I am just getting started with programming. I have some money saved for a system. Should i get a PC or a Mac and what compiler should i use?

PC.

Visual C++ (you can get the standard edition).

Also buy a couple of good books, none of the books are perfect but you will learn something from all of them.

Don''t forget to read the excellent articles on this site.



Glen Martin
Dynamic Adventures Inc.
http://www.zenfar.com

Yeah... Now this is just my opinion, but Macs suck compared to PCs because there''s not as many good tools for it, and overall all less good programs (again this is my opinion, but an educated one). The only real system a programmer would want is a PC (or Workstation or something like that) with Windows or Linux... and even BeOS before MacOS...

Don''t get a Mac, you''ll be much happier with a pc.

-----------------------------

1. "Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'... till you can find a rock."

2. "Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else."

3. "If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
-Dan Quayle

"Everyone should respect all OS''s so that choice remains in the industry. It is very childish to put down an Operating System if you really want what''s best for the industry."

This may be the case, and I agree that all OS''s should be respected... they''re extremely complex, I know... However, just because they''re complex programs, and shouldn''t be ridiculed (much) doesn''t mean that you should buy them. This is the fundamental concept of capitalism, and the U.S. (where these OS''s come from) is a capitalist nation. Therefore, buying an inferior product (unless you get it because of some sort of price, or a family member in that company, or something of that nature) is detrimental to both you and the other company. If a company can release poor products that sell because of a name brand, it''s going to keep releasing poor products until it is stomped, or something. Also, you won''t get better products. An example of this would be 3dfx vs. nVidia. For even the most die-hard 3dfx owners (is there such a thing?), it''s hard to justify that Voodoo cards are better than geForces... or that 3dfx offers better service.

-----------------------------

1. "Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'... till you can find a rock."

2. "Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else."

3. "If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
-Dan Quayle

Well to be honest with you, without the biased views.
I am a computer consultant and programer. Within my game programming team, we are using 1 Mac (G4 something-ur rather, for one of my artists) nd so far 4 Pc''s. We also use another Mac (G3, i-mac the deluxe one) for video editing. So that''s actually 2 macs.

So know, the biggest questions, what system to develop for and with what tools? Overall what should you get?

Well to start it depends on your goals. Personally I''d like to release a game (Being a first timer by a small time developer) With as many copies sold as possible to impact the market the biggest I can so that I can have some noticeable attention when looking for an employer.

So where''s my market? Well the fact is that a very high percentage of games sold are on a PC based platform or compatable... Yes Blizzard ports almost if not ALL of there games to the mac, but check out the statistics of the games selling... PC version is 100''s of times the amount, more than a million for sure on most titles, where as the mac ones do sell well, but under a milliong for sure, maybe even downwords to 500,000. You can check this out yourself, don''t believe any of us!!

So it looks best to program for the PC. But what do you want to do? Maybe your an artist? Well for many years now, people have said that Mac''s are the very best and only profeesional level artists machine. Well times are changing, right now they are equal or maybe PC''s better.

I know this is very contraversil (sp?) but if your planning on trying to gain some skill for the industry of game producing look where the top stuff is happening? A lot of people, actaully large corporation and studios, are using 3D Studio Max, despite Lightwave and others (Mind you Lightwave is also fairly often used but more often on a PC, for reasons I''ll explain in a bit)
3DStudioMax is PC only and is what even Blizzard uses to my knowledge, even for there mac games! So they''ll assemble a nice art machine w/ 1 Gb of ram and a nice GeForce (Which is probably similar to what you''d get in a mac anyhow) and they''re off! Then if they still want lightwave they can still run it.

My advice to you, being that this thread could easily grow to 100''s of flames about PC''s macs, and the odd Linux/BeOS and UNIX falem in there, I''d suggest researching it personally your self. A while back there was a feature interview with the top ten gaming companies about what kinds of developement and testing machines they used, including Blizzard, Westwood (Now a division of EA), EA, Sierra, and a bunch of others.... check what the industry uses, or go on your own comfortability of what you like to use.

Good luck in your endeavours!
See ya,
Ben

P.S. sorry for the long post, but most importantly check that featured intervies, it was a little while back now though...

__________________________
Mencken's Law:
"For every human problem, there is a neat, simple solution; and it's always wrong."
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science in 1949

I recommend the books from Andre La Mothe. You can say what you want about his company, but his books are the only one covering game development and programming as a whole (from the start to the end). Maybe there are other books doing that too, but I haven''t seen or read any.
If you are looking for technical background take a look at the book Inside DirectX.