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From: bill@gistdev.gist.com (Bill Busen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: Visual Programming Tools for the Mac
Message-ID: <1040@gistdev.gist.com>
Date: 23 Dec 90 00:58:23 GMT
References: <1990Dec19.224056.25805@athena.cs.uga.edu>
Organization: Global Information Systems Technology Inc., Savoy, IL
Lines: 28

fore@athena.cs.uga.edu (Howard Fore) writes:

>What's the consensus on "Visual Programming Tools" such as AppMaker (Bowers
>Development), the trio of products by Serius, Prototyper (Smethers and 
>Barnes, formerly by Now Software), and Visual Interactive Programming      
>(Mainstay).  Are they completely bogus, or are they actually worth the money

Prototyper and AppMaker generate C or Pascal code for Think or MPW.
I've used Prototyper 2.1 and like it.  Version 3.0 is out now but does not
support the Think C Class Library yet.  If you're a Pascal programmer, press
'n' now. :-)  AppMaker does support it, and got a glowing review in September
or October MacUser (I think 4-1/2 mice).  Both speed up development a lot and
as a side effect familiarize you with the Toolbox.  Also you are more inclined
to utilize the full Mac interface much earlier in the learning curve.  For
people in the position of learning Mac programming and TC 4.0 at the same time,
AppMaker sounds like a great deal.

>... Does anyone have any demo versions or know where I can get them
>online (an ftp site is preferably to waiting for the company to send it to me
>via snail mail.)

As of several months ago, Bowers and Smethers/Barnes had active presences on
the CompuServe Mac forums.  Demos and unadvertised specials were available,
as well as on-line tech support.  I haven't seen an ftp reference.

Bill Busen				bill@gistdev.com
Global Info. Systems Tech.		(217) 352-1165
Savoy, IL 61874