Lee_Robert_Willis@cup.portal.com (09/13/90)
Previously, on Amiga Street Blues: | >How do NeXT and Windows 3.0 programmers have it easier? (no | >flames please) | | >I read on the net that the NeXT has an easy to use Interface | >Builder. | |I don't believe that Windows 3.0 is much easier, but the Interface |Builder seems very nice (but then, I've only read about it 8-). I've SEEN it, and it is slick! |With IB, you build an interface like so: Call up a program |almost like a paint program that has windows, buttons, |sliders, string gadgets, and so on as its basic elements. |You create a window for your new application by dragging one |from the palette onto the main NeXT screen. You add some |buttons, and give them names and so on. Need a string |gadget, fine, where do you want it, and how big should it |be. Drag. Resize. Oops, that buttons in the way, maybe |over here and a little bigger. | |When you are finished, IB creates the Obj-C source code (an |OO dialect of C--much more elegant than C++ but more |differnet from regular C) that will generate the interface |you just designed. It has very easy to use hooks into it |for the guts of the application to use. That is, you write |the program that reacts when a user pushes a button or |selcts a string gadget, and also tell the interface how to |respond in return. The really nice thing about the NeXT Interface Builder (IB) is that after it generates the ObjectiveC source, you can modify it (add the proper actions to user events, fix bugs, etc.) and _read_it_back_into_ Interface Builder! IB is completely integrated with the C development environment. On the Amiga side, All the GUI-helpers for the Amiga (e.g. "PowerWindows" by InovaTronics) are one-way. Once you create the source code, there's no going back. I would _love_ to see an application with the power/ease-of-use of the NeXT Interface Builder for the Amiga. (NOTE: That doesn't mean I want the NeXT GUI ("NeXTStep") interface itself. I like Intuition better.) Lee Willis EMAIL: Lee_Robert_Willis@cup.portal.com "One man's religion is another man's belly laugh." - Lazarus Long