stevens@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Curt Stevens) (03/03/89)
Could someone please recommend a good book to start me off in programming the Mac? I am an experienced programmer, so I am looking for a book which clues me in to the way a Mac SHOULD be programmed. Thanks. Please e-mail to me since I don't regularly read this group (yet :-)). =============================================================================== |Curt Stevens (303)492-1218 | / | E-MAIL: | |University of Colorado at Boulder | o o | ------- | |Computer Science Department | | |arpa: stevens@boulder.colorado.edu| |Campus Box 430 | \_/ |csnet: stevens@boulder.csnet| |Boulder, Colorado 80309 | |uucp:{ncar|nbires}!boulder!stevens| =============================================================================== ======== | Curt | ========
spector@vx2.NYU.EDU (David HM Spector) (03/03/89)
Well, if you've _never_ programmed a Macintosh before, the two best
books are probably:
_Programmers Introduction to the Macintosh Family_
and
_Human Interface Guidelines_
Both are Apple books published by Addison Wesley. The first gives a
very good overviewof the software architecture and programming model
used on the Macintosh without being grossly confusing, the second sets
the standard upon which all well crafted Macintosh programs are
programmed...
...after you digest those, the you'd probaably want to look at
something like _Macintosh_Revealed_ (Hayden Book Co.) and vols. 1-4 of
_Inside_Macintosh_ (Addison Wesley) Volume 5 of _Inside_Macintosh_
cover additional material with regard to "newer" machines and such
(Macintosh/SE and MacintoshII).
When you're just starting programming on the Mac, THINK's C and/or Pascal
are almost essential, as they offer excellent environments in which
you can not only design and write complete programs, but their
debuggers' allow you to look around at what's happening inside the
machine. If you're really into a more Un*x'y type of environment,
there's Apple's MPW (Macintosh Programmer's Workshop); but its very
pricey (~$600 for the whole 9 yds.), and not conducive to learning
whats going on for beginners, but immensely powerful.
...hope that helps a little...
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XYZZYGLORPjimm@amiga.UUCP (Jim Mackraz) (03/04/89)
In article <370003@vx2.NYU.EDU> spector@vx2.NYU.EDU (David HM Spector) writes:
)Well, if you've _never_ programmed a Macintosh before, the two best
)books are probably:
)
) _Programmers Introduction to the Macintosh Family_
) and
) _Human Interface Guidelines_
I think there are two very different psychological effects of reading
these two books.
The latter will impress you greatly on how well thought out the
whole user interface is, and how important the overall philosophy is to
the acceptance of the machine. Very inspiring.
The former lays very thickly on the "Insanely Great" nonsense, and might
erroneously lead you to believe that you have to be a cheerleading weenie
to get your code to run. As for encouraging a professional programmer to
get involved with the Mac, I think it is almost counterproductive.
If you can't read and enjoy Inside Mac anyway, you're going to have a tough
time, from what I hear. Go right to the meat. Less nauseating. Just buy
a pad of post-its to mark all the places that the subject you're studying
appears.
Cheers.
jimm
--
Jim Mackraz, I and I Computing "Like you said when we crawled down
{cbmvax,well,oliveb}!amiga!jimm from the trees: We're in transition."
- Gang of Four
Opinions are my own. Comments are not to be taken as Commodore official policy.stevenf@wpi.wpi.edu (Steven Fernandez) (03/06/89)
In article <7063@boulder.Colorado.EDU> stevens@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Curt Stevens) writes: > >Could someone please recommend a good book to start me off in programming >the Mac? I am an experienced programmer, so I am looking for a book which >clues me in to the way a Mac SHOULD be programmed. Thanks. > Here is some more advice to a new mac programmer. I am still trying to learn how to do it but there are several tools that are excellent. "Prototyper" by SmethersBarnes. It will make all the difference in getting you programming and producing things that will maintain your interest. "Programmers Introduction to the macintosh Family." by Addison Wesley. Great book to look through and gain insight. "Inside macintosh Volume I-III" by addison Wesley. No matter how you cut it, you are going to need them. Once you have them you will never feel like there is something your missing. "Online Companion" by addison Wesley. It really helps you find the calls you are looking for and then tells you the page too look them up in Inside macintosh. "Macintosh Revealed" by Hayden Books. I have it and everyone recommends it but I seem to never need it. Its matter of preference but I would get Inside macintosh before this. Steve
gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu (03/07/89)
I took a similar survey 1 month ago.
Inside Macintosh is not a tutorial. To learn as fast as possible, I
suggest getting a tutorial book, and then buy Inside Mac books as
you need them, or xerox interesting chapters from someone, since the
"Inside ..." series may change (rumor?) in the near future.
I finally bought: "Programming With Macintosh TURBO Pascal", Tom Swan
Advantages --
0. Enthusiastic, interesting writing
1. Not a university textbook (doesn't teaching you about stacks, queues,..)
2. Approx 25 programming examples/projects, each explained in detail.
3. Lots of reuseable code.
4. Nearly all projects use the native-macintosh user interface (some
books rely too much on the Turbo/LSC/LSP shell interface)
5. Covers Quickdraw, Events, Windows, Controls, Resources, and more
6. Suitable for non-Turbo users (I'm using LightSpeedC)
Don Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois
1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, Ill 61801
ARPA: gillies@cs.uiuc.edu UUCP: {uunet,harvard}!uiucdcs!gillies