September 93 - ObjectMaster
ObjectMaster
Vinko Tsui
ObjectMaster is an object-oriented development tool available on the Macintosh. It
provides a total environment, including the ability to display a class tree of your
application. Its a source code editor that knows about object-oriented classes, methods,
and member fields.
In version 1.0 ObjectMaster introduced one of the only integrated object-oriented
development tools. With version 2.0 it has further enhanced the environment for its
existing users, and hopes to gain some new ones.
the original
General Features of ObjectMaster
ObjectMaster is a "generic" object-oriented code development tool. It is a real life
demonstration of Apple's concept for having applications do a few things very well and
rely on others for specific tasks. ObjectMaster (OM) accomplished this using the
standard suite of AppleEvents plus a few other custom ones.
OM does not have a built in compiler, resource editor or debugger; it lets the user
choose these tools. It then uses AppleEvents to execute the appropriate tool for the
corresponding task.
OM is not only for users of object-oriented languages. It is also accommodating to
users of non-object-oriented Programming languages. This is because OM has an
editing environment with custom formatting and macro facilities in the File window,
and the capability of managing your procedures with its Browser window.
Object-oriented programmers will be happy to know that OM will assist you in
subclassing Super Classes and even allows you to choose the methods to override. It
also allows you to mark the classes so that OM can distinguish the difference between
custom classes and components or other class libraries.
Aside from the standard editor capabilities, it also colorizes the keywords in your
source, like the comments, compiler options and keywords from programming
languages. You can customize this easily via a dialog, and these settings are
programming language specific. There are sets for Pascal, C/C++ and Modula-2. It
also accommodates source code from other platforms by allowing the users to define
their own keywords to ignore or to have values of either TRUE or FALSE.
One thing the 4th Dimension users will feel familiar with are the menu bars in the OM
windows similar to those in 4th Dimension. In version 2.0 the user can choose