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From: melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Mac LC or NEXT
Message-ID: <-v6G=!#e@cs.psu.edu>
Date: 4 Feb 91 22:25:42 GMT
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	<jibGribc@cs.psu.edu> <1991Feb4.201342.28566@csn.org>
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In article <1991Feb4.201342.28566@csn.org> fozzard@alumni.colorado.edu (Richard Fozzard) writes:


   BTW, I find it ironic that a NeXTNuT would be defending programming for
   device independence, when a NeXTStep/Objective C program is about as
   device-dependent as you can get. The NeXT company and most of its user
   community has rejected X out-of-hand - NeXT is probably the only
   workstation manufacturer to not provide a company-supported X.

Yeah, not being able to use Objective C on another platform really
rots.  However, GCC 2.0 will include Objective C, so it's not a
permanent problem, for some of us.  It looks like it might be out by
summer.

Penncomm will officially ship X for the NeXT on March 15.  I think
Motif has also been ported.  There was a buggy, but usable version(and
free) that ran under 1.0, but not 2.0.

   I like the NeXT very much, and have used it to develop some small programs.
   It is a wonderful development environment, the best on the market, I'd say.
   Yet the code runs ONLY on a NeXT (and the very few IBM 6000s that NeXTStep
   has shipped for). That is exactly why I have failed to convince my 
   superiors to buy any. The programs I build using Guide/OpenWindows on
   a Sun run on anything (even PCs and Macs) that can run an X-server. 
   Programs I build in HyperCard run on Macs and PCs, and when Spinnaker
   finishes their Plus for X later this year, everything else. 

Can't you localize your output routines?  Just #ifdef.  Write your
code in C or C++ and only use Objective C where you need to.

   By refusing to provide a hardware-independent NeXTStep X toolkit,
   NeXT has negated the most significant advantage of its machine! 
   No doubt, NeXTStep on top of X would run rather slowly, but at least
   it would RUN! And it seems to me that this would only help sales
   of NeXT hardware, as the fastest way to both write and run such
   programs.

X is being beta-tested right now.  Does X in one window and a PC AT in
another provide enough compatibility with the rest of the world?

-Mike