I've had my Mac now for a week and a half, never used it before. I am learning fast (I think), trying to make the most of it, get the software I'd most value installed on it, etc... I've had no trouble installing most programs I want, except the Eclipse java ide. I download the Mac version from eclipse.org, expand it, and I end up with an Eclipse folder, in which there is only a plugins folder, in which there are large number of jar files distributed through various sub-directories. Where is the actual Eclipse.app file though? I am not sure if I am doing something when expanding it, but I am fairly sure I am downloading the correct file.
It may be a pipe dream to try running it on my 512MB ram mac mini, but it's the IDE I use at work, so I am familiar with it.
Some additional general questions (since I have your attention).
-There is no uninstall feature. Yet, some apps use more files than just the .app file. Notably, some set up library directories under my user profile. If I delete the app, will those library files also get deleted? For instance, I have installed 3 or 4 other Java IDEs to check out which one I may want to use. Eventually, I will probably delete all except one, and I want to make sure I clean up after myself.
-When I create a workflow in the automater (a bloody cool application), I can save it as a workflow, or as a plugin, but I am unclear on what the difference is. Are plugins only available in specific apps? I was trying to create a workflow for using on pictures in iPhoto, I wanted to resize it, embed it in a mail, and pre-format the mail with some text. It works as a workflow from the finder menu (though I end up with a second image as it resizes it), but I can't make it show up in iPhoto itself.
-Occasionally, the mac hangs for a good 5 to 10 seconds as the hard drive spins up. It seems to be random, doing nothing special, maybe just scrolling a window, or changing windows, possible hardware fault, or just something I need to put up with?
-I spotted one program (Azareus) that still had a presence in the activity monitor, even after I quit it. It seems to not fully shut down. It's not on the force quit menu, yet it still has the tiniest fraction of cpu cycle in the activty monitor. Is this Azareus being sneaky on me and keeping some backdoor open, or is it a fault of the OS not shutting it down properly. I am not sure if it's happened to other programs.
-My help doesn't work. At all. I can bring up the front page of it, but it just doesn't react to a search, nor do any of the links react when I click on them. App specific help works fine, but not the general OS help (or is it Finder help...the generic one in any case)
-I've noticed some widgets that perpetually use CPU activity, even when the dashboard is not open. I don't want my widgets to use up resources when the dashboard is not open, and I notice many stay dormant until I go into the dashboard. Can I stop the other widgets from keeping my computer busy, or is it just bad widget design? I deactivated the offenders, but it's annoying.
-and this is the stupidest question, but on the menus, there are symbols to represent the keys used in shortcutting to it. I understand the apple symbol, and I figured out which means Option, and Shift, but there is one that looks like an upside down Q (sort of), a circle with a line coming out the upper left....what key is that? I tried Ctrl, but it didn't do what I thought it would. Is there a guide for them?
Ok, this got more wordy than I planned. Thanks for your time.
It may be a pipe dream to try running it on my 512MB ram mac mini, but it's the IDE I use at work, so I am familiar with it.
Some additional general questions (since I have your attention).
-There is no uninstall feature. Yet, some apps use more files than just the .app file. Notably, some set up library directories under my user profile. If I delete the app, will those library files also get deleted? For instance, I have installed 3 or 4 other Java IDEs to check out which one I may want to use. Eventually, I will probably delete all except one, and I want to make sure I clean up after myself.
-When I create a workflow in the automater (a bloody cool application), I can save it as a workflow, or as a plugin, but I am unclear on what the difference is. Are plugins only available in specific apps? I was trying to create a workflow for using on pictures in iPhoto, I wanted to resize it, embed it in a mail, and pre-format the mail with some text. It works as a workflow from the finder menu (though I end up with a second image as it resizes it), but I can't make it show up in iPhoto itself.
-Occasionally, the mac hangs for a good 5 to 10 seconds as the hard drive spins up. It seems to be random, doing nothing special, maybe just scrolling a window, or changing windows, possible hardware fault, or just something I need to put up with?
-I spotted one program (Azareus) that still had a presence in the activity monitor, even after I quit it. It seems to not fully shut down. It's not on the force quit menu, yet it still has the tiniest fraction of cpu cycle in the activty monitor. Is this Azareus being sneaky on me and keeping some backdoor open, or is it a fault of the OS not shutting it down properly. I am not sure if it's happened to other programs.
-My help doesn't work. At all. I can bring up the front page of it, but it just doesn't react to a search, nor do any of the links react when I click on them. App specific help works fine, but not the general OS help (or is it Finder help...the generic one in any case)
-I've noticed some widgets that perpetually use CPU activity, even when the dashboard is not open. I don't want my widgets to use up resources when the dashboard is not open, and I notice many stay dormant until I go into the dashboard. Can I stop the other widgets from keeping my computer busy, or is it just bad widget design? I deactivated the offenders, but it's annoying.
-and this is the stupidest question, but on the menus, there are symbols to represent the keys used in shortcutting to it. I understand the apple symbol, and I figured out which means Option, and Shift, but there is one that looks like an upside down Q (sort of), a circle with a line coming out the upper left....what key is that? I tried Ctrl, but it didn't do what I thought it would. Is there a guide for them?
Ok, this got more wordy than I planned. Thanks for your time.