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From: drc@dbase.UUCP (Dennis Cohen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: MPW Miss-info
Message-ID: <237@dbase.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-Sep-87 09:06:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: dbase.237
Posted: Tue Sep 15 09:06:31 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 18-Sep-87 05:36:15 EDT
References: <429@aucs.UUCP> 3811@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU <111STORKEL@RICE>
Distribution: na
Organization: Ashton Tate Development Center Glendale Cal.
Lines: 47
Summary: A couple of corrections

In article <111STORKEL@RICE>, STORKEL@RICE.BITNET (Scott Storkel) writes:
...      
> I am not familiar with LightSpeed, but having worked with MPW I can tell you
> that it is suitable for developing ANY type of Mac software, be it programs,
> DA's, FKEY's, whatever.  The MPW Shell is not the easiest to use, but includes
> a programming language the is very sophisticated and allows the user to do such
> things as add new commands to menus, compile and runs programs, build software
> tools, and on and on.
>      
You can produce any type of Mac software with LightSpeed C or Pascal also .

...      
> One of the nice features of MPW is that all compilers run as "tools" under the
> MPW Shell. This means that if a new compiler supports the MPW Linker format
> that routines written in the new language can be linked to code from existing
> languages. Apple currently offers 68xxx Assembler, Pascal and C compilers that
> run under MPW. The 68xxx Assembler is included with the standard MPW package,
> but the Pascal and C compilers are extra. I recall reading somewhere that
> somebody (Bordland?) is coming out with a Modula compiler that runs under MPW.
> 
There are two MPW Modula-2 compilers and they are already on the market.  There
is TML Modula-2 (by TML Systems of Jacksonville, FL) and SemperSoft Modula-2 (by
Semper Software of Glen Ellyn, IL).  However, your purported ease of linking is
a bit off as you have to play games based upon the calling sequence expected.
MPW C and Pascal get around this by declaring Pascal and C keywords as flags to
the compiler.  The Modula-2 compilers conform to the Pascal standard for calling
sequence and can't directly call C routines.
     
...      
> So, to summarize, if you want the most powerful development system available
> for the Mac, and can afford it, buy MPW. If you will only be writing small
> programs, or are not interested in developing huge applications, it would
> probably be smarter to go with LightSpeed.
>      
I mostly agree with this paragraph.  Note however that small is a relative
term.  Scott Watson's Red Ryder program, which is in the 200K range in version
10.0, is written in LightSpeed C.  I don't believe that we could have developed
dBASE Mac in LightSpeed or that other applications in the 700K-800K range are
viable candidates for either of the Think products, but I'm not sure where the
dividing line is (I think that it's around 300K somewhere, but I'm not curious
enough to spend the time and effort investigating it).

Dennis Cohen
Ashton-Tate Glendale Development Center
dBASE Mac Development Team
--------------------------
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are my own.  I do not know what opinions (if any) my employer might have.