Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac 1993 September

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Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!pad-thai.aktis.com!pad-thai.aktis.com!not-for-mail From: Daryl_Spitzer@mindlink.bc.ca (Daryl Spitzer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer,news.answers Subject: Comp.Sys.Mac.Programmer FAQ Part 1/2 (1/12/93) Supersedes: <macintosh/programmer-faq/part1_745560008@GZA.COM> Followup-To: poster Date: 24 Aug 1993 00:00:12 -0400 Organization: none Lines: 1297 Sender: faqserv@GZA.COM Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Distribution: world Expires: 14 Sep 1993 04:00:09 GMT Message-ID: <macintosh/programmer-faq/part1_746164809@GZA.COM> Reply-To: Daryl_Spitzer@mindlink.bc.ca NNTP-Posting-Host: pad-thai.aktis.com Summary: Frequently Asked Questions list for comp.sys.mac.programmer Keywords: frequently asked questions faq X-Last-Updated: 1993/01/20 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.sys.mac.programmer:67479 news.answers:11722 Archive-name: macintosh/programmer-faq/part1 Last-modified: 1993/01/12 +---------------------------------+ | Frequently Asked Questions List | | for Comp.Sys.Mac.Programmer | | January 12, 1993 | | PART ONE | +---------------------------------+ This FAQ list is automatically posted once a week to comp.sys.mac.programmer. It is also available via anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.uoregon.edu [128.223.8.8] (user name 'anonymous', your internet address as password) in the files /pub/mac/csmp-faq-1 and /pub/mac/csmp-faq-2. This FAQ list is maintained by Daryl Spitzer. He can be reached at the following addresses: Internet: Daryl_Spitzer@mindlink.bc.ca SnailMail: 203 - 1385 West 12th Avenue Vancouver, BC (Canada) V6H 1M2 The purpose of the FAQ list is to answer some of the most common questions asked on this group, and to refer people left with unanswered questions to available sources of additional help. You should read the FAQ list before posting to comp.sys.mac.programmer. Submissions, comments, etcetera, should be sent to Daryl Spitzer, as above. All such material sent will be considered to have entered the public domain (and will be subject to editing) unless specific text to the contrary accompanies the message (which may render the submission unusable). Changes since August 3, 1992 ---------------------------- - the keeper of the FAQ is now Daryl Spitzer (Daryl_Spitzer@mindlink.bc.ca) - 1.2 Debuggers: added Fritz Anderson's description of SourceBug - 2.1 The Associates and Partners Programs: new description, DEVHOTLINE is no longer a valid AppleLink address - 2.3 APDA new address and telephone numbers - 3.1.1 Technical Books new Inside Macintosh volumes - 3.1.3 Periodicals: MacTutor is now MacTech Table of Contents ----------------- Part One (this file) --------------------- I. Development Software 1. Compilers 2. Debuggers 3. Other Tools II. Apple Developer Programs 1. The Associates and Partners Programs 2. Apple Developer University 3. APDA 4. Developer CDs III. Sources of Information 1. Books and Periodicals 1. Technical Books 2. Teaching Books 3. Periodicals 2. Mailing Lists 1. Comp.Sys.Mac.Programmer Digest 2. Think Class Library Discussion 3. MacPsych 3. Miscellaneous 1. Usenet Mac Programmer's Guide (UMPG) 2. Kent Sandvik's Frequently Asked MPW C++ and MacApp Questions 3. Comp.Sys.Mac.FAQ IV. Archive Sites 1. ftp.apple.com [130.43.2.3] 2. sumex-aim.stanford.edu [36.44.0.6] 3. rascal.ics.utexas.edu [128.83.138.20] 4. mac.archive.umich.edu [141.211.164.153] 5. ftp.cs.uoregon.edu [128.223.8.8] 6. ics.uci.edu [128.195.1.1] 7. ftp.brown.edu [128.148.176.55] 8. comp.binaries.mac [newsgroup] V. One-liners 1. The Main Loop and Events 2. Menus 3. Resources 4. Windows, Alerts, and Dialogs 5. Drawing 6. Files 7. Interrupts and VBL Tasks 8. Handles and Pointers 9. General Part Two (separate file) ------------------------- VI. Specific Questions Answered 1. The Main Loop and Events 1. How do you tell if a specific key is being pressed? 2. How can I get millisecond timing from the keyboard (or mouse)? 2. Menus 1. When do you put an ellipsis on the end of a menu item? 2. How do I get the menubar to disappear and re-appear? 3. What's the difference between the resource ID of a 'MENU' resource and the menuID field of that resource? 3. Windows, Alerts, and Dialogs 1. How do you put a border around the default button in a dialog? 4. Drawing 1. What is the fastest way to paint one pixel on the screen? 2. How do you draw directly into a pixmap without using QuickDraw? 3. How do you draw directly onto the screen without using QuickDraw? 4. What RGB value does the system use for dimmed buttons, menus and window titles? 5. Files 1. Why is the File Manager so hard to use? 2. How do you get a full pathname? 3. How do you set the SFGet/PutFile directory? 4. How do you access the application's data fork? 6. Handles and Pointers 1. When should I call MoveHHi? 2. Why does malloc/calloc keep crashing or returning NULL in Think C? 7. Standalone Code 1. How do I write an INIT? 8. General 1. How do I register signatures and file types with Apple? 2. How do I go about writing serial port communications? VII. Eternal Debates: 1. Why doesn't the Mac do preemptive multitasking? ============================================================================= =================================== Section I: Development Software =================================== This is by no means a complete analysis of the tools, development systems, etc. that are available. This is a short list of things which *most* Mac programmers use (or are at least aware of, and have considered using). 