I’ll be programming in C (or, more likely, C++), interfacing with Motif8 ("classic"), possibly acquiring a music notation program (probably Sibelius), and eventually doing some MIDI programming.

Also: Of what should I be wary buying a used laptop? Thanks.

Try to get one with at least 3Gb memory.
And try to get XP r.t. VISTA.
A laptop is slower, so X is better and memory is everything.

;JOOP!

scotch - 17 April 2009 10:23 AM

I’ll be programming in C (or, more likely, C++), interfacing with Motif8 ("classic"), possibly acquiring a music notation program (probably Sibelius), and eventually doing some MIDI programming.

Also: Of what should I be wary buying a used laptop? Thanks.

My godsister works for IBM and uses Toshiba laptops from the recommendation of IBM engineers. I use them too.  If you’re buying new, try for a quad core 64-bit; used, duo core is fine for just MIDI work and lite audio.  Minimum 2g ram; 3g or more is ideal.

I suggest you start programming in JAVA:
1) free language,
2) cross platform,
3) free workbenches (e.g. ECLIPSE),
4) various free libraries for audio, video etc.,
5) less mistakes than in C (I know my share),
6) only 15% slower than smart programmed C (C++).

;JOOP!

Personally I like the HP laptops, specifically the Pavillion range.  My current one is four years old and has never given me a problem, even though it gets some rough treatment at times. I am not sure of your budget, but take a look at the dv6z series.

As to what to look out for in a used machine, I guess it would be if it had any knocks that may have damaged/dislodged something inside.  You would also want to make sure it has a reasonably modern specification. I would think that you will be fine with C++ programming and MIDI, but with many applications current software tends to be quite demanding on processor and memory.

scotch - 17 April 2009 10:23 AM

I’ll be programming in C (or, more likely, C++), interfacing with Motif8 ("classic"), possibly acquiring a music notation program (probably Sibelius), and eventually doing some MIDI programming.

Also: Of what should I be wary buying a used laptop? Thanks.

You should look at models with DualCore (at least, CoreDuo are better but need more money) running at 2GHz. For memory, consider models with at least (or possibility to upgrade) 1Gb RAM. For instance, I’m using inexpensive Acer Travelmate with 1Gb RAM and with complete OS running from USB hard drive! As sound card I’m using SoundBlaster PCMCIA card. At first, laptop came with 512MB RAM only, but after upgrade some pops and noise that I have heard when playing several audio tracks simultaneosly are disappeared.
And for OS use XP Pro with SP2 or SP3, especially if you are using plug-in boards (like me), because software for plug-in boards could not running on Vista.

Alex

And what size of screen do you want?

[sciuriware] And try to get XP r.t. VISTA.

I’d actually prefer a Mac, but I’m wary of spending that much.

[Mo-Z] My godsister works for IBM and uses Toshiba laptops from the recommendation of IBM engineers. I use them too.

The question arises (most immediately) because a friend wants to sell me his used Toshiba (unfortunately, I’ve forgot the model number) for $300 (if I decide to buy it, I’ll probably try to talk him down a bit). It’s several years old (he’s vague about the exact age). As far as he admits, and as far as I’ve been able to determine, the only thing wrong with it is that the touchpad doesn’t work. I prefer to use a mouse anyway, but in some situations that may be difficult. Quite a few amateur reviewers complained about this particular model overheating, but persons I’ve talked to say this is a problem with all laptops.

[sciuriware] I suggest you start programming in JAVA:
1) free language,

5) less mistakes than in C (I know my share),

Since you’re a non-native speaker of English, I hope you don’t mind my pointing out for future reference that fewer is the word you want here, not less. Less is for non-discrete things such as milk or water or electricity. (Feel free to correct my Dutch--or, for that matter, my English.) Anyway, mistakes in C are notorious for their savagery. It’s very easy to write over anything in main memory, including the program itself. That’s part of the fun of it, though.

6) only 15% slower than smart programmed C (C++).

Hmmm...that one doesn’t sound like an advantage to me.

The main thing is that I’m very familiar with C (not familiar with C++, though). That doesn’t mean I’ll necessarily never get around to trying JAVA, but based on my record so far it might be reasonable, objectively speaking, to doubt I will.

[PeterG] I would think that you will be fine with C++ programming and MIDI, but with many applications current software tends to be quite demanding on processor and memory.

I did a fair bit of programming in Prolog in the early nineties. The very different logic of Prolog is fun, but the compiler was a huge memory hog, mainly because the language is so far removed from what’s really happening in the computer. In any case, as computers have got faster and memory has increased programmers have tended to get much more sloppy.

scotch - 27 April 2009 01:42 PM

Oh, I think I could probably download a C++ compiler for free too.

This one, for example, is quite good:
http://www.bloodshed.net/dev/devcpp.html

Bob

scotch, thanks for the correction.

We agree about C, but I fear you want to accept the disadvantages too easily.

I started in C in 1977 and I wasted a considerable amount of time
searching for that one error that in C is somewhere but pops up
at a random moment and place.
After starting in JAVA, a decade ago, I dropped C directly.
JAVA at least ‘tells’ you where things went wrong.
Why save milliseconds while you lose hours?

;JOOP!

I’ll bear this in mind, but isn’t C’s capacity for (seemingly) catastrophic error a function of its duel standing as a high-level language with low-level capability? I wouldn’t want to throw out the baby with the bath water.

........... and then suddenly you realise that you’ve been making
things for years without embedding little C-parts for the
“difficult” areas.
Moreover, there seem to be packages (even free) for almost every
application, like video-editing, statistics and MIDI processing.

And that C-embedding (JNI) is one of the dirtiest ways of
programming after all.

A great help is expert-exchange.com (experts help programmers)

;JOOP!

scotch - 27 April 2009 07:27 PM

I’ll bear this in mind, but isn’t C’s capacity for (seemingly) catastrophic error a function of its duel standing as a high-level language with low-level capability? I wouldn’t want to throw out the baby with the bath water.

It really depends on what sort of programming you want to do. For real time embedded systems programming, which is what I do primarily, the abstraction of JAVA is anathema. C allows one to program at 30,000 feet like a high level language, then tunnel down to the bit banging level like an assembly language when needed.

BTW, when you say “duel standing”, is that at 10 paces?

nn

Bob

With pistils--in 1967 in hate Ashbury. (Can’t stand that place.) Feel free to correct my Dutch.

Not being a programmer, can’t help with any pointers towards C or Java.

However, I am running Cubase 4 very successfully with up to 30 audio tracks and up to a dozen midi tracks on a Dual core 1.86 Ghz processor with 1Gb RAM - that’s with XP, not Vista. Most new PCs (desktop or laptop) will come with Vista pre-installed. At least nowadays, you can get most serious music programs and drivers and assorted extra bits to work in a Vista environment, though at that point your RAM overhead just increased (3Gb is minimium, but RAM is cheap) Vista’s obvious other issue is in its need for a high powered video card and that woudl definitely be where an old, used laptop woudl fall down.

Hard Disk size is down to you - USB or Firewire external drives are cheap as chips these days, so the internal drive just has to ccope with the system.

A couple of thoughts

Cheers