AppMaker 2.0 Review
Volume Number: 13
Issue Number: 4
Column Tag: Tools Of The Trade
By Edward Ringel
Now building graphical interfaces for almost any framework
you can imagine
The Basics
Flipping through one or two issues of MacTech will almost certainly reveal an
advertisement for AppMaker from Bowers Development Corporation. Although this
product was reviewed in MacTech/ MacTutor in 1989 (AppMaker vs. Prototyper,
volume 5) we (the editors and I) felt that a revisit to this product was timely, given
many changes in both the character of the product and corporate support policy.
This application interface generator is a solid tool that delivers as promised, and is in
the best Macintosh tradition of easy and intuitive use, cutting edge technology, and
value-rich updates. Documentation has lagged behind product development, and this
will be a source of frustration to some users, particularly those new to programming
in general and the Macintosh in particular. Additionally, some users, again
particularly those new to programming, may be surprised at what the program does
not do.
The concept behind AppMaker is quite simple. Using a drawing interface, the user
designs windows, alerts, dialogs and menus selecting elements from a palette of
controls, icons, pictures, etc. After the interface has been developed, the programmer
generates source code and resources to implement the interface in the development
system (language, IDE, plus framework) of the developer's choice. (I am going to use
the term development system repeatedly throughout the article to refer to the
combination of language, IDE, and framework.) We'll start our review with the
contents of the distribution CD.
AppMaker as currently shipped consists of a single CD and a manual. AppMaker is a
product in evolution and the CD contains several versions of the application. I reviewed
and used versions 1.5.9 and 2.0b6 (Mailing #5). I subsequently reviewed 2.0fc1
(Mailing #6), primarily to update this article. (Mailing #7 will be out by the time
this review appears in print.) The 1.5.x series of versions (more on why a series of
versions below) is a stable, fully documented product that can be used to generate the
resources and code to create applications in procedural C, procedural Pascal, Object
Pascal TCL/MacApp 2.0, Object C TCL, C++ TCL 2.0 and MacApp 3.0/3.1. PowerPlant
is not supported, nor is the most current version of MacApp. Fortran is available as an
add-on. The 2.0fc1 application is the only current version of AppMaker 2.0 and is the
first non-beta version of the 2.0 series of applications. PowerPlant, TCL 2.0, MFC,