I run Windows 7 on a Macintosh using Parallels 5. It is an incredibly good thing. It has a display mode called Crystal that entirely hides the Windows desktop and controls. The only thing you see are windows. They appear in the Dock like good little windows. Parallels has settings that allow you to map your command key functions to control key functions so well that I basically never use the actual control key. It does flawless copy/paste and file dragging. Except for the unescapable details (close box on top left, menus inside the window, crappy UI detailsI), it is easy to forget which is which. So much so that I chose a pink colored theme for my Windows windows so that I could distinguish them in Expose. Anyway, that's all been wonderful but, I still am stuck with the crappy UI details and Visual Studio. Visual Studio is reputed to be great and, I think it is. When I am working on .NET/C# things, it's "Intellisense" is nothing short of wonderful. It knows everything about what I want to do. The "Go To Definition" operation is a dream come true. There are some drawbacks but the benefits are well worth the trouble. When working on Javascript, not so much. It doesn't fold code well. It is sluggish. It has the annoying UI defects. All the drawbacks and no benefits. I have long wanted to work in my trusty, old bbedit. It's a very clean text editor. No Intellisense but great regular expressions. It's fast as can be. It has all the UI perfection that Apple can offer. It is good. So, I decided to figure out how to share the javascript project directory so that I can use the tool I prefer and that is the main point of this post. It wasn't easy. It isn't intuitive. It requires doing things that make no sense. Fortunately for you, I boiled it down into a few simple steps: 1) Navigate to the folder you want to share. Right-click and choose Properties-> Sharing Tab->Advanced Sharing. It will let you type in a name. This is the name that will appear when you log into the sharing server you are about to create. Click Add and Close. For you who know about such things, I believe that you have just created a Mount Point. While you are still looking at the Sharing tab, not the Network path. You can select and copy it if you want. You will need to know the first part, the server name, later. 2) In the Windows control panel, choose Network And Sharing Center.
-- You'll see a little house that says Network next to it. If you have not already done this (and why are you reading this if you have?), it will probably say Work Network underneath that. Whatever it says, click it. You will be presented with three options. I tried Home and Work. Home is the one that worked best. -- It will show you another page that lets you select your libraries. I don't have or want any of the things it shows so I clicked them Off. (In an early iteration, I selected Documents. It did no good.) Then click Finish. --It will offer you a random password. I never found a use for it and it is easy to change (Network and Sharing Center->Choose homegroup and sharing options (middle bottom)->change the password. But, as I said, I never found a place where I could type it. -- Also, since I am working on a virtual machine, I do not keep a password on my Windows login. When I tried to access the new server from my Macintosh with my userId and (blank) password, it said the password had expired. To workaround this, I went to Network and Sharing Center->Change advanced sharing settings (left column - great UI!, not) and clicked "Turn of password protected sharing". If you read carefully, this allows guest access to the shared folder. Since I am, technically, visible on my office network, I also clicked "Turn off network discovery" to reduce my visibility. 3) Back on the folder you want to share, right-click and, about a third of the way down is a selection called Sharing. Do this and choose, homegroup (read/write). 4) On that same tired folder, right-click->properties->Security. Click Edit, then Add. There you will see a place where you can Enter an Object Name. Enter "everyone" (without the quotes). Click Check Names. It should capitalize the word. Then OK. You will see the list of "Group or user names." Make suer 'everyone' is selected and, in the panel below, choose Full Control. Then OK to get out of that property panel.
Back on your Macintosh, go to the find, do command-k (Go->Connect to server). Enter smb\\SERVERNAME (the one I told you to notice in step one). This should present you with a dialog box for your userID and password. If you have a password, use this. Else, choose guest. The system should present you with a list of mount points, the one you made and one called User. Choose the one you made. I made it so that this pointed at my javascript project. I created a bbedit project for it and have been editing nicely since. Interestingly, if I have editors open on both sides (Visual Studio and bbedit) looking at the same file, it takes care of the potential conflict. If I change it on the Mac side and save, when I click on Visual Studio, it tells me it changed and asks if I want to load the changed version. If I change it on the VS side, bbedit just changes the file I am seeing. Cool stuff.
-- You'll see a little house that says Network next to it. If you have not already done this (and why are you reading this if you have?), it will probably say Work Network underneath that. Whatever it says, click it. You will be presented with three options. I tried Home and Work. Home is the one that worked best. -- It will show you another page that lets you select your libraries. I don't have or want any of the things it shows so I clicked them Off. (In an early iteration, I selected Documents. It did no good.) Then click Finish. --It will offer you a random password. I never found a use for it and it is easy to change (Network and Sharing Center->Choose homegroup and sharing options (middle bottom)->change the password. But, as I said, I never found a place where I could type it. -- Also, since I am working on a virtual machine, I do not keep a password on my Windows login. When I tried to access the new server from my Macintosh with my userId and (blank) password, it said the password had expired. To workaround this, I went to Network and Sharing Center->Change advanced sharing settings (left column - great UI!, not) and clicked "Turn of password protected sharing". If you read carefully, this allows guest access to the shared folder. Since I am, technically, visible on my office network, I also clicked "Turn off network discovery" to reduce my visibility. 3) Back on the folder you want to share, right-click and, about a third of the way down is a selection called Sharing. Do this and choose, homegroup (read/write). 4) On that same tired folder, right-click->properties->Security. Click Edit, then Add. There you will see a place where you can Enter an Object Name. Enter "everyone" (without the quotes). Click Check Names. It should capitalize the word. Then OK. You will see the list of "Group or user names." Make suer 'everyone' is selected and, in the panel below, choose Full Control. Then OK to get out of that property panel.
Back on your Macintosh, go to the find, do command-k (Go->Connect to server). Enter smb\\SERVERNAME (the one I told you to notice in step one). This should present you with a dialog box for your userID and password. If you have a password, use this. Else, choose guest. The system should present you with a list of mount points, the one you made and one called User. Choose the one you made. I made it so that this pointed at my javascript project. I created a bbedit project for it and have been editing nicely since. Interestingly, if I have editors open on both sides (Visual Studio and bbedit) looking at the same file, it takes care of the potential conflict. If I change it on the Mac side and save, when I click on Visual Studio, it tells me it changed and asks if I want to load the changed version. If I change it on the VS side, bbedit just changes the file I am seeing. Cool stuff.