From: gurgle@netcom.com (Pete Gontier)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Bedrock, What Do We Know So Far?
Date: 16 Dec 92 05:59:44 GMT
Organization: cellular

urban@stout.atd.ucar.edu (Art Urban (PROFS)) writes:

>Okay, so I keep hearing about Bedrock.

I just got back from a Software Entrepeneur's Forum meeting
in which some Bedrock folks disclosed almost nothing that I
hadn't already seen in the press. But it happens to be fresh
in my mind at this very second, so maybe I can say something
useful.

> I hear that there will be no further upgrades to MacApp due to Bedrock.

There will be no MacApp 4. There will be bug fixes to MacApp 3.
Bedrock *is* MacApp 4. Or MacApp 3 is Bedrock 0, to misquote
the Symantec guy. That doesn't mean Bedrock looks a whole lot
like MacApp; I got the impression that the concepts were similar
but the names have been changed to protect the guilty. This is
a little bit less interesting than the earlier story patrolling
the press about how Bedrock used MacApp as a core. Apparently
no longer true.

> Bedrock's developers have a sword of Damocles hanging over their
> heads while they talk.

It's worse than that. The Symantec guy at the meeting said "We
hope to have an early development version out (to selected
developers) in April." When someone pointed out they were supposed
to ship in the first half of 1993, and that meant, roughly, June,
the Symantec guy's response was "It's a hard problem."

>So my question is, what do we really know about Bedrock? What is it? Can I
>stop using TCL?

Symantec sees TCL as a different sort of scale and a different sort
of class library. Bedrock is supposed to be an application framework,
as opposed to an interface class library. (TCL folks call their beastie
an application framework, too; go figure.) Being not any too
familiiar with TCL, I'm at a loss to come with the essence of
the difference the Symantec guy was trying to communicate.

As a side note, whenever anybody asked about specific TCL issues,
the Symantec guy would defer to "the Bedford (MA) guy", who of
course was 3000 miles away from the meeting. I wonder which
THINK guy he meant...

>Will there be *good* documentation?

Apparently, there may be several forms of online documentation in
addition to whatever quality dead trees they ship.

>Will it include an interface construction kit? What will it do?
>What will it not do?

There will be something along the lines of MacApp ViewEdit. They also
made noises about a more general-purpose resource editor but were not
terribly specific.

>Who are the developers?

Symantec and Apple.

>When *might* we see it?

You might guess I'm a bit skeptical about the projected ship date.

>Will it be Apple's answer to NeXT's NeXT Step? ...

I think not. NeXTStep is much more integrated than Bedrock seems
to be. That doesn't mean it's better or worse. But hell, NeXTStep
is supposed to be running on the 486 RSN, so I don't think this
is a particularly interesting interaction.

>I'm interested in all information, no matter how trivial. Perhaps we
>should begin compiling this info for other wanaknows...

Write the SEF for the newsletter about the meeting. Or go to MacWorld
and see the same presentation. I'm better at answering questions
than presenting summaries.
-- 
 Pete Gontier // EC Technology // gurgle@netcom.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer