Tutorials Introduction

 t What Is Covered in the Tutorials?
 t How Is Material Covered in the Tutorials?

t
What Is Covered in the Tutorials?

This part of the manual, called “Tutorials,” emphasizes hands-on experience using Prograph without the detailed step-by-step instructions of the Grand Tour.

Chapter 5, “The Editor/Interpreter Environment,” introduces you to sources of information about the Prograph language that are built into Prograph. Knowing how to use these online help and information features lets you learn while doing. In addition, a range of interpreter features facilitates your inspection and editing of Prograph programs while they are running. By giving you the capability to see what is happening while it is happening, Prograph, the visual language, becomes Prograph, the visible language.

Chapter 6, “Language Basics: Classes,” is a detailed exploration of Prograph’s object-oriented classes and subclasses. You investigate inheritance, overshadowing, and super operations in the context of a class-based simulation.

Chapter 7, “Language Basics: Methods,” investigates method case structure and local methods for conditional execution. You explore control annotations and multiplexes through exercises that provide insight into Prograph’s data-driven programming power.

Chapter 8, “Application Builder Basics,” explores Prograph System classes used in conjunction with the Application Builder editors. This tutorial extends your introduction to interface construction started in chapter 3, “The Grand Tour: Application Builder.” Here you create and manipulate more elaborate menu and window objects. You begin using Macintosh QuickDraw graphics with Prograph Canvas objects to enhance the basic interface provided by the Prograph Window Item classes. This tutorial moves beyond system basics into design and development methodology.
 
Chapter 9, “Compiling Your Program,” introduces the Prograph compiler and the process of producing stand-alone, double-clickable applications from your Prograph code. You learn to create a project, add a Prograph source file and library files to it, and build an application. You also review how the compiler catches and reports errors, and how you then switch to the interpreter to correct them.

When you have completed the tutorials, you will be fully prepared to use Prograph for your own programming objectives. Of course, it is not possible to cover everything in the tutorials. Make sure you survey the material covered in the Reference manual, and use liberally the available online help to support your initial independent use of this dynamic programming language. In a relatively short time, you will find yourself solving real development challenges more quickly with Prograph than with any programming language you have used to date.

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How Is Material Covered in the Tutorials?

Since Prograph is a visual language, it is often easier to give instructions visually rather than in words. That is, the tutorials often ask you to:

u
Create a method that looks like this:

rather than instruct you to:

u
Create a method with two input roots. Create a Get name operation off of the first input-bar root. Feed the name attribute-value output from the Get operation into a "join" operation. Connect a datalink from the second input-bar root to the right terminal of the "join" operation. Get the list of students from the Students persistent and attach the string resulting from the "join" operation to the end of the list. Store the appended list back in the Students persistent.

To make following “picturesque” instructions easier, chapter 5, “The Editor/Interpreter Environment,” details many productivity-enhancing features of the editor and interpreter environment. Turn now to chapter 5 and begin exploring the Prograph tutorials.