Richard, et al:
So instead CompileIt! had its own unique syntax and hundreds of symbols
one could use to implement things that were algorithmically very much like
one would do in Pascal or C. Of course this required a whole other level
of knowledge, and for those symbols related to the Mac Toolbox it also
required the dozen-volume set of Inside Mac books, and/or the more
efficient Think Library (which came with Think C)
Are you talking about the same CompileIt! (Rev 2.6.1) I used for
years? There was very little difference between HyperTalk and CompileIt!
syntax, except for things HyperTalk didn't support: variable typing, record
structures, system call "glue".
My experience is that it is easily an order of magnitude more efficient to
write externals in CompileIt! than C or Pascal--and I have professional
experience programming in both other languages. If you are programming Mac
Toolbox calls, you _will_ have to consult Inside Macintosh regardless of of
the language you use. But one doesn't have to consult a dozen volumes
unless one is implementing _all_ Toolbox calls. If I want to tap into Mac
Program-to-Program Communications, for example, I need one volume:
Interprocess Communication.
Finally, CompileIt! does not have hundreds of symbols to complete its
function...it includes hundreds of symbols that are _already_ defined in
Inside Macintosh. If you're programming in another language, you will have
to define the same symbols in an include file.
I'm really sorry your experience with CompileIt! was such that you didn't
get it.
Rob Cozens, Staff Conservator
Mendonoma Marine Life Conservancy
"Every so often something strange happens on a stretch of Gulf coast
shoreline. Fish, crabs, and shrimp all but throw themselves into the arms,
baskets, and hand nets of people wading in the beach surf... In a few
hours a single person can collect a hundred pounds of shrimp... Gulf folks
call it a ''jubilee.'' The reality, at least for the sea's creatures, is
less jubilant. They aren't presenting themselves as gifts to man but
trying desperately to escape suffocation."
-- Ocean's End
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