1.1 Compilers -------------- Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (Apple) --------------------------------------- MPW is a package which contains separately-purchaseable compilers for Assembly, C, C++, and Object Pascal. All of these run in an environment called the MPW Shell. The Shell is a command-line oriented environment, designed for extreme configurability with scripts, user-writeable "tools", i/o redirection, and lots of other bells and whistles. On the pro side, it can do many things that THINK cannot do; it scales much better to large projects; it can be customized much more; and it's Apple's supported development environment. On the con side, it is comparatively expensive, slow, and difficult to learn. A debugger (SADE) is available for it, and is philosophically similar to MPW. An object library is available (MacApp) which allows applications to be built on an object-oriented framework, again similar to MPW in it's approach of being very powerful, but not necessarily easy to learn, easy to use, small, or fast. MPW is also available on the quarterly Essentials-Tools-Objects CD-ROM from Apple. This disc contains the latest version of the entire MPW development environment, as well as debugging utilities and a huge collection of sample source code. This brings the price of the MPW environment down a bit, but it's still much more expensive than THINK. Think (Symantec) ---------------- Think is two separate products, Think C and Think Object Pascal. They are similar products. Both are integrated editor/compiler/linker/debugger environments. Both come with a large library of predefined classes (the C classes are written in a sort of pseudo C++ language that is Symantec's own Object C, not C++). Think Pascal is MacApp-compatable, as well. Both support inline assembly, but there is no separate assembler. Their main selling point, however, is that they are very fast and very simple. They are ideal for small projects that you want to finish in a few days, for beginners, and for people who need a full-fledged development environment but cannot afford MPW. This is not to say that the Think environments are not useful for commercial development; many successful commercial programs were written with Think. The difference in power between MPW and Think is only noticeable with very large and/or multiple-developer projects. 1.2 Debuggers (beyond SADE and the Think debuggers) ---------------------------------------------------- MacsBug (Apple) --------------- MacsBug is an assembly-level debugger. It is a command-line driven, entirely text-based environment which uses little of the Mac toolbox, and is thus fairly stable in crashes (although it doesn't use protected memory, its main failing in the area of stability). It supports complex operations with breakpoints, A-line traps, macros, expressions, and more, and can be configured even more with user-writeable 'dcmd' external code resources. MacsBug is free via anonymous ftp from ftp.apple.com. It is also included with the book "Debugging Macintosh Software with MacsBug." TMON Professional (ICOM) ------------------------ TMON Professional is an object-level debugger which is MUCH more powerful than MacsBug. It has an elaborate interface which looks nothing like a Mac application, and takes a while to get used to. It is a very intelligent program, however, which can often display memory in its most useful format without help (e.g. it will disassemble code, and display a string as a string, automatically). It has strong support for types, allowing you to easily view complex structures, arrays, floating point numbers, and more. You can examine the stack, the heaps, and just about anything else you could be interested in. It also provides versatile scripting, and is amazingly configurable. There are more goodies in this package than I can possible describe here. Drawbacks are high price, and a very steep learning curve. The Debugger (Jasik Designs) ---------------------------- The Debugger (also known as Jasik's Debugger, because it was written by Steve Jasik) is the only source level debugger with all the low-level features of Macsbug (speed, straight-forward display of important info) and many of the advantages of source level debuggers (source code, quick display of local variables). Some of its best features are complete support for Object Pascal, speed, and the ability to look at resource map and file information. You gotta love any debugger that will display all of the low-level globals with their values in a single keystroke! It also has a On the down side, the interface is an aquired taste, the documentation needs work and distribution disks lack a certain polish. But, phone support is very good (you often get Steve himself). SourceBug (Apple) ----------------- SourceBug is provided by Apple on its ETO development-tools CD. Like SADE, SourceBug is a source-level debugger. SADE is a scriptable, stream-in/stream-out environment like MPW: The code being debugged is displayed in text windows, with the current line highlighted. Data structures can be inspected, but only through printing commands; the formatting is automatic and type-sensitive. And, you can use scripts to walk linked or array data structures automatically, and save the results to text files. SourceBug, by contrast, is driven by mouse selections and menu commands. The program is centered around a browser window that organizes your code by source file (or by type, if you are using C++ or Object Pascal) and module name. You set breakpoints by clicking next to the line you want to break at. SADE requires a command to set breakpoints (though a menu item front-ends a script to set simple ones by selection); on the other hand, a SADE breakpoint can execute any script, permitting snapshots and conditional breaks. SourceBug gives you only an unconditional break. The same dichotomy applies to data structures: SourceBug is nearly as smart as SADE in parsing data, and provides you with an inspector for most instances of C++ or Pascal objects. But finding data, link traversals, and some formatting are strictly manual jobs. Variable-length arrays of complex types? Forget it. SADE can handle them, SourceBug can't. For