paul@aucs.UUCP (09/28/87)
Thanks to the people who replied to my request for which was better,
MPW or Lightspeed C/Pascal. Most people who did reply preferred MPW
because of the Unix like environment it provides. Since I prefer a
Mac-like interface to Unix-like, I have decided to stick with Lightspeed
for the time being. If I find I can't get anything done using it,
I might consider getting MPW.
Paul H. Steele UUCP: {uunet|watmath|utai|garfield}!dalcs!aucs!Paul
Acadia University BITNET: Paul@Acadia
Wolfville, NS
CANADA B0P 1X0 PHONEnet: (902) 542-2201x587dtw@f.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Duane Williams) (09/29/87)
| Thanks to the people who replied to my request for which was better, | MPW or Lightspeed C/Pascal. Most people who did reply preferred MPW | because of the Unix like environment it provides. Since I prefer a | Mac-like interface to Unix-like, I have decided to stick with Lightspeed | for the time being. If I find I can't get anything done using it, | I might consider getting MPW. I have used both MPW and LSC. You will certainly be able to get something done with LSC, but you can get a lot more done in the same time with MPW, if you use MacApp. It is misleading to say that MPW is a Unix-like environment. It does have quite a few Unix-like tools and it has a powerful scripting language. There is a Make facility, similar to Unix. Like Unix, on a dumb terminal, you can type commands and their parameters on a line and execute them, if you wish. But, there's another way to work in MPW. MPW is a unified Mac environment like LSC. There's a menu bar and multiple editing windows. You can compile, link and run your program by selecting a menu item, just like LSC. Unlike LSC, you can customize the menus yourself and you can add new tools into the integrated environment. As far as the user interface is concerned, MPW is much more Mac-like than it is Unix-like (as most people know Unix) and you can hide as much of the Unix-like stuff behind menus as you wish. Duane (dtw@cs.cmu.edu)
eacj@batcomputer.UUCP (09/30/87)
One issue that is seldom mentioned when comparisons are made between
MPW and LSC/LSP is that of support. This is especially important
for non-professional programmers to consider. Think has a tech
support phone number, and I have found that their support staff people
are well informed and usually very helpful. Calling Apple is a non-option
unless you have certified developer status, and APDA (the distributors
of MPW) are not set up to provide any useful support at all, other than
selling you books and Tech Notes.
--
Julian Vrieslander (607) 255-3594
Neurobiology & Behavior, W250 Mudd Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca NY 14853
UUCP: {cmcl2,decvax,rochester,uw-beaver,ihnp4}!cornell!batcomputer!eacj
ARPA: eacj@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu BITNET: eacj@CRNLTHRYjww@sdcsvax.UUCP (09/30/87)
In article <2515@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>, eacj@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Julian Vrieslander) writes: > Calling Apple is a non-option > unless you have certified developer status, Calling Apple is a non-option. Apple no longer provides phone support to anybody, because it had been abused by certain registered developers. Support is entirely by AppleLink and MCI Mail. On the other hand, if you have a Mac question, tech support is more likely to be familiar with MPW than LSP or LSC, although admittedly the differences are minor. > and APDA (the distributors > of MPW) are not set up to provide any useful support at all, other than > selling you books and Tech Notes. Agreed. -- Joel West (c/o UCSD) Palomar Software, Inc., P.O. Box 2635, Vista, CA 92083 {ucbvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww jww@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu or ihnp4!crash!palomar!joel joel@palomar.cts.com
tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) (10/01/87)
I can't say how much support you can get from Apple on MPW. I've used MPW C
since the first betas last summer, and I haven't ever had any reason to seek
out support since the first beta release. In that time, I have written over
30,000 lines of working code, and ported 6,000 from Consulair C. Not only
availability, but necessity, of support should be considered. MPW is a very
together product.
--
Tim Maroney, {ihnp4,sun,well,ptsfa,lll-crg}!hoptoad!tim (uucp)
hoptoad!tim@lll-crg (arpa)