[G4] learning to carbonize?

[Alex]

On Tuesday, Apr 20, 2004, at 21:51 Canada/Eastern, Anand Keathley wrote:

> [...] Can a G5 even use Classic?

Yes.

> Anyway, I believe the process of adding something (plug-in?) to an OS  
> 9 program so it can be used in OS X is called "carbonizing."[...]

Not quite. Carbon is a procedural C environment, i.e., an application  
development environment based on the C programming language.  
"Carbonizing" means porting (i.e., re-writing, rather than starting  
from scratch) a "Classic" application (i.e., one written for Mac OS 9  
or earlier) to the Mac OS X, so that it runs natively. "Carbonizing"  
involves considerably less effort than writing an application from  
scratch.

> Where can one learn how to do this?

E.g.,
<http://developer.apple.com/referencelibrary/GettingStarted/GS_Carbon/ 
index.html>
<http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/learncarbon/>

> I'm thinking specifically about apps "Outlook Express,"[...]

Fuhgeddaboutit.

First and foremost, OE is proprietary code belonging to a small company  
you might have heard about, called Microsoft. Modify it or use the code  
in any way, and you'll have ten packs of legal wolves howling for your  
blood -- with a cistern of piranhas lining up behind them.

Second, "carbonizing" a major app like OE is a seriously non-trivial  
task. If you want to learn Carbon, that's not what you should start  
with.

Third, free e-mail clients do exist. Mail.app is part of OS X; and if  
that's not good enough for you, try pine.

f