RE: MCL Framework & Directions

[Dave Lucky <76557.704@CompuServe.COM>]

Folks,

Well, my simple mind is boggled.  I just can't figure out where Apple is 
trying to lead Mac developers.  You know, the people who are going to create 
the next "insanely great" application (either for their own organization or to
sell to others).

I've heard how the future of Mac development will be based on object-oriented 
dynamic languages.  Let's see...there's MCL.  How about a new language called 
Dylan?  Today I read that MacApp is down the tubes in about a year and it's 
successor will be Bedrock, which is based on C++.  Bedrock gives two 
absolutely huge wins for lots of developers:  multiple platforms and 
localization with one (maybe) source base.  As a Mac developer that thinks 
that these two issues are very important, I like Bedrock and I don't even know
what hoops I'm going to have to jump through to make it work for me.  Well, 
that's not entirely true.  I do know that I'll be developing in a language 
(C++) that makes me work entirely too hard to design complex data models.

Although I'm still learning MCL, designing data structures and the code to 
operate on them is very pleasant compared to C++.  Garbage collection is great
and the incremental development capability is outstanding.  Without an 
application framework that will give me all the stuff that MacApp currently 
provides and Bedrock will provide, however, I will not be able to use MCL for 
my application development.  It just costs too much to create the stuff in MCL
that I'll get with MacApp or Bedrock.

I'd like someone in the know at Apple to tell me what their objectives and 
strategies are for developers like me.  I've noticed that you are pretty quiet
when discussions about application frameworks occur.  Please tell us what's 
happening.  Like Jeff, I'd also like to hear opinions from other developers.

Regards,
Dave Lucky