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From: day@grand.UUCP (Dave Yost)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: A plea for revised mac programming documentation
Message-ID: <496@grand.UUCP>
Date: 14 May 89 00:59:05 GMT
Organization: Grand Software, Inc., 213-650-1089, Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 35

Imagine...

It's 1990.  A programmer, perhaps already expert in
another type of system, finally gets the message that
the Mac is great, and wants to learn how to program it.

Scenario 1:

    He (or she) goes out and buys the Technical
    Introduction, the Software Introduction, the Hunan
    Interface Guidelines, the Multifinder Notes volumes
    1 - 3, Inside Mac volumes I - VII, all 473 Tech
    Notes, the MacApp documentation and sources, and
    "Tips from Apple insiders on the Net" (5,344
    pages).  While struggling through this material, he
    watches the net to look for bits of wisdom, finds
    brisk traffic about all sorts of tricky problems.
    Five months later he takes a job as a farm hand.

Scenario 2:

    He goes out and buys The Macintosh Technical
    Documentation, Version 7.0 (10 volumes).  These
    books have revision bars in the margin for the
    benefit of old-timers, but he ignores them.  He
    reads the tutorial in the first few volumes, feels
    like he has a clear and consistent view of mac
    software, then he proceeds to produce good code,
    occasionally referring to the reference material in
    the remaining volumes, and to the 200-page, totally
    complete two-level Index.

We can wish.

 --dave