Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!news From: melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Mellinger) Subject: Re: The NeXT is easier to program than the Mac(was: The Fate... In-Reply-To: tagreen@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu's message of Sat, 23 Mar 91 22:51:16 GMT Message-ID: Sender: news@cs.psu.edu (Usenet) Nntp-Posting-Host: sunws0.sys.cs.psu.edu Organization: Penn State Computer Science References: <1991Mar22.154811.8691@rucs2.sunlab.cs.runet.edu> <1991Mar23.190432.5683@cc.helsinki.fi> <1991Mar23.225116.21450@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> Date: Sun, 24 Mar 91 18:22:50 GMT Lines: 52 In article <1991Mar23.225116.21450@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> tagreen@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (Todd A. Green) writes: Have you ever programmed the Mac? It took me all of 1 day from the time I received THINK C and Inside Mac I-V to get a program compiled and running. (And no it wasn't "Hello World" ;) ). While the IB is nice, I have to say right now I prefere ResEdit 2.1. I'll admit I'm biased as all heck having used ResEdit for a considerable length of time, and still being new to NeXT programming. But I find progamming the NeXT much more complicated. With all the .prog, .nib, .m's, .tiff, .iconheader files...objective C (which again is new for me). Having to learn about classes, inheritance, etc. Bullshit. Anyone else on the net want to claim that they went through all 5 (aren't we up to 7) volumes of inside the Mac in one day(or one month). And I've used RedEdit 2.1 and it doesn't touch the NeXT Interface Builder. You might as well get used to classes, inheritance, etc, even Apple is going to use OO programming as the paradigm for Mac programming. Take C++ with MacApp, for example. Actually, doesn't Object Pascal have classes, etc. Strikes me that it should. Self is the only classless OO language of which I know. So, I guess Apple is already using an OO paradigm. Anyway, Objective C has a much smaller learning curve than C++. There are fewer extensions to C. I guess what I'm trying to say is that any Joe-blow C or Pascal programmer can pick up a book and learn to program the Mac (at least the basics) in a matter of days. I have not found the transition to the NeXT as easy. But this is just my personal experience. Maybe others have found it easier. (Especially those who are already objective C programmers, which seems to be my biggest hindrance, that along with the lack of information. The only sources that I have are what came online with NeXTstep 2.0 ). Well time will tell as I become more familiar with the IB, and objective C. Maybe I can make a more definitive comparison then. Right now I'd love to be back in THINK C. The basics on the Mac are already done for you on the NeXT. Even if it took you twice as long to learn on the NeXT, you will still be able to do more after you learn how to program the NeXT, and do it faster. I think the main problem with NeXT programming is that the 2.0 docs haven't been released yet. Things should become a lot clearer to the neophyte NeXT programmer when this happens. -Mike