About MPW...

MPW (Macintosh Programmer's Workshop) is a product designed specifically for professional Macintosh software developers. It brings together a comprehensive collection of Macintosh core development tools designed to support C, C++, and assembly-language programmers who are writing software for Mac OS 7.x/8.x/9.x. MPW is an open, configurable, and scriptable development environment which provides the flexibility to support complex software development projects for 68K and Power Macintosh systems.

MPW can be used as a general-purpose C/C++ development environment since it includes an editor, assemblers and C/C++ compilers for generating MC680x0 and PowerPC code, and the necessary build support tools such as linkers and a resource compiler. But its appeal is much broader since it includes dozens of additional tools for performing a variety of file-related operations that would be difficult or awkward to do in any other way. As a result, many programmers use MPW even if they are also using other popular development environments such as Metrowerks CodeWarrior or Symantec C++ for Macintosh.

For several years, MPW was provided as part of the E.T.O. CD. The last E.T.O. CD that contained MPW was E.T.O. #23 published in March 1997. MPW is now provided as part of the Developer CD, a monthly series of CD-ROMs that are sent to members of Apple's developer programs. MPW is also available free from the Apple Developer FTP site.

The major components of MPW are as follows:

MPW Shell

The Shell is the centerpiece of the MPW development environment. It is an integrated multiwindow text editor and command executer which supports numerous built-in commands and a powerful scripting language that allows you to customize the environment to suit your needs. The Shell also includes Projector, an integrated source code control system that simplifies the management of large, complex software projects being worked on by a team of programmers.

SC/SCpp -- C and C++ Compilers (68K)

SC and SCpp are ANSI-compliant 680x0-code-generating C and C++ compilers that are faster than previous compilers included with MPW, run in native mode on a Power Macintosh, and support the CFM-68K runtime model.

MrC/MrCpp -- C and C++ Compilers (PowerPC)

MrC and MrCpp are MPW compilers which offer greatly improved turnaround time and also generate efficient and highly-optimized PowerPC code for fastest binary execution on Power Macintosh systems. MrC adheres to the ANSI C standard (ANSI X3.159-1991) and MrCpp adheres to the ANSI C++ working paper (ANSI X3J16) except for templates and exception handling (a prerelease version of the compiler supports these two capabilities).

Assemblers (68K and PowerPC)

Two assemblers are included, one which supports the full 68xxx instruction set and the other which supports the PowerPC instruction set. The 68xxx assembler supports all the instructions and addressing modes for the MC68000, MC68010, MC68020, and MC68030 microprocessors, the MC68851 Paged Memory Management Unit (PMMU), and the MC68881 and MC68882 Floating-Point Coprocessors, in all usable combinations.

MPW Tool and Script Suite

Dozens of tools and scripts are included to assist in the development process. These include linkers, a Make tool, resource manipulation and analysis tools, file comparison utilities, and many more.

Read our MPW Advantages document for more information.

 

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