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From: lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Obligatory beginning-Mac-programmer questions
Message-ID: <7183@goofy.Apple.COM>
Date: 14 Mar 90 18:54:43 GMT
References: <2392@milton.acs.washington.edu>
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Organization: Objects-R-Us,  Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 36

In article <2392@milton.acs.washington.edu> 
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, 

MacApp eliminates the need to understand every detail of the Toolbox 
before you can write your program.  If what you want to do is write a 
Macintosh applications that prints, saves document, etc. then MacApp is 
the way to go.

If you want to learn about the details of the Macintosh Toolbox, then 
MacApp will probably be a distraction.  It will take some digging to find 
out where MacApp does its scrolling (for example), so it's not the best 
way to understand the Control Manager.  For that there are some skeleton 
programs that you can use.

The learning curve for MacApp is not as bad as people think, especially if 
you compare it to learning the necessary chapters of Inside Macintosh.  
(Not to mention all the little programming tricks that are scattered in 
Tech Notes and peoples' heads.)  

The best approach is to play with the sample programs and try to 
understand what's going on.  There's also a very good tutorial now, which 
builds a simple icon editor from the ground up.  (There's also a book 
coming out in the next month, which is largely based on the MacApp class 
run by Apple's Developer University.  I was one of the co-authors.)

Most of the comments above should apply equally well to the THINK Class 
Library, although I haven't looked at it.  I'm told that it is simpler 
than MacApp, so that might help with the learning curve.

Larry Rosenstein, Apple Computer, Inc.
Object Specialist

Internet: lsr@Apple.com   UUCP: {nsc, sun}!apple!lsr
AppleLink: Rosenstein1