Development Tools

By Larry Nedry, Mousehole, Sysop

From: Sysop

Re: System 7.0

I have just added a new SIG called “System70” for discussion about using System 7.0 and developing applications for System 7.0.

Check it out.

From: Vegard

Re: Development tools

Has anybody got experience or opinions about any of the following:

Serius Developer

Prograph

AppMaker

Prototyper

V.I.P.

I have read the reviews in MacUser, MacWorld and BYTE, but would appreciate personal opinions and experiences. For instance what about AppMaker using the TCL. Is this smart, or are Prototyper’s generated classes just as good? Has anybody run up against serious limitations with any of these tools? Can I expand on the standard User Interface elements that are being provided/generated?

If for instance I would like to make a scroll bar with three different arrows at each end for different scrolling speed, which I guess none of the above offers. (Example only)

What about OWL’s Guide? Anybody used it? How well does it integrate with other tools, for instance the ones above, Think C or HyperCard?

I’d appreciate your comments.

From: Thehulk

Re: Development tools

I like AppMaker and have used it on many occasions. The thing that I like about AppMaker the most is that it has a template language that is modifiable. In other words, with ResEdit you can modify the output of AppMaker and customize it to your hearts content. Yes, people are even using AppMaker to generate (ouch) Windows code. This is possible by creating the correct templates. The 3 different arrows scroll bar would be considered a user defined item (which AppMaker handles). The code that is generated for Think C TCL is not bad. I have not played with the latest version of Prototyper but it generated pretty bad code with version 2.x. That was why I used AppMaker. I have found that AppMaker will generate about 40 to 60 percent of the needed code. I only use AppMaker in the Think C TCL mode. I have heard that the code generated in other modes are not as good as could be but better than the old Prototyper code. All in all, I like AppMaker and I believe it’s worth the price. I used Serius and did not take to it too well. I used VIP and felt that any serious development could not take place with it.

From: Frankh

Re: Development tools

I’ve used both AppMaker and Prototyper, and the code generated by AppMaker is much, much better than the stuff Prototyper produces. Prototyper has *slightly* better tools, but the code is so absolutely awful that you *have* to re-write it. The AppMaker generated code is quite good, modular and you can use it without re-writing it. AppMaker also lets you modify the code templates, so you can fine tune the code AppMaker generates. It’s a good program, far better than Prototyper. As for expanding on the user interface elements - as you mentioned, all of these tools (at least Prototyper and AppMaker) are limited.

The only exposure I’ve had to OWL’s hypertext system is through the PageMaker 3 “help” DA. It was useless - nice looking, but useless.

From: Smug1

Re: Development tools

I am still at the beginning stage, although I have been at it awhile, time devoted... anyway, I have tried V.I.P., as an easy way to program, but since it uses so many of the information used in a “regular” environment (in my case, Think Pascal) I just turned back in. For the trouble (in MY case) I would rather get more versatile with the native code. Also I have Prototyper 2.X, and, if you are not into OOP, it is a much easier environment to use. It generates a LOT of stuff you don’t need, but the interface is pretty good. I am currently using AppMaker, trying to get into the OOP thing. It is not as fun to use as Prototyper, but it has more bells and whistles, and in general gives better code from what I can tell. Of all three, for the future of OOP, AppMaker may be your best choice. (Before buying AppMaker, I contacted SmethersBarnes for update, OOP info, they said maybe in the future it would support OOP & TCL, but when.....???)

[Bowers Development just announced a MacApp compatible version of AppMaker (version 1.2) which will generate code for Object Pascal and C++. This makes it even a better value since SmethersBarnes latest release of Prototyper (version 3.0) had not been updated for awhile, and they declined to give me a shipping date for their update. Translated, this means they are not close to shipping. Maybe we'll hear more at MacWorld in Boston.-ed]

From: Jcm

Re: Concerning SFPGetFile and

multiple selections

I’m trying to write a Think C object using SFPGetFile to get a list of files. Everything works correctly EXCEPT that I am unable to find the correct volume/directory information concerning the file to be added to the list.

While the fName field of my global SFReply record is correctly set at the time of a openButton event in the GetDLOGHook, the vRefNum field is seemingly not valid.

Does anyone have any ideas? Oh yes, I’m using boomerang and need to stay compatible with it.

[The vRefNum is a working directory number under HFS. You should use PBGetWDInfo() to get the real volume reference number and directory ID in ioWDVRefNum and ioWDDirID, respectively. If you are saving this information for future reference, you will need to get the volume’s name with PBGetVInfo() because the volume reference numbers are assigned at mounting time. This will not help you though with volumes of the same name, but it is a start.

From: Arlen

Re: Mac to Vax...burp!

I’ve had some fun working between Vaxen and Macs in the past.

