ckix@vax5.cit.cornell.edu (George Paci) (04/25/91)
By word of introduction, I should say that I have no intention of stirring up a language-religion war or anything, and I don't really believe that there's one best language to program the Mac in, and all those other disclaimers. HOWEVER, I do have a decision to make and I would like some advice: I applied for a fellowship for part of the summer to study genetic algorithms (you can read about them in some recent issues of BYTE, if anyone here bothers to read it--their Mac coverage is dismal). Much to my surprise, I got it. The deal includes $250 to buy a good programming environment for the Mac. My question: which one? I've already decided to go with some type of object-oriented C, so the question boils down to: Do I get Think C, or MPW with "real" C++ ? I'm going to be writing a "genetic algorithms" engine, so I want to have very easily-modifiable code (hence OOP) that's also fairly fast (hence C). I have a bunch of specific questions: o Are there significant compilation time differences between the two? o Is the object-oriented version of Think C that much harder to modify than the "real" C++ of MPW? o How much would I actually have to shell out for everything I would need with MPW? I only have 2.5M of RAM, so if I need more, add that in, too. I'm a college student, with earning power --> 0, so this is key. o I want to produce some sort of polished end result for PD distribution, so I'd like an environment that isn't too hard to write a user interface in. Is MacApp a real advantage for MPW? Like I said, I don't feel like starting a public discussion, since all I really want is an answer to the very specific question, "Which one should *I* get?" so please E-MAIL ALL RESPONSES to ckix@cornella.cit.cornell.edu. Thanks in advance to everyone who offers advice. --George (.sig? what's a .sig?)