[G4] Programming for Mac OS X

[Brooks Graham]

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Hopefully I'm not giving too much away, but Xcode *is* different enough 
so that if you followed the "click this button then click that button" 
instructions in a tutorial written for the prior versions, you'd have 
some trouble.  Changes to the GUI layout tool, Interface Builder, 
aren't as extreme.

[totally lame analogy]  Think of Xcode as being a word processor.  
Apple has all but replaced the prior word processor with a new one with 
tons of cool new features.  The text you type in is the same, it's just 
done in a different word processor.

The good news is that there haven't been any radical changes to the 
Cocoa environment itself.  The frameworks have been extended a bit, and 
in some exciting ways, but it's totally backwards compatible with 
code/projects from the prior releases.

I'm not sure when Hillegass will update his book for Panther/Xcode.  
Since the dev tools are tied to specific OS X releases (i.e. you can't 
load Xcode on Jaguar or load the Jaguar tools on Panther (I think)) one 
could set up a dual-boot environment with an external firewire drive 
with Jaguar on it if you wanted to do your learning on Jaguar but use 
Panther for "normal" usage.  Or just buy another G5!   (which is how I 
work.  I have a dedicated Mac to do development on - keeps things 
cleaner that way)

Since David asked for opinions, mine would be to learn Cocoa on Jaguar 
and once you feel comfortable move up to Panther/Xcode.  Today, there 
are significantly more and better resources available for Jaguar than 
Panther.  That, coupled with the fact that it's highly unlikely that 
you'd need any of the new stuff anyways, makes Jaguar the better 
learning environment.  IMHO.  A year from now, it'll be different.

Hope that helps.

Go learn Cocoa!  It rocks!

- -bdg


On Thursday, October 9, 2003, at 10:58  AM, Daniel Brieck wrote:

> David,
>
> The programming tools are probably not significantly different in 
> panther when compared to Jaguar's. However, you should go with the 
> most current tools and wait for Pathers' xcode. Then the 
> programming/methods  that you learn will be "more" valid for the next 
> year and a half. That is one thing bad about programming is that you 
> have to learn the basics and then re apply that to changing software 
> and environments.  Very little stays exactly the same for any extended 
> amounts of time when it comes to computer programming. So go with the 
> current stuff learn it will and then keep adapting to what is next....
>
> Dan Brieck Jr.
>
> On Thursday, October 9, 2003, at 12:51  PM, David DelMonte wrote:
>
>> Thanks everyone for answering my question. Next one: should I buy the 
>> current book edition or wait for Panther versions? Are the 
>> programming tools from Apple going to be significantly different in 
>> 10.3?
>>
>> Thanks again
>>
>> David
>>
- -
Brooks Graham
brooksgraham at mac.com
http://www.brooksgraham.com/

"Speak softly and study Aikido, then you won't need a big stick."

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