I was very disappointed in Metrowerks’ decision to drop Codewarrior for Palm on Macintosh. I understand it in light of PalmSource failing to deliver on the emulator version of the Palm OS 5 simulator (something mentioned on their web site — accidentally, I’m sure). I expect Metrowerks knew there wouldn’t be a Palm OS 5 emulator, while the rest of us just had PalmSource’s web statement that there would be.
Now it is not that I don’t have a Windows machine, I just prefer the way window management for programming works on the Macintosh. In particular, I miss the extra modifier key. With Macintosh, I can use Option+left for one word to the left, Control+left for one subword to the left, and Command+left for start of line. Yes, I know Home does the same thing, but I don’t like reaching off the main keyboard area. And yes, I know you can remap keys in Codewarrior, but if you use the Windows key as a modifier you end up popping open the Start menu if you ever tap it and change your mind about using another key with it. But I adapted, and aside from the disappearing edit cursor and the broken command line compiler I’m pretty happy.
However, all of that changed when I got to the Philippines. See, the DSL is upstairs. Thus, the PC is upstairs. I’ve got an Airport Express I brought with me, but I can’t seem to find a wireless card for me PC. So the effect is that the PC has to be used upstairs. And the difference between upstairs and downstairs can be the difference between sweating like Heather Donahue’s tears and being mildly uncomfortable. So the issue had to be revisted.
My first attempt was with Virtual PC. I would suggest you not even bother. It’s painfully slow, prone to crashing, and even when it doesn’t crash it doesn’t actually work.
My second attempt was with VNC. This was a little better, but I ran into screen update problems. It was also fairly slow, and I had to switch resolutions on the PC before opening the session (my Powerbook is 1024×768, and my PC is 1280×1024… flat panel, so I don’t want to run it at anything other than that if I can help it).
Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Connection client for Mac OS X to the rescue! While it is not tightly intergrated enough to run, say, Marine Aquarium, it is plenty good enough for Codewarrior, Palm OS Emulator and a few other odds and ends. In fact, it’s good enough that I often forget that I’m not running Codewarrior directly on my PC. Even sound works, albeit a little delayed. I can be logged in directly on my PC, come downstairs with my Powerbook, and log in over RDC. The Powerbook takes over the session and the desktop is even automatically resized to 1024×768. I can go back upstairs and log back in, and the PC will take over the session (although the desktop is not automatically resized back to 1280×1024).
I don’t know what the bandwidth usage is, but I know I’m able to pipe AirTunes from iTunes (native on the Powerbook) back to the Airport Express without any stuttering.
So if you’re a Mac Codewarrior and you’ve got a PC and just don’t like to use it, give this a try. The combination is much better than Codewarrior for Palm on Mac 8, and you don’t need to give up the Codewarrior’s code generation for PRC’s.
RDC server is included as part of Windows XP Pro. I don’t think it is included in XP Home, although I could be wrong about that.