Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!tektronix!tekig!tekig5!larryha
From: larryha@tekig5.TEK.COM (Larry Hattery)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: V.I.P. prototyping tool
Message-ID: <2381@tekig5.TEK.COM>
Date: 29 Jan 88 19:44:55 GMT
References: <1113@hao.ucar.edu>
Reply-To: larryha@tekig5.UUCP (Larry Hattery)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR.
Lines: 33
Keywords: LSC, modifying VIP --> LSC output

In article <1113@hao.ucar.edu> bill@hao.ucar.edu (Bill Roberts) writes:
>Can anyone in this group make any comments about the value of V.I.P. as a 
>prototyping tool for writing complex applications on the Mac?

I wrote up something on VIP once but I haven't been able to locate it.
I used it once for a graduate course I took in which we looked at a
number of different development environments.  The conclusion I came
to is that VIP was a nice concept but the implementation was only
half cooked.  There are a number of constraints placed on the use
of the Mac so you couldn't use the toolbox except for the routines
they provide.  They only give you access to the most basic operations
and when you want to do something else you're out of luck.  You are
not given access to the Mac data structures so there's no way to override
VIP's way of doing things.

In addition, the environment needs a lot more work before I'd consider
using it for anything other than playing with.  There are a number of
common activities that are just too time consuming to perform.  I do
like the way it lets you do top down design with diagrams but it just
falls short in its design.

I guess I'd recommend it for a play toy but I don't think it's useful
for anything more than that at this point.  I would love to see the
concept extended to a fully functional development environment, but
it doesn't look like Mainstay is very commited to making that happen.



-- 

======>  Disclaimer??? Disclaimer!!! -- I don't need no stinkin disclaimer!!!

Larry Hattery										larryha@tekig5@tektronix