most purposes, SourceBug is the better debugger. It is rare that you need SADE's strengths badly enough to compose the suite of breakpoints and testing scripts you will need to make SADE effective. SourceBug is better at 99% of the debugging tasks: For instance, when you break into SourceBug, the currently-executing procedure is displayed in a window, with an arrow pointing to the current line. In the upper part of the window is the stack crawl; click on any item in the list to see any procedure in the calling chain, see the line that made the call, and inspect (the optimizer permitting) the local variables of any procedure in the chain. To do the same in SADE requires issuing a command to dump the stack and selecting a code address identifier in the result. To examine a variable in use by a caller, you will have to use SADE's scoping language to provide it with enough context to identify the address. SADE can do more, but it can't carry enough context to be as helpful as SourceBug. 1.3 Other Tools ---------------- ResEdit (Apple) --------------- ResEdit is the accepted tool for editing and creating resources. It has very little competition, partially because it is a very good and comprehensive program, and partially because it is free (available via anonymous ftp from ftp.apple.com). It allows you to edit any resource in hexadecimal, and most of the standard types have special editors that provide a direct-manipulation paradigm for editing them. Users may write their own pickers and editors for custom resource types, although this is rarely done in practice. Resorcerer (Mathemaesthetics) ------------------------------ Resorcerer is a commercially available replacement for ResEdit. Many developers use it exclusively, and swear by it quite vehemently. This is from one of them: RESORCERER is a no-holds-barred resource dynamo. -- embarrasses the ResEdit dialog editor -- supports many more template data types -- swap in different resource templates based on a key value -- creates recursive resources -- generates starter code for a dialog -- does complex searches against resource contents or titles -- renumbers resources in batches -- changes resource types -- excellent support from the author himself I personally like Resorcerer for some things and ResEdit for others. There are certain resource types that cannot be edited with Resorcerer, like color icons, and others that cannot be edited with ResEdit, like help balloons. I expect, however, that with the addition of such resource editors to Resorcerer, I will begin to use it exclusively. The price is the major consideration for most people. ResEdit is free from Apple, while Resorcerer is a commercial product (available for around $250). Virtual User (Apple) -------------------- Virtual User allows you to script user interactions with a program so that they cal be relayed over and over, and it can execute scripts remotely, over AppleTalk. So, for instance, you could write a script that puts your program through its paces, and then automatically execute that script simultaneously on lots of differently configured Macintosh systems. It is available from APDA (#M0987LL/B). [This paragraph taken from develop Issue 8, page 60.] Online Companion (Addison-Wesley) --------------------------------- Online Companion is a reference tool. Hit a magic key combination, and a pseudo-window opens at the bottom of the screen which allows you to type in a full or partial name and find it in Online's database. It contains Inside Mac and some supplements, Tech Notes, etc. It's fast and simple. Think Reference (Symantec) -------------------------- Think Reference is a reference tool. It is a hypertext version of Inside Mac I-V and the Tech Notes. Click on the function or data type name to go to the page on which it is defined. It includes some very useful notes and examples written by Symantec, and the function prototypes can be copied and pasted into your editor. Very fast and simple to use. But beware of typos and, in some cases, bad advice. ======================================== Section II: Apple Developer Programs ======================================== 2.1 The Associates and Partners Programs ----------------------------------------- From the Macintosh Development Tools and Languages Guidebook (1993 Edition, page 15): The Apple Associates Program is Apple's mainstream program for qualified commercial developers whose plans are well-aligned to Apple's long-term strategy. Members of this program receive essential technical and marketing information, as well as self-help technical support tools. Eligible Apple Associates can also purchase, at special prices, a limited number of Apple systems for development purposes. The Apple Partners Program is a development support program for Apple-selected commercial developers. Apple Partners haves access to programs and services such as techical and marketing information, as well as direct technical support via electronic mail. Apple Partners can also purchase, at special prices, a limited number of Apple computer systems for development purposes. Apple Associates and Apple Partners receive a monthly mailing containing all of the information in the Technical Information Mailing. [see section 2.4] Two other particularly interesting products that are included are the Developer CD, which contains hundreds of megabytes of programming-related material, and Apple Direct, a newspaper that keeps developers abreast of Apple's technical developments and marketing directions. Apple Associates and Apple Partners also get product-level support on development tools and system software, and information on how to use Apple's resources most efficiently. Additionally, code-level support from Developer Technical Support is available to Apple Partners via electronic mail. For more information on support programs for commercial developers contact the Developer Hotline at: Developer Support Apple Computer Inc. 