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From: map@u02.svl.cdc.com (Mark Peters)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.mac.apps,comp.sys.mac.programmer,comp.sys.mac.system
Subject: Re: Looking for good Mac programming references
Keywords: mac,programming,reference
Message-ID: <31891@shamash.cdc.com>
Date: 30 Mar 91 00:49:12 GMT
References: <1488@sud509.ed.ray.com>
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Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.misc
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fredrp@tdw206.ed.ray.com (Fred Ross-Perry) writes:

>As a programmer, I'm new to the Macintosh.  Can anyone receommend one
>or two good books to get me started?  I know about Inside Macintosh, which
>at five volumes seems a bit daunting.  Something with many examples would
>help.  Also, I prefer C to Pascal.

An excellent book is "The Macintosh programming primer" by S. Knaster    
(I think - if you need the author's name let me know and I'll look
at my copy).  This uses the THINK C environment for all its examples,
although it doesn't use the Object-Oriented features.

An okay book is "The Macintosh Revealed," which is actually a series of
books.

BTW, you're gonna have to have Inside Macintosh anyway if you're
going to do any serious programming, so if you can afford it, get it 
sooner rather than later.

>I've started toying around with ProtoTyper and THINK C.  What do you folks
>think of these?  THINK C has its own method for creating an interface, called
>its "class library".  If I use this, I'll be tied to THINK C for life, is
>that correct?

THINK C is the best development environment for small to medium sized
projects by one person.  For large projects involving more than one
person, MPW is the way to go.  MPW isn't nearly as easy to use as
THINK C, but it has everything you'll ever need, and then some.

I don't know much about ProtoTyper, but I do know about another 
interface builder called AppMaker from Bowers Development Corp.
AppMaker is excellent!  It would be much harder for me to learn
the Mac, C, and Object-Oriented programming without AppMaker.  

My professional experience was with a superset of Pascal, so being
able to use AppMaker to generate both C and Pascal versions (standard
OR Object-Oriented) of an interface is great.  AppMaker also generates
code for MPW (C or Pascal) and A/UX C.

I've heard many people say that AppMaker is superior to ProtoTyper,
but I don't have the first-hand knowledge required to judge.

--
Mark A. Peters                              ****** ======================
Control Data Corporation                    ****** == "What a save!!!" ==
Internet: map@svl.cdc.com                   ****** == "What an idea!!" ==