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- From: SOFTARCH.DEV@AppleLink.Apple.COM (Software Architects, C Nelson,PRT)
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.oop.macapp3
- Subject: MacApp's Flames & Futures
- Message-ID: <728223876.6594318@AppleLink.Apple.COM>
- Date: 28 Jan 93 12:18:00 GMT
- Sender: daemon@Apple.COM
- Organization: AppleLink Gateway
- Lines: 60
-
- Attn: MacApp3TECH$
- Attn: Eric Berdahl
- SentBy: Carl Nelson
-
- SUBJECT MacApp's Flames & Futures OFFICE MEMO 1/28/93
- 2:45 AM
- Folks,
-
- MADA came into existance as a place for folks doing Object Oriented
- Programming to share their hard-won knowledge in using an Application
- Framework to deliver Macintosh Applications. (I should know as one of the
- founding fathers - Aug 1986 and currently a board member). Since then the
- technology&industry have progressed and needs have changed. The MacApp
- community has helped to drive Apple's Framework & OOP direction. MADA and
- its membership (you) have also been instrumental in filling the gaps that
- Apple has left in its delivery of MacApp and OOP.
-
- This community can rightfully complain about how Apple has gone about
- developing and delivering its technology for us to use. BUT I do not think
- MacApp will go away just as the PDP 8 or Apple ][ did not disappear when the
- next generation (or product line) of CPU was introduced by their respective
- manufacturer. MacApp is a complex technology created to support application
- development. A worthy occupation that will not likely soon go away.
-
- MacApp is a technology that will need to be supported (either by its users
- (you) or some appropriate arrangment with MADA, yourselves and Apple) for as
- long as you feel it is useful in supporting and creating great new products
- with it. The MADA board is actively pursuing ways of making this happen. We
- do not want to talk about that which we can not deliver. We ask that you stay
- active in MADA and share and contribute your hard-won knowledge so others may
- prosper and grow.
-
- Apple for 5 years said "MacApp is the way to go... Choose MacApp and you will
- be on the right path..." and they delivered (to some extent) on the promise.
- Some of you have to admit that MacApp 2.0 and 3.0 have been very useful in
- launching many software efforts. And that when Taligent talks about 'objects
- all the way down to the OS' you have a reasonable grasp of how that just might
- work or be 'really useful' when doing application development.
-
- BUT now I find myself (and I assume most of you) frustrated by a lack of clear
- signals as to what I should do now that I am on the path and until such time
- as Bedrock is ready. It leaves me with an uneasy feeling. I want my regular
- fix of 'cool' and 'new technology'. This lack of direction from Apple
- regarding MacApp does not make MacApp any less useful. It just makes their
- messages (be it MacApp or Bedrock) less credible.
-
- I do believe (have faith, mostly because I know many of the players and that
- the general intent, direction and design of the effort is right) that in the
- long run Apple and Symantec will ship something of great usefullness in doing
- application development (it's the stuff you have been asking for). Until
- then, and as long as we have product shipping with MacApp, for Macintosh
- development, we will continue to use MacApp and share what I have learned with
- my fellow MacAppers and OOPsters.
-
-
- Respectfully.....
- .....Carl Nelson
-
-
-
-