Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!faline!thumper!ulysses!andante!mit-eddie!bu-cs!purdue!decwrl!hplabs!sdcrdcf!csun!polyslo!dorourke
From: dorourke@polyslo.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Getting started in Mac programming...
Keywords: Make, MPW, LSC
Message-ID: <2768@polyslo.UUCP>
Date: 20 May 88 16:43:02 GMT
References: <1911@rayssdb.ray.com> <2586@polyslo.UUCP> <321@piring.cwi.nl> <2729@polyslo.UUCP> <1724@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: dorourke@polyslo.UUCP (David O'Rourke)
Distribution: na
Organization: Cal Poly State University -- San Luis Obispo
Lines: 47
Posted: Fri May 20 12:43:02 1988

In article <1724@pt.cs.cmu.edu> dtw@f.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Duane Williams) writes:
>In LSC you don't need a Make facility.  The primary function of Make is
>automatic.  And it gets updated automatically as you modify your program.
>And there is no perceptible time spent processing a Makefile.
>
>You mean I have to somehow write a Make file in MPW?  And wait while it is
>rewritten each time I want to compile (or else do it by hand)?  And wait
>some more while it is interpreted each time I want to compile?  My god, are
>we working in the stone ages here?

   Good One!

   But make files are more useful in a general sense of programming.  They
can also be used to maintain different versions of non-code type stuff, as
well as interface specifications.  When working in a multi-person enviroment
LSC method don't work quite as well.  When you have documentation, interface
specifications, rez source code, and different modules on different machines
in the network the only way to do it is with a make file that goes around
to the different machines to check what's the latest version, also since
the make can execute "any" MPW command as part of the make's execution it
is much more useful than simply finding out what needs to be compiled.
   For example my make file goes out to the network, finds the work that
my partner is working on and copies it to my workstation.  Using LSC this
would create a problem, since I would have to do all this in the finder
first.  I want the computer to figure out what I need to do my work, and since
my compilation changes the modules slightly I need to leave a copy undisturbed
on the original machine.
   And since when is being interpreted being in the stone ages?  There are some
very useful points to interpreted languages, can you say symbolic debugging?

   Also MPW is better in  Multi-person enviroment since it has a varity of
languages availible to the shell it allow a multi-person enviroment to choose
the language that they would be most productive in, and once we have the
interfaces specified I don't really have to know, or care what language the
module that I want to use is written in. So once again I submit to you are
we still working in the stone ages.  LSC is wonderful, but it's starts to
fall apart when you scale the development beyond one person, and start 
moving files off your workstation to remote servers, in fact we even store
some code on a local mini-computer, and the make file is able to log on,
retrieve the file, compile it, and distribute it through out our network
so the everybody recieves a copy.
   Learn to use make files before you object to their purpose!

-- 
David M. O'Rourke

Disclaimer: I don't represent the school.  All opinions are mine!