20525 Mariani Avenue, M/S 75-2C Cupertino, CA 95014 (408) 974-4897 [no AppleLink address is given, but try DEVSUPPORT] 2.2 Apple Developer University ------------------------------- From the back cover of 'develop' Issue 7: Apple Developer University provides training for all levels of Macintosh programmers. The hands-on classes give you experience using the most up- to-date development tools. Classes are offered in locations across the United States, and on-site instruction can also be arranged. Multimedia self-paced courses are available from Developer University through APDA. These courses include Macintosh Programming Fundamentals, User-Centered Design, and Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming. The registrar at (408) 974-6215 can reserve your place or send a current catalog. You can also AppleLink DEVUNIV (devuniv@applelink.apple.com) or write 20525 Mariani Avenue M/S 75-6U Cupertino, CA 95014 2.3 APDA --------- From the Macintosh Development Tools and Languages Guidebook (1993 Edition, page 13): APDA is an Apple service organization that offers convenient worldwide access to over 300 development tools, resources, training products, and information for anyone interested in developing applications on Apple platforms. Customers receive the quarterly APDA Tools Catalog featuring alll of the most popular and most current versions of Apple tools and the most popular third-party development tools. Ordering is easy, there are no membership fees and no special agreements are required for most products. APDA offers convenient payment and shipping options, including site licensing. To order product or receive a complimentary APDA Tools Catalog, contact: APDA Apple Computer Inc. P.O. Box 319 Buffalo, New York 14207-0319 U.S. (800) 282-2732 U.S. (800) 637-0029 Canada (716) 871-6555 International (716) 871-6511 Fax APDA AppleLink (apda@applelink.apple.com) 76666,2405 CompuServe APDA America Online 2.4 Developer CDs ------------------ The developer CDs are available quarterly from APDA, or monthly to Apple Associates and Partners. The quarterly version is also included in the quarterly issue of d e v e l o p. They contain just about everything that Apple makes freely available, including SpInside Mac, the Tech Notes, and a plethora of code snippets. ======================================= Section III: Sources of Information ======================================= 3.1 Books and Periodicals -------------------------- 3.1.1 Technical Books ---------------------- Inside Macintosh Volume I Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-17731-5. $24.95 Inside Macintosh Volume II Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-17732-3. $24.95 Inside Macintosh Volume III Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-17733-1. $19.95 Inside Macintosh Volume IV Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-05409-4. $24.95 Inside Macintosh Volume V Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-17719-6. $26.95 Inside Macintosh Volume VI Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-57755-0. $39.95 Inside Mac is the definitive reference regarding the Macintosh toolbox. Volumes I and II are basically essential to any Mac programmer who uses the toolbox at all. Volume III is essentially a summary, cross reference, index-y sort of thing, and isn't very useful. Volume IV is stuff specific to the Mac Plus and later machines, which would make it almost as important as I and II (not many 512K Macs left out there), except that the routines it describes are not nearly as generally useful. It does have all of the stuff on the HFS File Manager, however, so if you're working with File Manager routines you should definitely consult IV before I-III. Otherwise, you can survive without it for a while. Volume V is the Mac II volume. It has every thing on Color QuickDraw, as well as lots of other goodies. I'd say it's more useful than IV, but only if you're doing color. Volume VI is the System 7 volume. It contains all kinds of bizarre new things which are probably not of general use or interest; but it contains a lot of new non-System-7 stuff as well (such as 32-bit Quickdraw), and it has corrections to the other five volumes. Inside Macintosh X-Ref, Revised Edition Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-57769-0. $12.95. Inside Mac X-Ref is a cross-referenced index to the six volumes and some other Macintosh technical books. Inside Macintosh: Files ISBN 0-201-63244-6 $29.95 Inside Macintosh: Memory ISBN 0-201-63240-3 $24.95 Inside Macintosh: Processes ISBN 0-201-63241-1 $22.95 Inside Macintosh, having previously been three authoritative volumes, with three chronological supplements, has been due for a rewrite and overhaul for a few years. Apple is now in the process of reissuing IM in 15 subject-related books, of which only the first three have come out at this writing. If you have volumes I-VI, then you will eventually have to buy the new Inside Macintosh, too. Newcomers are in a dilemma: The new IM has better information than the old one, but not enough of the new IM has come out to be useful. They will have to judge how urgent their need is for authoritative information. Dabblers and beginners can probably get by with the teaching books recommended below. Serious work begins with Volume I (basic ToolBox), Volume II (basic OS), and Volume IV (for the file system). If you need color, get Volume V; if you do anything with processes (IPC, backgrounding), get Volume VI. M68000 User's Manual Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-609249-7. $22.95. MC68020 User's Manual Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-567017-9. $22.95. MC68030 User's Manual Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-566423-3. $22.95. MC68881/MC68882 Floating-Point Coprocessor User's Manual Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-566936-7. $22.95. The Motorola references are required reading for anyone doing assembly programming on the Mac. The 68000 is by far the most important. The 68881 manual only has relevance to those who want to do floating point and don't want to use SANE (the Standard Apple Numeric Environment, slow but robust, precise and general). Technical Introduction to the Macintosh Family Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-17765-X. $19.95. This book provides an overview of the general hardware design, system archiecture, and ROM design of the Macintosh. It is not required for programming, but does provide some useful background information for programmers new to the Mac. Programmer's Introduction to the Macintosh Family. