Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!keith
From: keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Tech Notes
Message-ID: <36147@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 2 Nov 89 20:04:10 GMT
References: <89290.151118CXT105@PSUVM.BITNET> <5658@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> <411@iconsys.UUCP> <36098@apple.Apple.COM> <1989Nov2.190025.14568@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 103

In article <1989Nov2.190025.14568@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> tdrinkar@cosmos.acs.calpoly.edu.UUCP (Terrell Drinkard) writes:
> 
>New subject:
>   Can someone out there give me some idea as to the usefullness of
>MacApp?  I'm not even real sure as to what it is, actually.  But it
>was noted in my MPW docs and I am interested.

Let me put it this way: I won't program without MacApp anymore. And I know that
anyone else in DTS who had mastered MacApp and needs to write a real program
feels the same way (unless your name is Paul, in which case you'll use ACL).

MacApp is an object oriented application framework. It is written in Apple's
Object Pascal, but can also be accessed by C++. It gives you the basic frame-
work of an application, and allows you to fill in the missing parts. For
instance, all you need to do to get a working program that supported a full
set of menus, multiple windows, window management, about box, scrollbars,
memory management, exception handing, multifinder awareness, etc. is write
about 50 lines of source code. Here is a little Nothing program that comes with
MacApp that gives you all that I mentioned. Basically, all it does is create
an Application object responsible for running your program (from the main event
loop on down), and defines a procedure to be called when the window needs to be
updated (TDefaultView.Draw):

PROGRAM UNothing;

    USES UMacApp, UPrinting, Fonts;

    CONST
        kSignature          = 'SS01';
        kFileType           = 'SF01';

    TYPE
        TNothingApplication = OBJECT (TApplication)
            PROCEDURE TNothingApplication.INothingApplication(itsMainFileType: 
OSType);
            END;

        TDefaultView        = OBJECT (TView)
            PROCEDURE TDefaultView.Draw(area: Rect); OVERRIDE;
            END;

    VAR
        gNothingApplication: TNothingApplication;

    PROCEDURE TNothingApplication.INothingApplication(itsMainFileType: OSType);

        BEGIN
        IApplication(itsMainFileType);
        RegisterStdType('TDefaultView', 'dflt');
        IF gDeadStripSuppression THEN
            IF Member(TObject(NIL), TDefaultView) THEN ;
        END;

    PROCEDURE TDefaultView.Draw(area: Rect); OVERRIDE;

        VAR
            itsQDExtent:        Rect;

        BEGIN
        PenNormal;
        PenSize(10, 10);
        PenPat(dkGray);
        GetQDExtent(itsQDExtent);
        FrameRect(itsQDExtent);
        TextFont(ApplFont);
        TextSize(72);
        MoveTo(45, 90);
        DrawString('MacApp(');
        PenNormal;
        END;

    BEGIN

    InitToolBox;
    IF ValidateConfiguration(gConfiguration) THEN
        BEGIN
        InitUMacApp(8);
        InitUPrinting;
        New(gNothingApplication);
        FailNIL(gNothingApplication);
        gNothingApplication.INothingApplication(kFileType);
        gNothingApplication.Run;
        END
    ELSE
        StdAlert(phUnsupportedConfiguration);
    END.

In addition, MacApp gives you excellent development tools and debugging 
facilities, including an object inspector, a class browser, a view layout 
editor, discipline, writeln window, high-level breaks and tracing, performance 
tools, etc.

>   And if you don't mind, could someone also explain the benefits
>of belonging to APDA?  

You can buy MacApp...

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keith Rollin  ---  Apple Computer, Inc.  ---  Developer Technical Support
INTERNET: keith@apple.com
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"Argue for your Apple, and sure enough, it's yours" - Keith Rollin, Contusions