Re: RDi and Mac Book Pro

Others have commented on the differences but I thought I'd toss in my 10 cents worth anyway.

First of all the Delete/Insert key stuff is common to all Mac apps - it is just "different" and you soon get used to it. When I started out I re-mapped the keyboard a bit to give myself a delete key - haven't bothered for years. Most of the time when I want to delete a character it is because I mis-typed - so backspace makes sense. When I need to delete in the middle of text you just get used to positioning after the character you want to delete. That said - you can get MS delete key behaviour by holding the fn key down at the same time as Delete. Obviously you could re-map to switch the two options but why bother.

Function keys work perfectly BUT in oder for this to behave as expected you must have the Keyboard preference for "Use F1, F2 ... as standard function keys" option selected in System Preference.

System Preferences are your friend and so much easier to use than in Windows. They actually look as if they were designed instead of just happening!

Insert key in RDi - I find the easiest way is to double-click the word "Replace" in the window bar - that toggles the Insert/Replace mode. Been doing it this way ever since I discovered the option. I code exclusively in free-form so replace mode is rarely helpful for me anyway.

Access Client Solutions works beautifully. IBM have not done a good job of making it a "Mac App" (for that matter the same applies to some extent to RDi) in other words you have to find the launch app and either copy it to the root applications folder, or (as I do) simply pin it in the Dock.

If you haven't already got it consider getting a copy of David Pogue's Switching to the Mac. https://www.amazon.ca/Switching-Mac-Missing-Manual-Capitan/dp/1491917970/ref=sr_1_1 <https://www.amazon.ca/Switching-Mac-Missing-Manual-Capitan/dp/1491917970/ref=sr_1_1>

The best advice I can give you (other than DO IT!) is to take the approach that perhaps it is the MS way of doing things that is dumb (Press the Start button to stop Windows for example) and to think to yourself "If I was designing a User Interface how would I have done it" - most of the time you'll find that is what Apple did. I was amazed at how much simpler it was to do stuff from changing settings to applying patches to installing and uninstalling apps. It only took me about 4 weeks before I knew that I would never go back to Windows and Win 10 has further convinced me.

I now use _one_ WIndows app - my accounting software Quick Books - and the only reason for that is that Intuit are a bunch of .... who virtually force you to buy a new copy every time you want to upgrade your Mac OS. I run Parallels on my Mac which lets me run Windows within my Mac, share files between the two OS etc. Normally available at around $50 plus whatever you need to pay for a Windows license. I intend to lose the Windows stuff as soon as I can. There is at least one free Win environment for Mac but I've never used it.

That's it but feel free to email me if you have any questions - I've helped persuade a number of people to "see the light" and switch to Mac and none of them would ever go back.


Jon Paris

www.partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com

On Feb 2, 2018, at 4:19 AM, Tim Fathers <X700-IX2J@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi all, I'm considering finally caving in and buying Mac Book Pro but the lack of some important keys from the keyboard is one of the things putting me off. For example, there doesn't appear to be a delete key, insert key or any of the function keys, does anyone here have any experience of using RDi and the green screen without these keys? Can I map the touch bar to the usual F-keys? My Surface Pro lacks the insert key and it makes editing in RDi almost impossible I find.


Also, how well does RDi and indeed the IBM i essentials (emulators, Access Client Solutions etc. etc.) work on the Mac? Any gotchas I need to know about?


Cheers,


Tim.
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