I just got my MacBook Pro

Posted At : June 11, 2007 12:59 PM
Related Categories: ColdFusion,Flash,Apple,Flex

I just picked up my new MacBook Pro this morning. This is my first Mac based laptop, even though I have owned and worked with Macs since the 1980's. This is also my first Intel based Mac, so I look forward to start playing with the multiple operating system support.

I purchased Flex builder earlier this year, and I plan on moving that over from my desktop to my MacBook. I plan on installing ColdFusion and MySQL on it as well.

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Michael Long's Gravatar You might find the following interesting, as it describes how to use Parallels to setup multiple virtual servers for web development.

http://www.cfinternals.org/blog/2007/05/deploying_...
# Posted By Michael Long | 6/11/07 3:46 PM
David Fekke's Gravatar Michael,

Thank you for the tip. I plan on downloading parallels today.

Thank you,
David.
# Posted By David Fekke | 6/11/07 4:00 PM
Andy Jarrett's Gravatar Welcome to the other side of the fence. I made the move about 12 months ago and all is good. Without trying to pimp my blog out to much I kept a record of some of the sites that helped me out at http://andyjarrett.co.uk/andy/blog/index.cfm/2006/...
# Posted By Andy Jarrett | 6/12/07 6:02 AM
Tom Chiverton's Gravatar Note, you don't actually need Parallels to get multiple virtual servers - Apache will do this native.
# Posted By Tom Chiverton | 6/12/07 6:41 AM
Michael Long's Gravatar @Tom. Apache may do multiple "sites", but not servers.

What if your client requires SQL Server? What if they're using an ISAPI extension? What do you do if you have two clients with conflicting CF settings, or mappings, or datasources? What if one client uses CF7, you want to test CF8, and one is still stuck on CF4.5? Or they're using two different versions of ColdSpring or Reactor or some other tag library? What if you need to test using IE6? And IE7? What if you don't want Apache and CF and mySQL always running and eating resources? What if you want to upgrade and test a site under CF8, but still need to do maintenance under CF7?

And on. If you're just playing with CF then a single local installation of CF8 and Apache and mySQL is fine. If, however, you're a working consultant with multiple clients and/or have multiple configurations, or you're in a Windows shop, then having multiple VMs is a lifesaver.
# Posted By Michael Long | 6/12/07 2:34 PM
Tom Chiverton's Gravatar Apache can absolutely do multiple servers - I've got CF7 and CF8 running through the same Apache, for instance. You can either give differing arguments to the JRun connector or use mod_proxy to talk to older server versions.
Obviously if you need to test SQL Server then VMWare or whatever is your only bet, but you can run IE6/7 on Linux, so I guess also MacOS, via WINE: http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page...
If you really need differing Reactor/ColdSpring versions, just use a project-local dir rather than a mapping.

If you don't want a server always running, write a (client/project) combined start/stop script - though I suspect you knew that already :-) My point is that it is perfectly possible (even on these weird Max thingies !) to do 'serious' multi-config work without adding virtualisation.

I've never had the misfortune to work in a Windows we-can't-help-you-if-you-run-unix shop, which is nice.
# Posted By Tom Chiverton | 6/13/07 4:23 AM
Michael Long's Gravatar To each their own, I guess. Each Parallels VM I use has its own distinct combination of OS (Windows, Linux), web server (IIS, Apache, Tomcat), scripting environment (CF7, CF8, .NET, Ruby, PHP, Python), and database (SQL Server, Oracle, mySQL, postgres), replicating my client's situation EXACTLY. No "well, this is pretty much the same so it <i>should</i> work once we put it into production", but the same OS, the same web server, the same environment, the same database, in the same versions and using the same settings.

Each VM has the exact matching version of each framework, with the same exact patches as what's on their production server. No conflicting mappings, frameworks, custom tags, libraries, datasources, databases, stored procedures, logins, scheduled events, cfcs, cfx's, or java extensions. None. For over a dozen current clients and projects.

Want to test with IE? The VM let's me test with IE in Windows, using Window's media extensions, the window's version of Flash and Flex and QT and Acrobat, with Windows authentication and proxies and firewalls. Somehow I don't think WINE is going to behave quite the same.

Setting up a new test "server" is often as easy as cloning a base configuration. Want to see what happens to a single client's site under CF8? Clone it and upgrade. Blue Dragon? Clone it and try it. Want to practice an upgrade procedure? Clone it and experiment. Screw up? Delete it, clone a new one, and try again. Want to archive a system? Back up the VM, settings, site, database, and all.

Yeah, I suppose I could dink around with all of the things you mentioned and eventually approximate my client's systems... but why bother? To save $80? Nope, not worth it at all.
# Posted By Michael Long | 6/13/07 5:57 AM
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