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-19254-3. $22.95. This book provides an overview of basic Macintosh programming concepts. It is recommended for programmers new to the Mac. Guide to the Macintosh Family Hardware Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-52405-8. $26.95. This is the definitive guide to the hardware design of the Macintosh family. Designing Cards and Drivers for the Macintosh Family Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-52404-X. $26.95. This is the official guide for developers of expansion cards and peripheral devices for the Mac. This book is required reading for anyone who wants to talk directly to expansion cards (video cards, for example). Human Interface Guidelines: The Apple Desktop Interface Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-17753-6. $14.95. This is the definitive guide to program interface design on the Macintosh. When you find yourself wondering where to put the OK button in a dialog, consult this book. Apple Numerics Manual Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-17738-2. $29.95. This book describes the Standard Apple Numerics Environment (SANE), and provides information about the IEEE-standard arithmetic and about the SANE engines on the Apple IIgs and Macintosh computers. Inside the Macintosh Communications Toolbox Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-57775-5. $24.95. This is the definitive reference volume for the Communications Toolbox. 3.1.2 Teaching Books --------------------- Macintosh Programming Primer (Second Edition) Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-60838-3. $26.95. Macintosh C Programming Primer Volume II Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-57016-5. $24.95. These are excellent books for the beginning Mac programmer. Both books use Think C in their examples, but developers using other platforms will find a plethora of useful tidbits. I believe both books are available in Pascal as well. Macintosh Revealed, Volume One: Unlocking the Toolbox Hayden Books. ISBN 0-8104-6551-5. $26.95. Macintosh Revealed, Volume Two: Programming with the Toolbox Hayden Books. ISBN 0-8104-6561-2. $26.95. Macintosh Revealed, Volume Three: Mastering the Toolbox Hayden Books. ISBN 0-672-48402-1. $26.95. Macintosh Revealed, Volume Four: Expanding the Toolbox Hayden Books. ISBN 0-672-48413-7. $26.95. This encyclopedic collection covers the entire Mac Toolbox for the beginning Pascal or Assembly programmer. It sometimes re-iterates Inside Mac, but always offers a fresh perspective. Volume I covers basics including memory management and QuickDraw. Volume II covers the other essential Toolbox managers and exemplifies each by constructing part of a complete text editor. Volume III expands this application, covering printing, drivers, desk accessories, sound and definition functions. Volume IV contains details of programming with MultiFinder, Color QuickDraw and styled text. How to Write Macintosh Software (Third Edition) Hayden Books. ISBN 0-201-?????-?. ~$30. This book gives comprehensive coverage of memory management and debugging techniques. It also gives an excellent overview of assembly language programming on the Mac. A must-have. Somebody please send me the ISBN and price of the third edition (I haven't bought mine yet). Macintosh Programming Secrets (Second Edition) Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-58134-5. $29.95. This is the second edition of Scott Knaster's classic book. This edition was co-authored by Keith Rollin. From the back cover: "If you've ever written Macintosh programs, or want to learn how it's done, this book will show you how to perform tasks that aren't explicitly documented in the reference books." This is true. Get this book if you want to learn how to write a tail patch, or how to hide the menu bar. If you don't know what a tail patch is, that's OK; this book starts at (or near) the beginning. A must-have for all beginning- and intermediate-level Macintosh programmers. On Macintosh Programming: Advanced Techniques Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-51737-X. $24.95. This book contains a lot of information on all aspects of programming the Mac, including hardware and software architecture, the toolbox, and the use of assembly, C, and Pascal for programming the toolbox. It includes quite a lot of source code. Using the Macintosh Toolbox With C Sybex. ISBN 0-89588-572-7. $29.95. This is a fairly good book for beginning Mac programmers. Experienced programmers will find nothing new here. Programmer's Guide to MPW, Volume I Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-57011-4. $26.95. This is a basic introduction to using MPW. I don't recommend it for anyone who already uses MPW. Programming with MacApp Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-09784-2. $24.95. C++ Programming with MacApp Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-57020-3. $24.95. These give a basic introduction to programming with MacApp; the first with Object Pascal, and the second with C++. Programming for System 7. