Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ogicse!ucsd!ames!zodiac!anders@penguin
From: anders@penguin (Anders Wallgren)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Obligatory beginning-Mac-programmer questions
Message-ID: <11245@zodiac.ADS.COM>
Date: 14 Mar 90 16:15:27 GMT
References: <2392@milton.acs.washington.edu> <319FHPY@xavier.swarthmore.edu>
Sender: news@zodiac.ADS.COM
Reply-To: anders@penguin (Anders Wallgren)
Organization: Verity
Lines: 30
In-reply-to: jackiw@cs.swarthmore.edu (Nick Jackiw)

In article <319FHPY@xavier.swarthmore.edu>, jackiw@cs (Nick Jackiw) writes:
>phaedrus@milton.acs.washington.edu (The Wanderer) writes:
>> 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?)
>
>I believe only the just-released THINK PASCAL 3.0 is compatible with MacApp
>(beside MPW, of course).  Not much has been discussed on its ease of use in
>THINK.  If you are already acquainted with object-oriented programming, MacApp
>may make things easier for you.  If not, postpone getting it.  Again, the
>Mac's interface is defined procedurally; learning OOP simultaneously, while
>career-wise, is going to detract from learning the Mac.  Also, from what I
>understand, while MacApp provides a wonderfully advanced starting-block for
>any application development,  in the course of getting the exact functionality
>you seek you must be prepared to modify the MacApp sources.  This, of course,
>implies prior knowledge of both Mac structure and object-oriented programming
>techniques.
>

Just to clarify - you don't need to modify the MacApp sources - this
is one of the beauties of OOP.  You do however, define your own
objects as subclasses of MacApp's classes, and, in this sense, you
modify MacApp.  Occasionally, you need your MASBA (MacApp Source
Breathing Apparatus - Keith Rollin's phrase, not mine) to figure out
what you're supposed to be doing, but I've never found it necessary to
touch the MacApp source code with anything other than a highlighter.

anders