[comp.sys.mac.programmer] where is The Well's "Crunched Shell"???

tedj@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Ted Johnson) (07/13/88)

Whatever happened to that project started by someone at "The Well",
called (I think), the "Crunched Shell"?  Supposedly they were getting
a bunch of people to contribute  LSC and MPW programming examples, and 
then they were going to stick them all on a couple of diskettes and
distribute them for a modest fee.  

Has this project been cancelled?  Is it almost done?  Does anyone
know what I'm talking about?

The last I heard of it (via USENET) was about 6 months ago.

-Ted

elcond@garnet.berkeley.edu (Gregory Dow) (07/15/88)

In article <730041@hpcilzb.HP.COM> tedj@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Ted Johnson) writes:
>
>
>Whatever happened to that project started by someone at "The Well",
>called (I think), the "Crunched Shell"?  Supposedly they were getting
>a bunch of people to contribute  LSC and MPW programming examples, and 
>then they were going to stick them all on a couple of diskettes and
>distribute them for a modest fee.  
>
>Has this project been cancelled?  Is it almost done?  Does anyone
>know what I'm talking about?
>
>The last I heard of it (via USENET) was about 6 months ago.
>
>-Ted

The project is still going on and is nearing a point of relative stability.
The "bunch of people" has been just 2 for quite a while -- myself and
John Draper (Capt. Crunch).  I have written almost all the code, with
valuable suggestions and from John and Jorg Brown (who is now working at
the THINK Technologies Division of Symantec Corp.).

"The Crunched Shell" is a library of routines written entirely in LSC
which uses an object-oriented programming approach.  Its function is
similar to MacApp, but the object classes and implementation are very
different.  An entire object-oriented environment has been implemented
solely in C (with a little in-line assembly language).  Although I have
never worked with C++, I presume that my code sort of resembles the
code generated by a C++ preprocessor.  I have devised a mechanism for
defining object classes with single inheritance, creating instances of
these classes (objects), and sending messages to objects.

There are classes for standard Mac windows, menus, and controls.  The
flashiest features are full support of floating windows and tear-off
menus.

The Shell provides the code for handling many standard features of a
Mac application.  The programmer needs to define his/her own classes
which define the data structures and actions particular to a specific
application.  The rich set of classes which will be provided with the
shell provides a good base to which new features can be easily added.

No final decision has yet been made on how to market the Shell (Capt.
Crunch is working on this).  We do plan to have something to
demonstrate at the Boston MacWorld Expo in August.  Please contact
me by e-mail if you would like more information or are interested in
being a beta tester.  I will post more detailed information on what
you can actually do with the Shell and how the object-oriented features
are coded if there is sufficient interest.



  Gregory Dow			ARPA:   elcond@garnet.berkeley.edu
  Chemical Engineering Dept.	UUCP:   {uwvax, decvax, ihnp4, ...}!ucbvax
  University of California	          !elcond%garnet.berkeley.edu
  Berkeley, CA  94720		BITNET: POLYDOW@UCBCMSA