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-56770-9. $26.95 This is a guide to creating applications for System 7. It describes the new features and functions of the operating system in detail. The sample code is in C and includes a complete System 7 application in Chapter 1 which is expanded in succeeding chapters. ResEdit Complete Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-55075-X. $29.95. Most of this book is not written for programmers, but includes quite a bit of useful information nonetheless. It contains detailed discussions of using, customizing and programming ResEdit, including the creation of custom templates, pickers and editors. It comes with ResEdit 2.1 on disk, with sample source code in MPW C and Pascal. Debugging Macintosh Software with MacsBug Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-57049-1. $34.95. This looks like a really good and useful book, but I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. MacsBug is included on disk, along with several examples and dcmds. Programming the M68000 Benjamin/Cummings. ISBN 0-8053-5550-2. 680x0 Programming by Example Howard W. Sams & Co. ISBN 0-672-22544-1. $17.95. M68000 Assembly Language: Techniques for Building Programs Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-11659-6. The Complete Book of Macintosh Assembly Language Programming [sic] Scott, Foresman & Co. Vol I ISBN 0-673-18379-3 Vol II ISBN 0-673-18583-4 These are all assembly books that have been recommended by people on the net. The first two are general; the others are specific to the Macintosh. 3.1.3 Periodicals ------------------ d e v e l o p Quarterly. $10 per issue. $30 per year. develop Apple Computer, Inc. P.O. Box 531 Mt. Morris, IL 61054 AppleLink DEV.SUBS develop is Apple's technical journal for the Macintosh and Apple II (the focus is on the Mac). The articles are well-written and useful, and it includes the Developer CD. MacTech (was MacTutor) Monthly. $5 per issue. $40 per year Third Class; $55 First Class. Xplain Corporation P.O. Box 250055 Los Angeles, CA 90025-9555 Phone: (310) 575-4343 FAX: (310) 575-0925 mactutor@applelink.apple.com The only Macintosh programming journal that I'm aware of. A good source of sample code. 3.2 Mailing Lists ------------------ 3.2.1 Comp.Sys.Mac.Programmer Digest ------------------------------------- The Comp.Sys.Mac.Programmer Digest is a collection of article threads from comp.sys.mac.programmer. It is designed for people who read c.s.m.p. semi- regularly and want an archive of the discussions. Each issue of the digest contains one or more sets of articles (called threads), with each set corresponding to a 'discussion' of a particular subject. The articles are not edited; all articles included in the digest are in their original posted form (as received by the news server at cs.uoregon.edu). Article threads are not added to the digest until the last article added to the thread is at least one month old (this is to ensure that the thread is dead before adding it to the digest). Article threads that consist of only one message are generally not included in the digest. The entire digest is available for anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.uoregon.edu [128.223.8.8] in the directory /pub/mac/csmp-digest. The most recent issues are available from sumex-aim.stanford.edu [36.44.0.6] in the directory /info-mac/digest/csmp. If you don't have ftp capability, the sumex archive has a mail server; send a message with the text '$MACarch help' (no quotes) to LISTSERV@ricevm1.rice.edu for more information. The digest is also available via email. Just send a note saying that you want to be on the digest mailing list to mkelly@cs.uoregon.edu, and you will automatically receive each new issue as it is created. Sorry, back issues are not available through the mailing list. 3.2.2 Think Class Library Discussion ------------------------------------- The Think Class Library discussion list is for those interested in using Symantec's Think C and Think Pascal object-oriented class library for Macintosh. Discussion topics include * class usage, design, and implementation * TCL bug reports, work-arounds, and fixes * TCL application development techniques * TCL development aids Mail to the discussion list should be sent to tcl-talk@brown.edu. If you want to join the discussion list, mail a note saying so to tcl-request@brown.edu. 3.2.3 MacPsych --------------- This is a mailing list of psychologists and others interested in using the Macintosh in research and teaching. The intention of this service is to provide quick and authoritative answers to questions raised by Mac-using researchers and teachers in psychology. Individuals who have Mac questions to pose, or have general messages that they believe would be of interest to research psychologists and teachers using the Macintosh, may send their information to macpsych@stolaf.edu. Mail sent to this address will first pass through the moderator for the list (huff@stolaf.edu) who will forward it to everyone on the list. If you want to be on the mailing list, mail a note saying so to macpsych-request@stolaf.edu. There is an archive containing some free Macintosh software that has been written by members of the group; for more information, write to macpsych-request@stolaf.edu. 3.3 Miscellaneous ------------------ 3.3.1 Usenet Mac Programmer's Guide ------------------------------------ The Usenet Mac Programmer's Guide (UMPG) is a collection of useful tips culled from comp.sys.mac.programmer. Compiled by Matthew X. Mora (mxmora@unix.sri.com), it is organized by topic and includes a table of contents and index. It is available via anonymous ftp from sumex-aim. stanford.edu (36.44.0.6) in the directory /info-mac/tech/. It is also available in a pre-printed version, or on disk. To get a copy of the printed version send $17.00 to: USENET Macintosh Programmer's Guide Printed Version 39075 Carmel Ct. Fremont, CA 94538 To get a copy of the disk version send $5.00 to: USENET Macintosh Programmer's Guide Disk Version 39075 Carmel Ct. Fremont, CA 94538 3.3.2 Kent Sandvik's Frequently Asked MPW C++ and MacApp Questions ------------------------------------------------------------------- This file is available upon request from ksand@apple.com or via anonymous ftp to ftp.cs.uoregon.edu [128.223.8.8] in the directory /pub/mac. 3.3.3 Comp.Sys.Mac.FAQ ----------------------- This Frequently Asked Questions list provides short answers to a number of frequently asked questions from the newsgroups comp.sys.mac.system, comp.sys.mac.misc, and comp.sys.mac.apps. Some of the questions that it answers are asked occasionally on comp.sys.mac.programmer. Please read this FAQ list before posting to c.s.m.p. It is available from the sumex archives and its mirror sites (see section 4.2) in the file /info-mac/ report/csmf-faq.txt. ============================= Section IV: Archive Sites ============================= 4.1 ftp.apple.com [130.43.2.3] ------------------------------- Contents This archive contains just about everything available for free from Apple. Look here first for sample source code, the latest tech notes, and tools such as ResEdit and MacsBug. Very little of what can be found here is available from other archives. Access Anonymous ftp, from inside the United States only. You should read the file /dts/README.FIRST before downloading from this archive. Everything for the Mac is in /dts/mac. The moderators ask that you download during the off-peak hours if at all possible, since this is just a IIci running A/UX. Submissions You cannot post to this archive. 4.2 sumex-aim.stanford.edu [36.44.0.6] --------------------------------------- Contents This archive contains a large collection of public-domain and shareware for the Mac. It is well-maintained and updated regularly. New submissions to the archive are listed every other day or so in the newsgroup comp.sys.mac.digest. Access Anonymous ftp. Read the files in /info-mac/help for more detailed information about the files in the archive. Everything is in /info-mac. If you don't have ftp access you can use the mail server; send a message with the text '$MACarch help' (no quotes) to LISTSERV@ricevm1.rice.edu for more information. Submissions Sumex accepts all submissions that "are of general benefit to the Macintosh community." Basically, if you have something that you think is useful, and that other people may like to have, you should feel free to send it to sumex. All submissions should be compressed and BinHexed, and should include a short but informative blurb at the beginning of the file. Mail your submissions to info-mac@sumex-aim.stanford.edu. For more detailed information, consult the file /info-mac/help/posting-guidelines.txt. 4.3 rascal.ics.utexas.edu [128.83.138.20] ------------------------------------------ This archive is being discontinued as of 5/92. It will continue to have stuff available for a while, perhaps a few months, but the contents will eventually dwindle until there is very little or nothing left. Contents This archive contains most of what can be found at sumex. Its emphasis is on utilities and programming-related items, but it contains quite a bit of other stuff as well. It is the home of the comp.sys.mac.announce archives. Many items tend to appear here before they show up at sumex or comp.binaries.mac. Access Anonymous ftp. Submissions No longer accepted. 4.4 mac.archive.umich.edu [141.211.164.153] -------------------------------------------- Contents I haven't explored this archive yet, but I hear it has quite a bit of general Macintosh freeware and shareware. Access Anonymous ftp. Submissions You can submit to this archive by mailing a compressed, binhexed file with a brief descriptive header to macgifts@mac.archive.umich. edu. This address will also forward your mail to comp.binaries.mac and sumex-aim.stanford.edu. 4.5 ftp.cs.uoregon.edu [128.223.8.8] ------------------------------------- Contents This is the home of this FAQ list, as well as the Comp.Sys.Mac. Programmer Digests. There's also a little sample code not included in the FAQ. Access Anonymous ftp. Directory /pub/mac. Submissions Not accepted. 4.6 ics.uci.edu [128.195.1.1] ------------------------------ Contents This archive has some Mac stuff, although not nearly as much as the major sites, such as sumex. The main attraction is the Think C directory. It contains the latest updates to Think C, as well as Think C related system extensions, fkeys, etc., and source code. Definitely worth checking out if you use Think C extensively. Access Anonymous ftp. Directory /mac. Submissions Not accepted, I think. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. 4.7 ftp.brown.edu [128.148.176.55] ----------------------------------- Contents This is the home of the Think Class Library mailing list. It includes TCL bug fixes and new classes, as well as an archive of the tcl-talk mailing list. Access Anonymous ftp. Directory /pub/tcl. Submissions Submissions to the archive should be mailed to tcl-request@brown.edu or placed in the directory /incoming/tcl with accompanying mail to tcl-request. Encode all submissions in BinHex 4.0 format and include a descriptive header. Please do not redistribute Symantec's TCL source. 