ali@polya.Stanford.EDU (Ali T. Ozer) (02/06/89)
In article <118@hydra.ecrcvax.UUCP> johng@hydra.UUCP (John Gregor) writes: >Has anybody ordered and received this yet? I'd like to hear an overview >of what is and isn't included. The Technical Documentation available from NeXT costs $250 and comes in two huge binders. The documentation is oriented towards software developers. Here are the chapter titles & contents for the 0.8 version of the docs: (1) System Overview: Explanation of terms like Interface Builder, NextStep, etc. (2) User Interface: Preliminary user interface guidelines. This is a big chapter (~100 pages). (3) Drawing: Window server, Display Postscript, Compositing. An overview of most concepts required for drawing in windows. (4) Events: How to get/ignore/process them. (5) Program Structure: How to use the application kit (~150 pages). (6) Interface Builder: A short intro to Interface Builder, with examples. (7) User Interface Objects: Overview of Application, Control, Window, Text, and Box classes. (8) Support Objects: Overview of the various support classes such as the Archiver, Pasteboard, Font, etc... (9) Sound: Basic sound concepts, using the Sound class and the low-level sound routines. No DSP! (10) Music: Not available yet; will contain info about the Music Kit. (11) Array processing: Also not available yet; will contain info about the high-level interface to the DSP. (12) Programming the DSP: Not available yet: More low-level info about the DSP. (13) Server Background: Currently not fully written; will contain all you ever wanted to know about the Window server but were afraid to ask. (14) Mach: ~60 page chapter on mach concepts on how they're applicable in the NeXT environment: Tasks, threads, ports, messages, MIG... (15) ROM Monitor: Overview of the monitor commands. (16) Programming Tools: Overview of various programs available for use during program development (editors, shells, etc). (17) Compiler and Debugger: ~100 page chapter on the workings and the options of the compiler and debugger. Chapter includes info on NeXT mods to GDB. (18) Putting Together: Not available yet. (19) Header Files: Not available in printed form yet; see /usr/include. (20) Class Descriptions: Giant chapter describing all application kit and sound kit classes and methods. Probably 400-500 pages. (21) C Functions: Description of C functions provided by NeXT, including PS- versions of NeXT-specific server functions. (22) Postscript Operators: Detailed descriptions of NeXT extensions to Display Postscript. (23) ScoreFile Language: Not available yet; More Music Kit info. (24) DSP Macros: Not available yet. (25) Mach Functions: Man pages for Mach functions available from C. (26) Data Formats: Pasteboard data formats and description of Mach executables. (Appendix A) Keyboard Event Information: Encoding vectors and key codes. (Appendix B) Unix Differences: File system changes for 0.8. (Appendix C) Class Summary: Not available yet. (Appendix D) C Function Summary: One-liners for all NX-, DPS-, and PS- functions. (Appendix E) Operator Summary: One-liners for all postscript operators. (Appendix F) ScoreFile Language Summary: Not available yet. (Appendix G) Music Tables: Also not available. (Appendix H) DSP Macro Summary: Not available. (Appendix I) Mach Function Summary: Summary of chapter 25. (Appendix J) System Bitmaps: Not available yet: See Bitmap class in chapter 20. (Glossary) 12 page glossary. (Suggested Reading) For GNU, ObjC, Postscript, etc... (Index) All application & sound kit selectors (summary of chapter 20). (Adobe Documentation) Adobe's own Display Postscript docs, including extensions, PSwrap, and encapsulated Postscript file info. (RTF) Microsoft Rich Text Format standard docs. (TIFF) Aldus & Microsoft document describing TIFF 5.0. (0.8 uses TIFF 4.0, BTW. 0.9 will most likely use TIFF 5.0.) (ObjC) Stepstone docs for Objective C 4.0, including their foundation library.
dorner@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve Dorner) (02/21/90)
My tech docs finally came; wunnerful.
I guess this is looking a gift horse in the mouth, but I sure wish they
were on heavier stock. Not only can I see the BACK of each page through
the page, but I can see the front AND back of the NEXT page and the front
of the page AFTER THAT. Not only does this make things a teensy bit hard to
read, but I'm afraid paper this thin isn't going to stand much abuse. Bad
thing for a manual.
--
Steve Dorner, U of Illinois Computing Services Office
Internet: s-dorner@uiuc.edu UUCP: {convex,uunet}!uiucuxc!dorneriphwk@TERRA.OSCS.MONTANA.EDU (Bill Kinnersley) (02/22/90)
[In "tech docs" <1990Feb20.221708.14210@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>,
dorner@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu (Steve Dorner) said:]
>My tech docs finally came; wunnerful.
>
> ... Not only can I see the BACK of each page through the page, but I can see
> the front AND back of the NEXT page and the front of the page AFTER THAT.
That's known as "compositing." :-)
I think NeXT should be commended for producing an unusually well-written,
coherent set of manuals. (Boy, it could really use an index, though,
even a Preliminary one.)
--
--Bill Kinnersley
Physics Department Montana State University Bozeman, MT 59717
INTERNET: iphwk@terra.oscs.montana.edu BITNET: IPHWK@MTSUNIX1
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