Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!plaid!chuq From: chuq@plaid.Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: Welcome to comp.sys.mac.programmer Message-ID: <42814@sun.uucp> Date: 23 Feb 88 05:23:59 GMT References: <42507@sun.uucp> <23091@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Sender: news@sun.uucp Reply-To: chuq@sun.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) Organization: Fictional Reality, uLtd Lines: 71 >I have a mac, and I'd really like to start doing some real programming >on it. But I frankly haven't a clue where to start. Can any of you >recommend some reading material? Thanks, Time to start the first controversies. It generally comes down to whether you like Pascal or C, and how much money you want to spend. I'm going to assume you're on a budget -- getting started on a maching you rarely want to put out lots of bucks, and MPW is (in my eyes) lots of bucks. So we'll stick to the lower cost compilers. For pascal, you've got LightSpeed Pascal. I'm sure there're others (is there a turbo pascal? I don't hack pascal, so I havne't paid much attention). For C, there's lightspeed C. It'll just about slice bread for you. It's inexpensive. And if you buy it after February 1, you get release 3.0 free when it comes out. Release 3.0 has a symbolic debugger, which, even if it is only half functional, will be wonderful. LSC is also a fast, compact, programmer oriented compiler. It isn't extensible, and some folks don't like the editor (I don't mind it, personally) and it isn't powerful enough for hard core types (which, if you're just starting out, you aren't) but wotthehell. It's also cheap. Um, unexpensive. By the way, I recommend C. It's a lot more natural for Mac Programming than Pascal is, even though the Mac was done in pascal). Next you'll need books. Go buy the two book set by Chernicoff on the Mac Toolbox. The best introduction and general discussion of Mac programming concepts I've seen. It's all in Pascal, so if you bought LSC, you'll need a book to help you get used to translating concepts. I like both the Takatsuka et al book by Sybex (programming the Mac toolbox in C) and the Mednieks book by Sams (C and the art of Mac programming). Neither is specifically aimed at LSC -- in fact, there is NO book about LightSpeed C programming, which I find insane -- but the concepts work in any compiler. MAybe Sybex will get smart and issue an updated version of Takatsuka in LSC. Other Books. Inside Mac is a good investment, if terrible bedside reading. Unless you use the SE or Mac II, you probably only need the first three or four volumes. The first Knaster book will tell you more about the innards of the Mac than you'll ever want to know, plus practical examples of how to make it jump through hoops. And especially, how to find out why the hoop came out sideways (it's real title should have been Zen and the Art of Macintosh Debugging). The second Knaster book, which I just did a book review of for Macintosh Horizons (plug, plug) is a lot more specialized -- Mac II, SE, and Printer folks are probably the only ones that need it. Other ideas. Avoid fortran. Always a good idea, in general, anyway. You can get APL if you want, although I I'd never know. Modula 2 is another language. And tehre's venerable old Basic, of which I won't speak because I'll just frost all the Mac Basic hackers out there. Both of you. If you want a simple, easy to get started in and powerful language, seriously consider HyperCard. It's amazing how much you can do with it, and how far you can take it with your scripting. Like, wowo. finally, you'll want source code. Try to find a copy of Paul Dubois' TransSkel package for LSC. Not only will it take care of most of the grunt work for putting the skeleton of the application up, it's source code is a wonderful practical example of how to do all those things. Neat Stuff. Yummo, as a friend of mine might say. chuq Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ What do you mean 'You don't really want to hurt her?' I'm a Super-Villain! That's my Schtick!