Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!apple.com!chewy
From: chewy@apple.com (Paul Snively)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: C++ available from APDA for $175 :--(
Message-ID: <4672@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 11 Oct 89 18:16:39 GMT
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Distribution: usa
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 41
References:<137@asihub.UUCP> <4605@internal.Apple.COM> <4153@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> <1989Oct11.064209.9045@agate.berkeley.edu> <5680@merlin.usc.edu>

In article <5680@merlin.usc.edu> malczews@girtab.usc.edu (Frank 
Malczewski) writes:
> $175, huh?  Yep, it looks like I've just gotten off the MPW bandwagon.  
If that
> is what the C++ costs, I can just imagine what the other upgrades that 
accompany
> that go for...

Going from MPW 2.x to MPW 3.x is kinda painful, but it's a transition that 
a lot of people will want to make for more reasons than just to run C++; 
I'd recommend it if you're an MPW user anyway.  And if you're getting into 
MPW for the first time, I think you're actually better off this way 
(ironic; I generally prefer to see our long-time users get some benefit 
out of that, but hey, I don't determine APDA pricing).

C++ at $175?  Seems excessive to me until I think about paying the 
engineers who wrote it.  It ain't like Object Pascal, folks, in the sense 
that it's a pre-processor that still requires the C compiler to work.  We 
don't just stick 'em together because not everyone WANTS C++ and to bundle 
CFront and C would drive the total price up, and the non-C++ C programmers 
would complain even more loudly about the price (and rightly so, IMHO).

What can I tell you?  I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the MPW 
system is competitive with other professional development systems for 
other platforms; try putting together a complete IBM development 
environment sometime (compiler, linker, editor, debugger, make utility, 
etc.)  Our target market for MPW is NOT the interested amateur; it's the 
programmer who actually NEEDS what MPW has.  This doesn't mean that the 
other environments are incapable of creating commercial code; I know 
better than that.  It DOES mean that NONE of the other environments give 
you what MPW gives you (phenomenal power, flexibility, and extensibility 
and truly horrendous performance).

As for C++, I wouldn't expect anything very cheap very fast from any of 
the other guys, either, although a native C++ compiler from THINK would 
thrill me no end...

__________________________________________________________________________
Just because I work for Apple Computer, Inc. doesn't mean that they 
believe what I believe or vice-versa.
__________________________________________________________________________