Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!keith
From: keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: MacApp questions
Message-ID: <27618@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 20 Mar 89 23:53:01 GMT
References: <568190@vaxa.uwa.oz>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 54

In article <568190@vaxa.uwa.oz> a_dent@vaxa.uwa.oz (Andy Dent, ph: 09 380 2620) writes:
>I'm looking for general comments on using MacApp, particularly with either
>Object Pascal and Object Assembler.
>
>1)  What's the speed like on a MacPlus?
>    - is it heavily dependent on CPU power or on disk speed?
>    - if more memory helps, has anyone tried Virtual ?

One of the myths about MacApp is that it is a dinosaur (big and slow). While it
can be considered as large, this is due to the amount of functionality it
gives you. Also, I wouldn't consider it slow, even on a Mac Plus. Most of the
time, the timing critical stuff is done in your own source code. Therefore, if
your MacApp program is slow, it would have been slow anyway.

There is one area where MacApp could be considered slow, though, and that is in
scrolling. The overhead for setting up clipping to views can take a while. If
you are scrolling 2 or three views at once, your might notice speed problems.
However, MacApp DOES try its best to solve this by caching the Focused 
settings when it can. Also, don't take this as an indication that you *WILL*
notice speed problems; just that you *MIGHT*.

>2)  What Pascal's are out there that are compatible with MacApp?

Both TML and Think have Object Pascals. However, TML's is the closest to
being able to compile MacApp (I think that only a few changes to the MacApp
source are needed). Think Pascal 2.0 cannot compile MacApp due to the 
different ways segmentation is handled. (Rich, if I'm wrong, please correct me)

Uh, these are both in addition, of course, to MPW Pascal.

>3)  How hard is it to use Object Assembler?  I got the impression that MacApp
>    only requires you to write relatively small amounts of code and so using
>    Assembler might not be too painful?

There is only one person that I know of that uses Object Assembler, and that is
Rick Wong at Stanford. If there are others out there, I'd like to hear about
your experiences.

>4)  Are there any incompatibilities with System 6?

Not that I've heard of. We've also received fan mail here at Apple from people
who say that they have tested out their software under A/UX with no problems
at all! Without even writing their program with A/UX in mind.

You may not get some functionality if you are using MacApp 1.1.1. For instance,
I don't think that 1.1.1 was MultiFinder aware, and it didn't call WaitNext-
Event (I'm not sure though - I don't have my sources handy).

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"Argue for your Apple, and sure enough, it's yours" - Keith Rollin, Contusions