First, command-K won’t prepend the laser prep file to the postscript code, but command-F (I believe) does. In any case, I don’t believe this will work (at least I’ve never gotten it to). I haven’t completely hacked the prep file, but there’s a place in it where it asks if the device is “LaserWriter” (dictionary, not Appletalk name). The DEC lasers aren’t called that, and I believe this is the root of the troubles I’ve had.

Second, in the download area “System” is a DA called AddLPrep. This takes a file gathered by command-K and prepends some of the laser prep file to it. Then try uploading it and printing it. Mark Seeburn of Seeburn Engineering in Cedarburg WI gave AddLPrep to me and he’s used it often. The one uploaded here is for laserwriter driver 5.x, I think so if you’re using 6.x you may be out of luck.

Third, just for grins, did you try activating the print to file button on the laserwriter dialogue with ResEdit? That might trap the full prep file (I don’t know, as I’ve never tried it) and you could hack from there.

General Vax info: Vax uses <cr> for end of record when there is one. Binary files don’t have one. Have you tried “Set File Type Binary” from within Vax Kermit before sending the file up? The VAX print queue will also do some interpretation of the characters sent it, so try /parameter=(data=postscript) on the print command. Don’t know that it’ll work, but its worth a shot.

Wise to pass on Pathworks. Unless your printer is directly connected to the VAX (not attached to a terminal server or such) you still won’t be able to reach it. Silly, yes, but typical of DEC.

From: Jumpcut

Re: ANSI-A4 Help

I’m in the middle of this project and stupidly I loaned out my Think manuals. Can anyone answer this off the top of their head?

I’m writing an INIT that installs a patch that writes to a text file, and I was using fopen(), fseek(), fprintf(), and fclose(). However, I get link errors on these four when building my code resource.

Obviously, they’re not in ANSI-A4. So where are they? They are in the regular ANSI, but that won’t work. The source code for fseek() is on my program disk, but it won’t compile-- it gets some register error.

Any ideas?

From: Lawson

Re: bitmapped image outlining

Youse guys... MacTutor had an article about converting PICTs to Regions (the exact title as a matter of fact). To do so one converts a bitmap to a region, then one can inset region and use FrameRegion to do what you need. Handles donuts, is extremely fast, and the source code is available from MacTutor...June 89, by Ted Cohn... I plan on downloading it myself (that is why I am here today...)...

BTW, for color quick draw, there is a 32-bit QD routine that does all of this for you (BitMapToRgn or somesuch...). It is documented in Vol 1 #1 of develop magazine from Apple.

From: Lawson

Re: THINK C Compilation and RAM cache

The latest issue of Thinkin’ Cap from SPLAh contains benchmarks on speeding up Think C/Pascal. They suggest that 96K for the cache is about optimal...

From: Champ

Re: Asynch Sound and Debug Code

The debug code is messing things up. Apparently, Think’s debug code gets in the way of the callback routine which is called at interrupt time. As soon as I surrounded all the code that gets called at interrupt time with {$D-}...{$D+} everything worked fine. Hope this helps someone else.

From: Derek

Re: Serial Port

I have a question and hope someone can help me. :)

First I was looking for the program called: BusyOut for my BBS, then I decided that since my modem already has a ‘strange’ Hayes command set, that I wanted to write my own equivalent program. :)

The question is how can I do this in Think C? I have written programs in C and Pascal for the Mac, IBM and VAX. I have used the Mac toolbox a lot. But I am kinda rusty. :)

Anyone have a simple code example that I can learn from on how to do this? For this program, the serial port is already open. How I know how large the buffer is, what baud rate? How I send a simple Hayes command, and receive the OK or 0 it returns?

I also want (for another program) to know how to open the port & buffer and also read from it). Sorry if my questions are a bit basic, but I been a little stuck on the serial port and also rusty with the Mac toolbox. :)

Derek Beda

The Next Generation

408-432-3424

FidoNet: 143/270

From: Frankh

Re: Serial Port

I was about to upload my Pascal translation of some simple serial port code (in assembly) that I wrote for MacTutor a while back. Seems that someone has already uploaded it! It’s in the Language library, and it’s called Serial.sit (requires Stuffit Classic to unstuff). Even though it’s in Pascal, it should be easy to translate into C.

From: Emrte

Re: List Manager

I’ve written some number crunching code, the results of which are tables.

So, I thought, here’s the time to get familiar with the List Manager. Using Think C 4.02 and Prototyper 3.0, I generated what I needed (after some mods to the Prototyper code). My next attempt was to try and copy selected cells (which could be disjointed) into the clipboard for copying to a spreadsheet or data graphics app. That’s where I ran into trouble. My routine can follow each selected cell and get its contents, but is there a way to directly access the cell contents of selected cells from the List Record? I guess field delimiters would have to be inserted too.

