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From: tim@maths.tcd.ie (Timothy Murphy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: THINK C Suggestions
Message-ID: <1990Oct13.213824.8130@maths.tcd.ie>
Date: 13 Oct 90 21:38:24 GMT
References: <15524@reed.UUCP> <20912@well.sf.ca.us> <1990Oct5.151257.26488@maths.tcd.ie> <1990Oct6.193731.24012@eng.umd.edu>
Organization: Dept. of Maths, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Lines: 59

In <1990Oct6.193731.24012@eng.umd.edu> russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto) writes:

>In article <1990Oct5.151257.26488@maths.tcd.ie> tim@maths.tcd.ie (Timothy Murphy) writes:
>>What I find interesting in this discussion
>>is that nearly everyone seems to want *more* 'Macky' features,
>>while I want *less*.
>>I'd like just to sit at my Mac,
>>and 'make' a program the same was as on Unix.

>I think you are using the wrong development system for this sort of thing--
>try using (horrors!) MPW C.  I think there's even a version of Real Unix Make
>(or Gnu Make) for it.

Don't get me wrong -- I love THINK C.
I've tried MPW, and am not enamoured of it.
In any case, I teach C to some 70 Maths students,
to each of whom Apple in their bottomless wisdom and generosity
gave a Mac Plus (with 20MB disc).
And then Symantec compounded the glory
by allowing us to give them all THINK C.

But as well as the 70 MACpeople,
there are 70 other students in the class using Unix.
So the differences between THINK C and cc
are constantly highlighted.

Now I think the MAC GUI, etc, is a really great intellectual achievement.
And I can see that special methods are required to program it.
But I feel the MACpeople are often trying to be different
just for difference' sake.
(I don't think it is the old thing
of trying to lock the user into one manufacturer's equipment.)
I mean just simple things, like calling directories 'folders'.

Maybe I'm in a small minority,
in not wanting to be locked into the MACworld completely.
But I'd just plead with you all
(and Symantec in particular)
to remember us half-hearted ones.

For example, the Project stuff is pretty weird,
let's face it.
There's the same sort of thing in Turbo-C,
but at least one can avoid it there, if one wishes.

Incidentally, last week I was compiling the same program -- TeX --
on a MacPlus with THINK C,
and on a 386 with the new Turbo-C (Turbo-C++),
and the MacPlus won by quite a good margin!
And in the end, it is the compiler that matters,
not the bells and whistles.



-- 

Timothy Murphy  

e-mail: tim@maths.tcd.ie