceleration) will be fixed in Update 3(?)
Comment by André [] on November 18, 18:41

Delphi and My MacMini  

 I have a MacBook Pro (core i7 and 8gb ram), which is my primary 
machine. I use Parallels for my Windows VMs, and it works 
splendidly. I can't imagine going back to a regular Windows PC, 
unless Apple does something stupid, like coming out with a new 
OS that's not unix. 

I am a bit surprised that this doesn't work if you run OS X in a VM. 
I hadn't heard that some features don't work under Virtualbox.
Comment by Maggie Owens [] on November 18, 19:04

Delphi and My MacMini  

I have a MacBook Pro (core i7 and 8gb ram), it´s a wonderfull
machine. I use Parallels too for my Windows VMs, and it works 
very well. I will never come back to windows. I have idea to test delphi 
xe2 using parallels and windows 7.
Comment by vicente on November 18, 22:08

Delphi and My MacMini  

I also use a KVM although since I have a 24" and 30" 
monitor, I went with a dual view, dual link one.

Mine is the model before this one (in black).

http://www.aten.com/products/productItem.php?
model_no=CS1744

It is at least twice as wide as my mini, but not 
quite as deep.
Comment by Jeremy North [http://www.jed-software.com] on November 18, 23:32

Delphi and My MacMini  

Interesting that you mention wanting the "best performance" for 
Windows in a Mac/hybrid environment.

I have two iMacs.. one at work and one at home.

I bought the one for myself at home after convincing the boss to get 
me one in the office and we ran comparative Windows Experience 
tests on the iMac vs the standard desktop hardware that my 
colleagues are running.

Yes, the "Native" Windows hardware bested the the iMac, but only by 
0.5 of the total score (6.9 vs 6.4) and the low scores were in the HDD 
and graphics department, neither of which are especially critical for 
real- performance vs benchmarks (other than gaming) ime.

My home machine is an even slightly higher spec and fully stuffed 
with RAM (16GB vs 8GB) and so runs even better.

The upside is that I get to run Windows in a HD (1920x1080 or more) 
window on my Mac desktop with seamlessly integrated clipboard and 
other aspects.

I tried running in Parallels' "Coherence" mode, which is entirely 
seamless with no separate Windows desktop at all.  it works 
beautifully, but I am so used to Windows and still only just getting use 
to OS X, that maintaining the distinction that running in a window 
provides is a useful reminder to "context switch" when moving 
between Mac and Windows apps.
Comment by Jolyon Smith [http://www.deltics.co.nz/blog] on November 21, 00:12

Delphi and My MacMini  

I m really happy to use iMac for development for over 1,5 year using 
VMWare Fusion 3 and 4 for Windows7 plus Delphi (2010 and XE2).

I have no problems with performance on my i7 + 8gb (now 16gb)  of 
RAM.

On my MBAir i have only 4gb, but its ok to run Delphi under 
Fusion/Win7. SSD on my Air is the reason for very good performance!
Comment by deksden [http://deksden.com] on November 21, 12:33


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