Charting Resource Map
Volume Number: 6
Issue Number: 9
Column Tag: XCMD Corner
Related Info: Resource Manager
Charting The Resource Map 
By Donald Koscheka, Ernst & Young, MacTutor Contributing Editor
Note: Source code files accompanying article are located on MacTech CD-ROM orsource code disks.
Fourth Party Developers
If you read this column regularly, you may be a charter member of a new class of
programmers that Apple has recently labelled as “Fourth party developers”. This
term is used to denote those programmers who add or modify an existing package for a
customer. By this token, XCMDs are 4th party programs since you are adding code to
an off-the-shelf product (Hypercard) to enhance its capabilities.
4th Party Programming seems to be an interesting way to make a living. First
off, the assignments are manageable since most 4th party work tends to be minor
additions to existing work. Second, the 4th party developer needs to be a master of all
trades. Gone are the days when a programmer could specialize in data base design, or
system software or report generation.
If 4th party programming becomes commercially viable, the practitioner will
need to be well-versed in many areas but it’s a safe bet that you can focus your
expertise on the following: I/O, communications, searching, sorting, report
generation, file translators and graphics. The problem is, most programmers don’t
have a repertoire that spans this wide a spectrum. If you feel equally comfortable
talking LAP as you do discussing the TIFF format, then maybe you should try your hand
at becoming a 4th party programmer.
Personally, I think this area can turn out to be very interesting. I remain