Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!ksand
From: ksand@Apple.COM (Kent Sandvik)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: MacApp examples Was: Local/AppleTalk Connectivity in MacApp
Message-ID: <47760@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 4 Jan 91 22:39:23 GMT
References: <1991Jan3.221839.21979@athena.cs.uga.edu> <14545@hoptoad.uucp>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 37

In article <14545@hoptoad.uucp> tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) writes:

>Incidentally, MacAppers -- please ignore the example programs shipped
>by Apple.  They are very small and do not scale well.  If you adopt the
>unit strategy of the example programs, in which everything knows about
>the applications and document subclasses and those subclasses know
>about everything else, you will not be able to expand beyond a few
>source files or do much information hiding or code reusability.

I don't think that the intention with the MacApp samples was to
create huge scalable applications. Instead they try to show how to
extend the *MacApp* framework. It is up to the developer to create
own object hierarchies and attach these to the MacApp framework in
strategic suitable places.

>Instead, the strategy to use is:  Your application and document
>subclasses do know about everything, but hardly anything knows about
>them.  They are "master controllers" which are unknown to most of the
>things they control.  This will lead to a lot of USES in the units
>dealing with document and application subclasses, but a manageable
>number elsewhere.

That's exactly the current trend with application frameworks. Isolate
and connect at few places - sort of data abstraction in the class
level. The perfect case is where you could develope the user interface
separately from the the application grunt class hierarchy, and attach
these together as the last step.

Regards,
Kent Sandvik



-- 
Kent Sandvik, Apple Computer Inc, Developer Technical Support
NET:ksand@apple.com, AppleLink: KSAND  DISCLAIMER: Private mumbo-jumbo
Zippy++ says: "C++, anything less is BCPL..."