About This Book(IM: QC)

Inside Macintosh: QuickTime Components /

Preface - About This Book
This book describes the components supplied by Apple Computer, Inc.,
with QuickTime. A component is a code resource that is registered by the Component Manager. To understand components fully, you should be familiar with the material in the chapter "Component Manager" in Inside Macintosh: More Macintosh Toolbox, which describes how to build a component.
This book provides a complete technical reference to movie controller components, standard image-compression dialog components, image compressor components, sequence grabber components, sequence
grabber channel components, sequence grabber panel components, video digitizer components, movie data exchange components, derived media handler components, clock components, and preview components.
You should read this book if you are developing an application that uses QuickTime components, or if you are developing a component that will be managed by the Component Manager. Whether you are developing a component or an application that uses components, you need to know how to call component functions. See the chapter "Component Manager" in Inside Macintosh: More Macintosh Toolbox for information on using components. If you are developing a component, you should also read the material in that chapter that describes how to build a component.
Each of these chapters discusses the features provided by a component type as well as the interface supported by components of that type. The interfaces are formatted for use by application developers. If you are developing a component, you must design and implement your component in a way that satisfies this interface.
If you are developing an application that can play movies, you should consider using movie controller components to manage your movie user interface. To learn about the capabilities of movie controllers, read the chapter "Movie Controller Components." If you are developing a movie controller component, the chapter also describes the interfaces that your component must support.
If you want to use a standard image-compression dialog component in your application, you should read the chapter "Standard Image-Compression Dialog Components." If you want to create your own standard
image-compression dialog component, you should be familiar with all of the information in that chapter.
If you are developing an image compressor component, you should read all the material in the chapter "Image Compressor Components."
If you are writing an application that needs to acquire data from sources external to the Macintosh computer, or if you are developing a sequence grabber channel component, you should read the chapter "Sequence Grabber Components."
If you are developing a sequence grabber channel component, you should also read the chapter "Sequence Grabber Channel Components."
If you plan to create a sequence grabber panel component, you should read the chapter "Sequence Grabber Panel Components."
If you want to develop or use a video digitizer component, you should read the chapter "Video Digitizer Components."
If you plan to create either movie data import or movie data export components, or if you are writing an application that uses components of this type, you should read the chapter "Movie Data Exchange Components."
If you plan to develop a derived media handler component, you should read the chapter "Derived Media Handler Components."
If you want to develop your own clock component for use by the Movie Toolbox, you should read the chapter "Clock Components," which describes what you must do to create a clock component.
If you want to develop your own preview component, you should read the chapter "Preview Components," which tells what to do to create a preview component.
If you are going to play movies or compress images, you should
be familiar with QuickDraw and Color QuickDraw, described in Inside Macintosh: Imaging. If you are going to create QuickTime movies,
you should be familiar with the Sound Manager, described in
Inside Macintosh: More Macintosh Toolbox, and with the human interface guidelines, described in Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines.
The companion to this book, Inside Macintosh: QuickTime, describes QuickTime, an extension of the Macintosh system software that enables you to integrate time-based data into mainstream Macintosh applications. That book also provides a complete technical reference to the Movie Toolbox, the Image Compression Manager, and the movie resource formats.

Preface Contents

Format of a Typical Chapter

Conventions Used in This Book

Special Fonts

Types of Notes

Development Environment

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