Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!rutgers!cbmvax!amix!undrground!accangel From: undrground!accangel@amix.commodore.com (Mark Gardner) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: NeXT Press Release Message-ID: Date: 28 Apr 91 06:43:34 GMT References: <11476@uwm.edu> Lines: 65 gblock@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Gregory R Block) writes: > From article <6o6G#_oz1@cs.psu.edu>, by melling@cs.psu.edu (Michael D Melling [whole lotta stuff about the NeXT deleted. Sorry, I just plain ain't too interested in the li'l black box] > > > > I don't see the advantage of _not_ having actual source for it. You don > > have to look at the code if you don't want to. Just link it in. Also, > > given code you can use a more optimizing compiler on it, and you can rea > > it if you need to learn how to work with the GUI yourself. > > > > Actually, I think the binary file files aren't executable code because > > the .nib files didn't need to be changed when they were ported the the > > IBM RS/6000 running NeXTStep. > > > > If you think having source is better, then tell Commodore. When they > > release their IB with Amiga DOS 3.0 in 1999, you will have the IB that > > you've always wanted. > > Most programmers on the Amiga DON'T need or want an IB. And they're > available, so if you do, you can use them. It's not hard to use > Intuition in programming, just a matter of defining exactly what you > want, or customizing at will. No forced footsteps, no bridge over > death. Just a beaten path, and stray footsteps. Use what you like, > toss what you don't. It may not be as fast to do it by hand on the > Amiga compared to doing it on a NeXT's IB, but doing it by hand on > both will give us a hands-down victory. In speed, anyways. Now, I'm not up on objective-oriented programming (still tooling around with HiSoft BASIC and AREXX on the Amiga), but as I understand it, one of the key features of objective languages is classes of objects, which can be inherited and then customized in the users' own objects. This is exactly what Intuition (the Amiga's GUI/windowing system) does - it provides you with a basic window structure, and you throw out what you don't need, or add your own stuff. Then you tack menus, gadgets (mouse hit-boxes), etc. onto those, which inherit characteristics from the window.... You get the idea. In essence, if you're doing anything involving Intuition on the Amiga, even in BASIC, you're doing a bit of object-oriented programming. Same goes, really, for any other multitasking, graphical OS. And if you don't want to mess with that stuff, you make Shell-based programs, which only use what little the console device gives you. Well, *I* thought it was neat. All this time, I was doing object programming! -Mark Gardner > > Greg > > -- > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- > All opinions are my own, and not those of my employer. > Why? He doesn't know I'm doing this. > -Wubba ---------- Mark Gardner UUCP: uunet!cbmvax!amix!undrground!accangel Internet: undrground!accangel@amix.commodore.com