Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!apple!marc
From: marc@Apple.COM (Mark Dawson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Is MacApp worth getting
Keywords: MacApp
Message-ID: <49203@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 15 Feb 91 15:01:22 GMT
References: <5918@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, CA
Lines: 44

In article <5918@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> agc@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Jeff Smith) writes:
>
>I have heard about MacApp and was wondering if it was worth getting to
>help write programs.  What does it do?  Is it like an interface builder,
>can it link code or does it just make resources?
>
MacApp is a library of code built around objects (the current version,
2.0.1 is written in Object Pascal) and is designed to help you quickly
implement Macintosh programs.  It supplies the event handlers, cursor and
mouse control functions, menu handling, file handling, and more.  To get a
simple program up and running (like a simple editor or spreadsheet) you may
only have to write less than a hundred lines of code.  To get more complex
behavior, you need to override some MacApp methods.  It has decent
documentation for developing simple programs; as you write more complex ones
you will spend most of your time looking through its source code (provided and very much needed at this point).

MacApp is complex; the learning curve is said to be 4-6 months (part of that is
learning about object-oriented programming in general).  The first real
(commercial or in house) program you do probably will take you as much time
as doing it the regular way, because of all you need to learn.  The time 
savings occurs when you want to modify that program or start a new one--that
time should be much shorter. 

If you are running in the MPW enviroment, you can use any language you wish
to when writing your code (Object Pascal, C++, Modula-2, functions in C,
Pascal, and assembly).  I believe that in Think Pascal, it compiles the
sources and you can use only their Think Pascal (can you use Think C or
assembly???).
>Who sells it?
>
I believe its sold through APDA.  If you/your organization can at all afford
it ($1000 for the 1st year, $300 a year thereafter--so I've been told), you
should try to subscribe to the ETO CD series.  They are quarterly releases
of Apple development products (like the beta MPW 3.2, MacApp 2.0.1, the
alpha and beta's of the up and comming MacApp 3.0), plus other tools and
goodies.

Mark-- 
---------------------------------
Mark Dawson                Service Diagnostic Engineering
AppleLink: Dawson.M

Apple says what it says; I say what I say.  We're different
---------------------------------