From: dent@DIALix.oz.au (Andrew Dent)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps,comp.sys.mac.programmer,comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Your experience with AppMaker
Date: 13 Dec 1992 21:04:35 +0800
Organization: DIALix Services, Perth, Western Australia
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.dialix.oz.au
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.4.19 #1

In <1gcq0aINN160@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> al862@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Brent D. McLe
an) writes:
>      My experiences with AppMaker have been mixed. AppMaker certainly
>does what it says. It will produce almost all the interface elements of
>your program as long as you don't stray too far from Apple guidelines.
>libraries (object oriented) if you desire.
>      While it does the job there are a number of bad points. First is
>speed. The program is quick enough while creating the resources, but
>converting to actual code is slow, a couple minutes being normal for a
>moderate sized program on my LC. 
I donn't regard this as partiuclarly slow!
>Second, the interface of AppMaker
>itself could use some improvement. 
Grantted!
>with AppMaker (just a C is written in C) and this limits it somewhat.
>      Another qualm was the naming scheme AppMaker uses. For ease of
>use the program names variables dealing with a dialog element by the
>text used in the interface. For example if you have static text that
>says 'Volume' then all variables dealing with that static text element
>will contain 'Volume'. This is good to keep variables straight in your
>head. Unfortunately, if you have multiple elements by the same name,
>like I did with multple labels of 'Hz' the AppMaker will call all those
>variables HzText, not HzText1, HzText2, etc. Obviously if its calling
>all these seperate elements by the same name, you are going to have
>problems. 
This is a problem that I expect will be fixed in the next version as
I've had positive messages some time ago on this and related topics,
from the author.
>      My last comment is not a fault of AppMaker, its the inevitable
>consequence of program of this type. AppMaker generates most all the
>code you will need. The code it generates will handle multi-tasking,
>cut-and-paste, balloon help, etc. That's a lot of code and you have to
>sort through it to find the points where to insert your code that
>actually does something. The way they accomplish tasks may not be the
>way you would have and the code will be divided into many segments.
>Especially if you are new to Mac programming, as I am, this can be very
>confusing.
The confusion and ease of modification is a lot less if you get into 
using the Think Class Library - the OO paradigm makes it a lot easier
to manage overriding behaviours and AppMaker's support of TCL is
EXCELLENT - both the letter and the spirit of the rules are followed.

Incidentally, whilst MarksMan has a nicer interface and better colour
support, the poor quality of TCL generation and difficulty of managing
code is one reason I switched to AppMaker.

Andy Dent (A.D. Software - Mac & VAX programming)
94 Bermuda Dve, BALLAJURA  Western Australia  6066
Phone/Fax: 09 249 2719 (local)  +619 249 2719 (International)
       Internet: dent@DIALix.oz.au    Compuserve: 100033,3241

Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps