Mac Prog FAQ Review
Volume Number: 13
Issue Number: 2
Column Tag: Tools Of The Trade
Macintosh Programming FAQs
By Edward Ringel
Lots of information in a good package
Needed: A Guide for the Perplexed
Recalling my undergraduate course in organic chemistry, my textbook went through a
rather lengthy description of a synthesis. I would read it and I would think I understood
it. I'd then go on to the next page, and an equally daunting process would be left as "an
exercise for the reader," implying that at this point the logic should be pretty
straightforward and any dummy should be able to figure it out. It would be at this point
that I would realize that I wasn't as smart as I thought.
So it is with Mac programming. The first time I tried to put a list in a dialog I
carefully read through Inside Macintosh, Volume IV, and I crashed and burned when
they started talking about event filter procedures and drawing procedures, with
implementation left as an exercise for the programmer.
Things are different from 1986 and 1987, when the List Manager was young, and
System 3.2/Finder 5.3 was new and exciting. There are numerous books and good
examples of introductory techniques. There are very good guides to the proper
construction of a Mac GUI, using standard design elements. Apple has improved its
sample code considerably, and I would argue that it is fairly easy to get started if you
are willing to spend the time.
The road gets rockier when we get to the next level of sophistication. How do you
customize a menu? How do you get the Notification Manager to notify the user? How do
you add the little things that make a program special and professional? Certainly,
there is an accumulated lore and body of experience which is available on the Internet,
in various college and university repositories, the Apprentice CD series, and even
from Apple. However, the information is diffuse, often poorly documented, and highly
variable in quality and content. For the "every man" mainstream programmer, the
person using an unmodified MacHeader straight from Metrowerks or Symantec,
bootstrapping to the next level of sophistication can involve an unreasonably steep
learning curve.
Enter Mac Programming FAQs
Mac Programming FAQs, by Stephen Baker with Dave Mark, is this needed organized
repository of more advanced programming techniques. It is a wonderful book. It
consists of a 600 plus page book plus a CD (we'll get back to the CD contents in a bit.)
After an introduction, the book consists of 650 frequently asked questions about
Macintosh programming, each answered concisely and usually illustrated with code.
I enjoyed this book for several reasons. First, it is simply well written. Baker and
Mark are a good team, and they used a terse, but easy to read style. There was little
ambiguity in the presentation, but at the same time it was not technical or
handbook-like; the information flowed freely from the page. Second, it is written in a
single voice; the approach is that of one individual, and it is easy to stay tuned to the
presentation. Third, the information was accurate. While there were a few typos and
misstatements, there were very few errors of fact. Fourth, this book is a gold mine of
information. I learned a heck of a lot of new stuff, and got a bunch of questions on some
murky topics (for me, at least) answered concisely.
The book purports to address the needs of a wide spectrum of programming skill.
While a few of the questions are those posed at the beginner level, the bulk of the book
addresses advanced and intermediate programming techniques. I suspect that a
beginning programmer who tried to attack this book would certainly get something out
of it, but the experience would be akin to learning to swim at the deep end of the pool.
This book covers questions about mainstream programming. It does not cover
networking issues, writing PCI card drivers, maximizing efficiency of QuickDraw GX
printer drivers, etc. It does cover events, dialogs, lists, menus, printing, notification,
windows, resources and the like. The book is organized along the lines of the various
Managers. Typical questions include:
"How do I get the full path of a file referenced by a vRefNum, parent directory ID, and
filename?" (File Manager.)
"How do I attach an icon to an application?" (Finder and Desktop.)
"How do I change the title of a menu in the menu bar after it has been installed?
(Menus.)
"Why can't I access QuickDraw globals like ‘thePort' anymore?" (QuickDraw:
Drawing.)
"Given a handle to a resource, how can I determine which resource file it came from?
(Resources.)
"How do I draw dimmed (grayed out) text?" (Text: Fonts and Drawing.)
"How do I put a list in a Macintosh model dialog box?" (Lists and the List Manager.)
Some only take a line or two of text to answer. Others, such as the list question, took
three or four pages. In general, I had a pretty good idea of how to do something once I
had read the answer to the question. Questions are cross-referenced, with respect both
to specific FAQs and other more general topics. The only serious criticism I have of
this book is that it tries to address the Apple Event issue. I have found this to be one of
the most difficult areas of mainstream Macintosh programming, and it seems almost
silly to have a few pages of FAQs about this incredibly complex Manager. Fortunately,
the authors have the sense to direct the reader to more appropriate, in-depth
resources, and acknowledge the limited scope of coverage in the book.
The great majority of articles include some code, even if it just shows how to call a
Toolbox function. The code varies from a snippet to a short program, but in my
experience it a) always illustrated the point and b) worked when ran. Examples tended
to be simple enough to follow, but complex enough not to be trivial and to illustrate the
demonstration points successfully. Baker and Mark resisted the temptation to throw in
tricks and to hot dog; I think Apple would approve of just about every technique
demonstrated. All coding and examples are in ANSI C. There is a short series of FAQs
about Pascal versus C, which was the only departure from this observation.
A CD Too!
The CD has three components. First, it contains complete projects (Code Warrior) for
the longer examples. This means source, project file, and resource, as well as a
compiled executable. Second, snippets are contained within Simple Text files for use in
any environment. Third, there is a searchable database that includes every question
asked in the book, with its answer, similarly cross referenced. As I said above, I
experimented extensively with the code, compiled and ran as advertised; the quality
assurance on this material was very good. The database worked well and delivered as
promised. If you like working from the screen and using a search engine better than
using a book and an index, you'll be very happy with the database.
Can I Ask for Better?
Not really. Frankly, I think this is the best forty bucks I've spent in a long time. I feel
as though I have the resources to make my programs more professional in appearance,
and I will waste less time in future projects. Indeed, I suspect that it is people such as
myself, the serious hobbyist/intermediate level programmer who will find this book
the most valuable, precisely for the reasons I just stated. Enjoy!
Mac Programming FAQs, by Stephen H. Baker with Dave Mark. IDG Books, Foster City,
CA. Copyright 1996. ISBN 0-7645-4001-7. List price $39.95.