I’d appreciate any help for this back burner project, perhaps even article or so for those of us in scientific/engineering areas that have worked for ages with Fortran formatting.

Tony Euser

EMR-Canada

MTL@EMRCAN

From: Rguerra

Re: Monitor Depths

Can anyone tell me how one can poll the Slot Manager to find the exact pixel depths that are supported by a given monitor? The Slot Manager chapter isn’t exactly straightforward in this matter. Is there a reference or (better still) a code example showing the data structures or parameter blocks used to do this? I need to be able to grab this info on systems that do NOT implement the newer “HasDepth” calls documented in recent tech notes. Thanks for any help

From: Morendil

Re: video slot

Yep. You have to scan the ‘scrn’ resource Id=0 in the System file. There is a field that gives the screen’s slot number. But this will work only if the resource has been set up correctly. (Some bit in the GDevice tells you whether that is the case). Otherwise, the base address of the bitmap should look like FsXXXXXX, or sXXXXXXX, where s is the slot number.

From: Johnbaro

Re: video slot

Thanks for the info. Is this documented anywhere that you know of?

From: Morendil

Re: video slot

No... At least not in IM. I might send source code, but I can’t upload it here (I’m writing this on a PC !). If you have a fax number maybe... Anyway it’s pretty straightforward once you know what to look for... Try IM V, the chapter on GDevices, it’ll give you a lot of info.

From: Johnbaro

Re: video slot

IM V, the chapter on GDevices doesn’t say much about how to find a video card’s slot - the only place slot is mentioned is in the procedure definitions. You need to pass slot as a parameter in all Retrace Manager calls. Sample code would be great.

From: Michael

Re: OOP

I want to learn OOP; currently, I have Think Pascal 3.0.1, and the TCL that comes with it. Is there a book that someone can recommend to me? I don’t have the money (or the yen currently) to get MPW. What I would like is a book on OOP techniques that uses examples, and that doesn’t rely upon MPW--because I don’t have MPW.

From: Lawson

Re: OOP

The Macintosh Programming Primer (Pascal) vol. II has a tad in the last couple of chapters on Think Pascal and the TCL’s. Thinkin’ CAP from SPLAsh (Symantec Programming Languages Association) has articles about the TCL’s. The editor/publisher is Greg (TCL) Dow. Can’t find the address, but it is available from Symantec.

The MacApp books from the Macintosh Inside Out series are pretty good, but MPW-oriented. Object Oriented Programming for the Macintosh uses MPW Pascal, but Think Pascal is pretty much compatible with MPW (Object) Pascal. Hope this helps...

From: Thehulk

Re: irregular windows

You need to familiarize yourself with WDEF’s to get irregular shaped windows.

From: Don

Re: irregular windows

Thanks for the response I’m new at BBS operation and am looking for a couple of examples so that I can understand what’s in Inside Macintosh. If you have some suggestions I would very much appreciate them. I will work on the WDEFs though in the mean time.

From: Thehulk

Re: irregular windows

Do yourself a favor and order the compiled versions of MacTutor. They have articles on things like irregular window WDEFs. Good Luck.

From: Thehulk

Re: Mouse Drawing

Are you looking for specific code to do this or the general idea? I’ll give you the general idea but you really should try to work this out yourself if you are learning to program. First you look for a mouse down event and get the position of the mouse (in the current grafport) and then you wait for a mouse up event and note the new position of the mouse (in the event record) and the use a QuickDraw call LineTo() with the coordinates of the mousedown position. Sounds like you could use the book Macintosh Programming Primer by Mark & Reed. (Actually you don’t really even need to note the mouse up position for simple line drawing.)

From: Don

Re: Mouse Drawing

Thanks again for the info I am currently working my way through the Macintosh Programming Primer when I have the time (I don’t have much), and I’ll go ahead and try to puzzle out the code. Thanks again

From: Richard

Re: Think C error message

WindowInit() {

gHelloWindow=GetNewWindow( BASE_RES_ID,

NIL_POINTER, MOVE_TO_FRONT );

ShowWindow (gHelloWindow );

SetPort (gHelloWindow );

MoveTo (HORIZONTAL_PIXEL, VERTICAL_PIXEL );

DrawString(“\pHello, World”);

}

I type in the sample program from Macintosh Programming PRIMER Volume I and try to run this program. At line-8 “DrawString(“\pHello, World”);”, I have an error message which said “illegal instruction” when I run the program. Could someone tell me what wrong with it? I believe there is no typing error.

From: Istewart

Re: Think C error message

I presume that this is just a fragment of the complete program. Have you made sure that you’ve added the appropriate WIND resource to your project’s .rsrc (resource) file? This routine ISN’T checking that the GetNewWindow completed properly, and if the resource isn’t there, it won’t.