Chisel to the Stone: Interactive Media Writer’s Software Tools & Web Resources
This survival guide is for writers who write regularly and stand to benefit from the editing and organizational capabilities of writing software, as well as those who intend to publish their works either on the printed page or on the web. The most noticeable benefits of writing software reviewed here range from initial creative idea mapping, industry standard scriptwriting formats, ubiquitous writing environments and most noticeable, tools to assist in the endless revision process. As writers know, once a story, script or piece of work is in place digitally, the art and craft of editing just begins.
Instrumentation SDK 1.0.6
The Instrumentation SDK is primarily a performance tool used to record time-based information about your software as it runs. The viewer application displays this information, which can help you figure out what your software is up to. In addition to a minor bugfix update, 1.0.6 also includes the experimental instrumented InterfaceLib that was part of E.T.O. 22.
MacOS USB DDK 1.0b4
This is the development release of the MacOS USB DDK. For the coming generation of Power Macintosh systems, USB is the primary interface for connections to low to medium speed peripheral devices. There a numerous advantages for adopting the USB standard on Macintosh, and they are discussed in the "MacOS USB DDK API Reference Guide". On the future Macintosh systems there will be no ADB, Serial Port, or SCSI connections. USB will be the primary port for connecting peripheral devices to the Macintosh.
The MacOS USB DDK provides the tools by which developers can create USB Class Drivers for their USB products to work on these Macintosh systems.
MRJ SDK 2.0.1
The MRJ Software Development Kit (SDK) is a set of Java development tools for use with the Mac OS Runtime for Java (MRJ), Apple's Java execution environment. Developers use the MRJ SDK to:
- Enable standard Macintosh application written in C or Pascal to embed Java applets, run Java code, and access the Java Runtime through the JManager API.
- Incorporate basic Macintosh functionality in Java applications using the MRJToolkit.
- Call Java methods from C and C++, call native methods from Java using JDirect.
- Build stand-alone Java applications using JBindery.
- Run Sun JDK tools through a Macintosh application or MPW script.
MRJ 2.1 (Early Access)
This is pre-alpha software that tracks the Sun JDK 1.1.5 specification and contains many architectural changes and bug fixes. It features better Swing support, faster graphics, and better overall performance. It does not yet contain the Symantec JIT technology that was announced on May 11.
Translation Manager
Translation Manager is an update from Mac OS Easy Open SDK to reflect the move from standalone product to System service. Translation Manager contains a new example Translation Extension component which demonstrates correct packaging of 68K and PowerPC code, and a copy of Mac OS Tech Note 1004 which describes proper packaging of components with 68K and PowerPC code.
Virtual User
Virtual User is a large collection of tools, scripts, libraries, and examples for automating user level testing. These are most of the tools used by Apple itself to perform integration, compatibility, and user-perceived performance testing. All tools are compatible with MacOS' from 7.0 through 8.0.
