[comp.sys.apple] NeXT's interface builder

mdavis@pro-sol.cts.com (Morgan Davis) (02/05/89)

David A. Lyons asked if anyone knew how the NeXT interface builder compares to
resources on the Mac.  Since the NeXT machine is completely object-oriented,
as far as programming goes, I assume that what would be known as resources on
the NeXT box would just be code/data objects.  So rather than a "get icon
resource and store here, now put icon on the screen at this position", you
just say "put the icon on the screen", and the object does all the work.
I'm sure someone else can expound on this better than I.

--Morgan

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blochowi@cat17.CS.WISC.EDU (Jason Blochowiak) (02/07/89)

	I don't know the details about NeXT's setup specifically, but the way
that it'd _probably_ work is: The application would request that the object
be activated (brought in from disk) - I forgot exactly how this is specified
in Objective-C, but it can be done... At that point, the application would
send a message to a dialog box telling it to include (in this case) the icon
that was just activated. At some point after that, the application (or perhaps
some part of the builtins) would send a message to the dialog box telling it
to draw itself. The dialog box would, in turn, send messages to each of its
members telling themselves to draw themselves, etc., etc.

Disclaimer: This is my understanding of how something like this (an object-
oriented windowing system) _MIGHT_ work, and it may be completely different
from what they actually did.