Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!endor!siegel
From: siegel@endor.harvard.edu (Rich Siegel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Obligatory beginning-Mac-programmer questions
Message-ID: <2217@husc6.harvard.edu>
Date: 14 Mar 90 14:37:18 GMT
References: <2392@milton.acs.washington.edu>
Sender: news@husc6.harvard.edu
Reply-To: siegel@endor.UUCP (Rich Siegel)
Organization: Symantec Language Products Group
Lines: 56

In article <2392@milton.acs.washington.edu> phaedrus@milton.acs.washington.edu (The Wanderer) writes:
>
>     A few quick questions:
>     Aside from Inside Mac and the other official documentation, what books
>would you recommend for an experienced Pascal/C programmer trying to learn
>the Macintosh programming structure?

	"How to Write Macintosh Software" and "Macintosh Programming Secrets",
both by Scott Knaster. The first is a good guide to coping with the OS, and
the second describes lots of interesting Toolbox tricks.

	Another good book is the TMON user's manual. It comes with a free
machine-level debugger.

>     Which development environment would you recommend for said experienced
>programmer, on a limited budget (still working on paying off the Mac)?
>User-friendliness, a good debugger, and clear documentation are all key
>issues.

	THINK C or THINK Pascal. They fill all of your criteria.

>     How much easier does MacApp make the programming process?  Assuming it's
>the wonderful base I've heard it is and I immediately rush out to use it, how
>strongly should that influence the development environment I buy?  (How many
>contortions do I have to go through to use MacApp with Think Pascal, that I
>could avoid by using MPW?)

	Ultimately, MacApp helps a lot, but the learning curve is very long.
It shouldn't make a difference in your choice of Pascal compiler; THINK
Pascal 3.0 supports MacApp practically out of the box, with some automatic
conversion.

	Both THINK C and THINK Pascal include the THINK Class Library, which
is similar in concept to MacApp, but is much easier to learn and use; you
can always save your pennies and get MacApp later if the TCL doesn't suit your needs.

>     (Besides, I'm curious to see how our friend from Symantec will reply...)
	
	You'll have to give me better bait than that. :-)

R.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Rich Siegel
 Staff Software Developer
 Symantec Corporation, Language Products Group
 Internet: siegel@endor.harvard.edu
 UUCP: ..harvard!endor!siegel

"When someone who makes four hundred and fifty dollars an hour wants to
tell you something for free, it's a good idea to listen."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~