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Has anyone done app development (either XCode for iOS or Android Studio for Android)? How limiting is the 16gb RAM? Can you smoothly run both XCode/AndroidStudi

Has anyone done app development (either XCode for iOS or Android Studio for Android)? How limiting is the 16gb RAM? Can you smoothly run both XCode/AndroidStudio AND 1+ virtual machines for testing? Curious if it is worth waiting for the upcoming MBPs with 32/64GB RAM?

Razengan 6y ago
I've done dev in Xcode on the original 12" fan-less MacBook with 8 GB and it was fine, simulators and everything.
- TuringNYC 6y ago
  It was also fine for me at the time. However, I've found it to be increasingly unbearable with each subsequent OS update and each XCode update. At this point, XCode is not useable on my 2015 8GB RAM Macbook -- it could work, but productivity would be so low it isnt worth doing. I was planning to make a mega-upgrade up to 64GB, but the chatter of "16GB w/ M1 is the new 32GB" has me intrigued.
  - Razengan 6y ago
    And the M1 MacBooks are also much better aT tHe TiMe. I’m honestly wary of devs who think 16 GB would be too “limiting” for app development. They’re probably also the ones responsible for churning out bloated crap that stinks like ass even in 32 GB.
    - TuringNYC 6y ago
      I'm pretty confused by this take, not all apps are tip calculators or note taking apps. There are entire classes of enterprise apps with sophisticated functionality. I used mine with on-phone AR, which involves computer vision, on the edge. Further, my app (and many others) have multiple user roles (in my case: Patient, Hospital Staff, Admin). When I'm using 32gb RAM for an app, i'm not actually running the entire app in 32GB RAM. The breakdown is usually: - 8gb: XCode/AndroidStudio, chrome, slack - 4-8gb: Virtualized App VM in profile 1 (Hospital Staff) - 4-8gb: Virtualized App VM in profile 2 (Patient) - 4-8gb: Virtualized App VM in profile 3 (Admin) Interactions in one VM affect the other. You typically debug and test UX across all at the same time. Hopefully much of it is already tested with REST API layer testing, but not all, and definitely not QA/UAT. Is this not how it is done? How do other people do it? I have a friend doing something similar for a ride hailing app, he has a customer app, and a driver app. He constantly runs both side by side while developing. I have another friend doing a food delivery app -- again, he has three profile VMs running side by side: customer, restaurant, admin. So, yes, it seems M1 MBPs are not limiting, correct, at this time. They probably will be in 2025 after a dozen OS and XCode updates, and I imagine i'll need another laptop then. If none of us did, we'd still be on the 2008 iMac with 4GB RAM and we wouldnt be speaking about the M1 at all.
rsynnott 6y ago
Not quite what you're looking for, but I've noticed IntelliJ resident memory staying suspiciously low. I have the vague suspicion that they're taking advantage of the faster processor to be way, way more aggressive with memory compression, but I can't easily prove it :)
interpol_p 6y ago
I use Xcode on some fairly large projects and "upgraded" from a maxed out 2018 MBP (i9, 32GB) to an M1 Air (16GB). It's faster and more responsive in every way. Especially under load The most noticeable things for Xcode are: - Iterating is faster, the build-run loop is much quicker so it feels lighter when you make code changes - Indexing and autocomplete is very quick. Noticeably better than the MBP I also use Android Studio and it's definitely not as quick or smooth as Xcode. But it never was on my old Intel machine either. The UI seems to lag under load and navigating a large code-base just feels a bit more clunky due to lag on character input and opening files Android Studio feels about the same as it did on my i9 as the M1
- TuringNYC 6y ago
  Thank you so much! This is exactly what I was looking for! On your last note: >> Android Studio feels about the same as it did on my i9 as the M1 It seems even this would be progress also - so you're getting ~ the same Android Studio performance on a 32GB RAM i9 (expensive) and 16GB RAM M1 (less expensive) This seems like a win all around.

Razengan 6y ago

I've done dev in Xcode on the original 12" fan-less MacBook with 8 GB and it was fine, simulators and everything.

TuringNYC 6y ago
It was also fine for me at the time. However, I've found it to be increasingly unbearable with each subsequent OS update and each XCode update. At this point, XCode is not useable on my 2015 8GB RAM Macbook -- it could work, but productivity would be so low it isnt worth doing. I was planning to make a mega-upgrade up to 64GB, but the chatter of "16GB w/ M1 is the new 32GB" has me intrigued.
- Razengan 6y ago
  And the M1 MacBooks are also much better aT tHe TiMe. I’m honestly wary of devs who think 16 GB would be too “limiting” for app development. They’re probably also the ones responsible for churning out bloated crap that stinks like ass even in 32 GB.
  - TuringNYC 6y ago
    I'm pretty confused by this take, not all apps are tip calculators or note taking apps. There are entire classes of enterprise apps with sophisticated functionality. I used mine with on-phone AR, which involves computer vision, on the edge. Further, my app (and many others) have multiple user roles (in my case: Patient, Hospital Staff, Admin). When I'm using 32gb RAM for an app, i'm not actually running the entire app in 32GB RAM. The breakdown is usually: - 8gb: XCode/AndroidStudio, chrome, slack - 4-8gb: Virtualized App VM in profile 1 (Hospital Staff) - 4-8gb: Virtualized App VM in profile 2 (Patient) - 4-8gb: Virtualized App VM in profile 3 (Admin) Interactions in one VM affect the other. You typically debug and test UX across all at the same time. Hopefully much of it is already tested with REST API layer testing, but not all, and definitely not QA/UAT. Is this not how it is done? How do other people do it? I have a friend doing something similar for a ride hailing app, he has a customer app, and a driver app. He constantly runs both side by side while developing. I have another friend doing a food delivery app -- again, he has three profile VMs running side by side: customer, restaurant, admin. So, yes, it seems M1 MBPs are not limiting, correct, at this time. They probably will be in 2025 after a dozen OS and XCode updates, and I imagine i'll need another laptop then. If none of us did, we'd still be on the 2008 iMac with 4GB RAM and we wouldnt be speaking about the M1 at all.

rsynnott 6y ago

Not quite what you're looking for, but I've noticed IntelliJ resident memory staying suspiciously low. I have the vague suspicion that they're taking advantage of the faster processor to be way, way more aggressive with memory compression, but I can't easily prove it :)

interpol_p 6y ago

I use Xcode on some fairly large projects and "upgraded" from a maxed out 2018 MBP (i9, 32GB) to an M1 Air (16GB). It's faster and more responsive in every way. Especially under load The most noticeable things for Xcode are: - Iterating is faster, the build-run loop is much quicker so it feels lighter when you make code changes - Indexing and autocomplete is very quick. Noticeably better than the MBP I also use Android Studio and it's definitely not as quick or smooth as Xcode. But it never was on my old Intel machine either. The UI seems to lag under load and navigating a large code-base just feels a bit more clunky due to lag on character input and opening files Android Studio feels about the same as it did on my i9 as the M1

TuringNYC 6y ago
Thank you so much! This is exactly what I was looking for! On your last note: >> Android Studio feels about the same as it did on my i9 as the M1 It seems even this would be progress also - so you're getting ~ the same Android Studio performance on a 32GB RAM i9 (expensive) and 16GB RAM M1 (less expensive) This seems like a win all around.