Re: Apple and Developers (rekindling the fire)
Re: Apple and Developers (rekindling the fire)
- Subject: Re: Apple and Developers (rekindling the fire)
- From: "Andrew R. Mitchell" <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 01:15:13 -0500
Out of curiosity, how much time have you spent using each of the tools
you mentioned?
Well I started "programming" for the Mac back in 1984 (before that it
was an Apple II using AppleSoft Basic) using Microsoft Basic. After
soon getting fed up with it's limitations (and being tired of waiting
for the long promised Apple Basic), I purchased Mac Pascal to start
learning Pascal. Before long I upgraded to a compiled Pascal in the
form of Lightspeed Pascal, which was later purchased by Symantec and
turned into Think Pascal. For those of you who have used Think Pascal
in the past, I ask why can't we have an environment/debugger today
like Think Pascal with LightsBug gave us?
Along the way I also purchased Borland's Turbo Pascal for the Mac for
use in porting a few pieces of code from the PC, but alas the Mac
implementation was severely lacking. Also being primarily a hobbyist
at this point, I purchased Think C to see what all of the fuss over
the C language was all about. Somewhere in there I also did some
HyperScripting (developing HyperCard stacks) on a contract basis for
a couple of companies.
After returning to school to finish up my computer science degree, I
purchased a copy of QKS's SmallTalk Agents to use for a couple of
independent study projects. At that time I also started to follow
the newly forming language called Dylan coming out of Apple and
Harlequin. Back then Dylan still used a Lisp like syntax, but before
I spent too much time with it Apple switched the language to use a
Pascal like syntax. This is when I absolutely fell in love with the
language.
Before leaving school I also had the opportunity to develop in Object
Pascal using MPW and MacApp. This was definitely not for every Mac
developer (MPW that is), but I honestly didn't mind it. I still
preferred the use of nice IDE nonetheless.
Approaching completion of my degree I started work on an Web server
tool that eventually got me my first full time programming job. Not
wanting to be tied to Pascal, I investigated C++ since Dylan wasn't a
reality for commercial applications just yet (not that it ever turned
into one) and QKS was going through some tough financial times.
At that point I purchased CodeWarrior and Symantec C++, both for C++
development (although I used CW Pascal once and a while for fun). I
kept switching back and forth between the two environments as they
fixed bugs and became usable for real development. I used PowerPlant
for my UI app, but had Symantec won out I would have used TCL.
CodeWarrior is what I have been using exclusively since the mid 90's,
including my Windows and Unix work. After Apple bought Next I started
to experiment with WebObjects and Objective-C, but gave up once it
became clear that Apple was dumping Objective-C development in future
versions of WebObjects. I attended a session given by Apple somewhere
presenting the new Objective-C syntax which I liked very much, but
alas it never came to be.
So that brings us to last November when the company I worked for
decided to move from Boston (where I currently live) to LA. Despite
their efforts to get me to go I stayed in Boston and became
unemployed (however I had the opportunity to play with Java my last
month there). Being unemployed I had plenty of time on my hands so I
started learning Objective-C again and exploring Cocoa. By no means
do I claim I am an Objective-C or Cocoa expert, heck I've only been
playing with them for 5 months now. However I truly like the
Objective-C language, even though I still have problems with the
stupid brackets (looking at them, not using them).
Since November, I've also played with Squeak (a SmallTalk variant),
Dylan (the Gwydion kind), and found that SmallTalk Agents has been
reincarnated in the form of SmallScript (although there is no OS X
version yet).
So do I think Objective-C is the best language to use, no that title
actually goes to Dylan. But since Dylan doesn't exist like it was
promised I will use Objective-C whenever I get the chance. What I
really want is an Objective-C environment with the power of what
Apple showed with Dylan, or at a minimum what I used extensively with
Think Pascal.
Now I realize this doesn't have much to do with Cocoa development,
but you asked. And as for your Cobol coworkers, Cobol is a great tool
for writing certain business logic applications. Not that I ever
would mind you, but I will certainly except the argument that there
are applications where Cobol is the best choice for the job. Oh, I
forgot a couple. Ada has some pretty cool language concepts as well
(I took several classes in it for school), and support under X is
better then it ever was under Classic thanks to the Unix folk.
Finally, I have been using AppleScript since it was born.
To sum up, I have 18 years of Mac development experience using just
about every development environment or language that has ever existed
on the Mac (except Lisp that is, I *really* don't like it's syntax).
Keep Smiling!
Andrew
--
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