Mac replacements for ide's

G'Day all

I am about to switch over to Mac but want to do some research into options regarding some tools I commonly use on windows and a few I have just started using.

I use excel 2007 but thats okay because Mac has a version of this. However I recently had started to learn Visual Studio C#, I am not far down this road yet but wanted to know what tools Mac offers in place of Visual Studio for developing software. Initally Its a hobby what I develop I would use myself, so what good environemnts for Python and C# exist or is there a language instead of C# that is more applicable to a Mac.

In regards video conversion and editing I use Staxrip and MeGui with Avisynth support, what type of applications can be found on Mac?

Thanks

Sayth

PS I haven't bought the Mac yet so any advice on what specs needed to pursue my needs appreciated.

C# and visual studio are MS products - which can be run on a Mac either with bootcamp or through a virtual machine - that run windows. The native development tool for Mac is called Xcode and it comes with every Mac - but you have to install it.
Xcode - Developer Tools Technology Overview - Apple Developer

Plus there are all the gcc FOSS tools, including python available. Macports is what I use
The MacPorts Project -- Home

As far as specs - since you want to do development - get the fastest machine you can afford - as compilation is very compute intensive. Basically the money you spend on processor is inversely proportional to the time you'll wait waiting for a compilation to complete. If you are running virtual machines - RAM too is important - I'd recommend at least 8GB if you run 1GB of VM ram - but you can buy that cheaper from places like OWC or crucial - and put it in yourself.

Video conversion - use handbrake. HandBrake

As for the other stuff, there are plenty of tools to do what you want for video - but there are community guidelines about discussing such things at this forum
Mac-Forums.com - Announcements in Forum : Movies and Video

Thanks.

MacPorts definitely has a few options and Xcode looks clean and options for C and C++ with Cocoa, inspired me to look around a little and I found that eclipse provides all packages an options for Mac-OS as well. Eclipse Downloads Which macport Ide were you using for development?

I have used handbrake but love using avisyth for its advanced filtering options and scripts. I guess anyway if I need to Use Avisynth I can use the paralles VM Parallels Desktop 6 for Mac. If I search around a bit more I am likely to find a good video editing and filtering program on Mac.

I've been messing with xcode mainly. I have been using Eclipse as well - but for other types of development - on linux. I have not tried it on Mac yet but as you said there is a Mac version. I mention Macports because you can get whatever language you want off of there - such as Python or Ruby.

By the by, all the stuff you mentioned looks FOSS - so maybe you could work on compiling it for Mac.

For Non Linear Editing - try iMovie out - go to a Mac store and check it out. It's pretty good. Of course there is Adobe Premiere and Premiere Elements available for Mac as well. Again there are a lot of options here.

Not that I don't love iMovie (cuz I do!), but I have to mention that Adobe just came out with a Photoshop Elements/Premiere Elements package for $150. Pretty "suite" deal (oooh the puns!) if you need either or both of those (normal price for either is $100).