Rhapsody SimpleText
Volume Number: 13
Issue Number: 11
Column Tag: Rhapsody
A Simple Word Processor...on Rhapsody
by Andrew Stone, Chief Executive Haquer, Stone Design Corp
Here is a Simple Rich Text and Graphics Word Processor you
can build yourself in 20 minutes on Rhapsody
Leveraging the power of Rhapsody is your key to building cool apps quickly. If I asked
you "How many lines of code would you have to write to implement a word procesor
that reads/writes rich text files (including full support for graphics of EPS, TIFF,
JPEG, PICT, GIF, etc type), full font support, full rulers with tabs and hanging
indents, full support for color, printing, faxing and saving as PS with embedded fonts".
But wait, before you answer, that's not all (can you hear the Ginzu knife salesman
yet?)... "What if it also had ligatures, kerning, superscripting, justification,
underlining, ability to drag out graphics, copy and paste of contents and copy and paste
of font styles? Don't answer yet, because it will also run on Windows95 and Windows
NT, and has a built-in spell checker.
If I said 13 lines of code and that you'll be done in 20 minutes, would you believe it?
This is why I quit developing on the Mac in 1989 when I saw my first NeXT demo, and
why I'm happy as heck to be developing on a Mac in 1997!
First look at Rhapsody
The week before Macworld Boston 97, the Rhapsody Group at Apple invited several key
OpenStep developers out to Cupertino to port their wares to Rhapsody running on the
PowerPC. It was a great privilege to be included in this 3 day Kitchen - a MacHack
with the Apple engineers dropping in and helping us at all hours. And, as promised,
create, compile, and it "just worked".
This article will take you step-by-step through the process of creating a new
application, building the user interface, generating the skeleton class code, filling in
the 13 lines required, compiling and testing your word processor. If you encounter
terms you don't recognize, please refer to the online documentation for developers,
especially
/NextLibrary/Documentation/NextDev/TasksAndConcepts/DevEnvGuide/DevGuide.rtfdp
Note that this article was written before the Developer release, so be aware that the
screenshots may be a bit out-of-date! Note also that the purpose is to show how easy it
is to get going, not good application architecture!
How to Build It
Step 0: Install the Rhapsody Developer release on your Power Mac, if you haven't done
so already. Refer to Apple's instructions on how to do this.
1. Launch ProjectBuilder.app (aka "PB").
It's in /NextDeveloper/Apps, just double-click it.
2. Click Project - New...
An OpenPanel will come up - select "Application" for project type in the pop-up
menu, type in "sWord" and "OK".
