Application Framework

[Rich Parker <75300.2405@CompuServe.COM>]

Howard,

I _knew_ you would respond to the request for an application framework, so I
didn't indicate to Dave what you were working on.

I'm as interested as anyone else in having some kind of framework within which
I can develop MCL applications. As a complete MCL novice, I'm fairly
overwhelmed with the scope of the language. Creating code generation templates
for AppMaker is clearly the way to go.

I hope that you also are able to create resources, from which parameters the
views are instantiated. This is contrary to the wholly procedural focus of MCL
at this time, but entirely on point for Macintosh applications.

As far as getting source code from Spec Bowers, forget it! The code generation
template language is entirely open, as you know, and as AppMaker moves into the
next generation, Spec has promised to make the resource generator more
programmable as well.

I am also trying to shy away from MacApp, though I like the framework that it
provides for constructing applications; however, it requires too many resources
to develop applications in the MPW/C++/MacApp environment.

THINK C and the TCL provide a good environment for development, but it's
entirely static and lacks the power and flexibility of MCL. I would sure like
to see MCL grow up into a "real" Macintosh application, with a really good
environment, like those in the Symantec products. In addition, a complete
application framework would make it very hard to resist, particularly if the
resulting standalone apps were at least "reasonable" in size. I don't mind an
app that takes 350-500 Kb...but when a simple app is over a megabyte in size,
it's way too big.

Best of luck with your work with AppMaker and let me know if I can answer any
questions about the way it works for the other languages. I'm fairly familiar
with it. :-)

I'm definitely interested in being part of a discussion group involving this
topic. While I don't have much to offer in the way of MCL "smarts", maybe I can
make up for it with my knowledge of TCL, MacApp, and AppMaker.

-rich-