agc@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Jeff Smith) (02/15/91)
I have heard about MacApp and was wondering if it was worth getting to help write programs. What does it do? Is it like an interface builder, can it link code or does it just make resources? Who sells it? Thanks Eric
anders@verity.com (Anders Wallgren) (02/15/91)
In article <5918@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>, agc@mentor (Jeff Smith) writes: > >I have heard about MacApp and was wondering if it was worth getting to >help write programs. In my opinion, yes. >What does it do? Is it like an interface builder, >can it link code or does it just make resources? MacApp is an object-oriented interface toolkit, which provides a lot of framework for building Macintosh applications. For example, if you're going to have a window which displays some sort of drawing, you need only write a routine which does the actual drawing, and incorporate it into the framework - MacApp takes care of dealing with updates and events, etc. It helps to be versed in object-oriented programming, but it is not 100% necessary, because it's pretty easy to pick up. > >Who sells it? > You can buy it from APDA, and perhaps the Developer Tools Express.
marc@Apple.COM (Mark Dawson) (02/15/91)
In article <5918@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> agc@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Jeff Smith) writes: > >I have heard about MacApp and was wondering if it was worth getting to >help write programs. What does it do? Is it like an interface builder, >can it link code or does it just make resources? > MacApp is a library of code built around objects (the current version, 2.0.1 is written in Object Pascal) and is designed to help you quickly implement Macintosh programs. It supplies the event handlers, cursor and mouse control functions, menu handling, file handling, and more. To get a simple program up and running (like a simple editor or spreadsheet) you may only have to write less than a hundred lines of code. To get more complex behavior, you need to override some MacApp methods. It has decent documentation for developing simple programs; as you write more complex ones you will spend most of your time looking through its source code (provided and very much needed at this point). MacApp is complex; the learning curve is said to be 4-6 months (part of that is learning about object-oriented programming in general). The first real (commercial or in house) program you do probably will take you as much time as doing it the regular way, because of all you need to learn. The time savings occurs when you want to modify that program or start a new one--that time should be much shorter. If you are running in the MPW enviroment, you can use any language you wish to when writing your code (Object Pascal, C++, Modula-2, functions in C, Pascal, and assembly). I believe that in Think Pascal, it compiles the sources and you can use only their Think Pascal (can you use Think C or assembly???). >Who sells it? > I believe its sold through APDA. If you/your organization can at all afford it ($1000 for the 1st year, $300 a year thereafter--so I've been told), you should try to subscribe to the ETO CD series. They are quarterly releases of Apple development products (like the beta MPW 3.2, MacApp 2.0.1, the alpha and beta's of the up and comming MacApp 3.0), plus other tools and goodies. Mark-- --------------------------------- Mark Dawson Service Diagnostic Engineering AppleLink: Dawson.M Apple says what it says; I say what I say. We're different ---------------------------------