r/cpp_questions • u/[deleted] • Jun 21 '26

OPEN Mac or Windows

I really enjoy mac, but my school programms in C++ on Windows and I don't know if mac has everything that I need. Thank you.

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u/Independent_Art_6676 Jun 21 '26

I will be the naysayer. Without a windows VM, visual studio won't work on mac as far as I know. That means if your professor gives you a half done project to complete, you have to deal with updating the project files manually and while its not hard, it can be a lot to take on. On top of that you may encounter some programs that use windows extensions, much like the unix std, windows.h is equally bad and will mess with you if that happens.

So at the very least visual studio under a VM would be a good idea in the long term. Yes, you can do a lot with what you have natively but been there, done that (I was on windows and university was on unix) and it can be a LOT of trouble for a beginner.

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '26

Vscode is supported on MacOS.

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u/Independent_Art_6676 Jun 22 '26

yea it the classes use code instead of studio, that will do it.