4.8 comp.binaries.mac [newsgroup] ---------------------------------- Contents This is a moderated newsgroup for distribution of Macintosh freeware and shareware. Just about everything that gets sent to sumex and the other major archives gets sent here as well. Access Subscribe to the newsgroup.... Submissions All files should be compressed and binhexed for mailing. Posting to the newsgroup should automatically get your file mailed to the moderator. If this does not happen on your system, you can mail your posting to the moderator yourself at macintosh@dhw68k.cts.com, or at dhw68k!bytebug@ics.uci.edu if the first address doesn't work. Expect a delay of as much as a month before your posting shows up on the newsgroup. ========================= Section V: One-liners ========================= 5.1 The Main Loop and Events ----------------------------- Call MaxApplZone and MoreMasters when the application starts up. If you call SetApplLimit, do it before calling MaxApplZone. Use HD in MacsBug while running to estimate how many times to call MoreMasters. Don't use SetEventMask to disable mouseUp events. Better not to use it at all. Call WaitNextEvent if you're running under System 6 or later. DTS sample code passes 0x7fffffff to WaitNextEvent when nothing is happening. DTS sample code passes GetCaretTime() to WaitNextEvent when flashing a cursor. Call both GetNextEvent and SystemTask only if WaitNextEvent is unavailable. Call IsDialogEvents and DialogSelect even if GetNextEvent returns false. SetPort to a known good grafPort once every time through the event loop. Set the cursor on suspend and resume events. Call GetDblTime to get the maximum time for a double click. Measure double click time from mouse up to mouse down. 5.2 Menus ---------- Use SetItem to include meta characters literally in menus. Prepend an ASCII 0 to a menu item to use a leading '-'. Never make MENU resources purgeable. 5.3 Resources -------------- GetResource never produces resNotFound. Check for a NIL handle instead. To create a resource file, call HCreate, then HCreateResFile. To open a resource file read-only for shared access, use HOpenResFile. Don't leave ResLoad set to false. GetResource on a dctb may return a non-resource copy of the dctb. 5.4 Windows, Alerts, and Dialogs --------------------------------- Move and size windows to the bounding box of GetGrayRgn. Hide scroll bars when deactivating a window. Call DrawGrowIcon when activating or deactivating a window with a grow region. DrawGrowIcon does not check to see if the window has a grow region. Call PenNormal before calling DrawGrowIcon. itemHit will not be set when a dialog filter is called. Use a disabled UserItem to draw the roundrect outline around the OK button. ModalDialog assumes the dialog is already visible and in the front. Use screenBits.bounds to center dialogs, alerts, etc. below the menu bar. If you save window locations in files, they may not be valid for all monitors. DragWindow expects startPt in boundsRect; if not it may not call SelectWindow. SelectWindow does not automatically call SetPort. You must do that yourself. DialogSelect responds to activate events but ignores suspend/resume events. 5.5 Drawing ------------ Always set the VisRgn and ClipRgn of offscreen ports. Set the ClipRgn first when making a picture. Don't make rowBytes in bitMaps greater than 8191. To dim text, draw a rectangle with penPat=gray and penMode=patbic over it. To draw rotated text, draw to an offscreen bitmap, rotate it, and CopyBits it. Don't use picSize to determine the size of a picture. Check the handle size. Never draw outside a window except in XOR mode for temporary effects like drag. To avoid animation flicker, synchronize drawing to the vertical retrace. CopyBits on more than 3Kb data will work, but it might have to allocate memory. The small Mac screen is 512 pixels wide by 342 pixels high including menu bar. 5.6 Files ---------- Don't write in the application file. This will fail with read-only devices. Use PBGetVInfo to convert a VRefNum to a volume name. Delete uses the Poor Man's Search Path, so don't delete blindly. File Manager routines with dirID=0 use the Poor Man's Search Path. Truncate and reallocate files before overwriting to reduce fragmentation. Check/change the creator and type of Save As... files before overwriting. If you rewrite files by deleting and creating, copy all Finder information. Directory ID's are longs, not shorts. Shorts work ALMOST all the time. Always set the version number that appears in some file manager calls to 0. To convert a pathRefNum to a name or file number, use PBGetFCBInfo. Prevent the creation of files with names that begin with a period. 5.7 Interrupts and VBL Tasks ----------------------------- Don't call any Memory Manager routines during an interrupt. Unlocked handles may not be valid during an interrupt. To synchronize to the vertical retrace on Macs with slots use SlotVInstall. 5.8 Handles and Pointers ------------------------- Lock handles before passing their dereferenced pointers to any routine. Lock handles before setting referenced data to expressions containing functions Put an odd long at location zero on a 68000 to help find NIL handle references. Use HGetState/HLock/HSetState to lock a handle then put it back as it was. 5.9 General Always use unsigned characters within text and Pascal-format strings. Save application preferences in a folder named Preferences in the System Folder Use SysEnvirons to find the System (Blessed) Folder. Use GetAppParms to get the name of the application. The high bit of SysParam . volClik enables the alarm clock. Check the application name at $910 before exiting with ES within MacsBug. To exit to shell in the mini-debugger, enter SM 0 A9 F4 and then G 0. In Pascal, don't nest procedures to be passed by procedure pointer. In Pascal, "with theHandle^^" is unsafe if memory compaction can occur. =========================================== Section VI: Specific Questions Answered =========================================== 6.1 The Main Loop and Events ----------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- 6.1.1 How do you tell if a specific key is being pressed? ---------------------------------------------------------- Use GetKeys. GetKeys fills a 16-byte KeyMap structure with the state of every key. Each bit represents a single key on the keyboard; 1 means the key is down, 0 means it is up. Note that there can be a maximum of seven keys being pressed at a time - any of the modifier keys plus at most two other keys. Here's an example in C: Boolean IsKeyDown( unsigned short theKey ) // a keyboard-specific scan code for a key { unsigned char keyMap[16]; GetKeys( (void *) keyMap ); return ((keyMap[theKey>>3] >> (theKey & 7)) & 1); } ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.1.2 I'm writing a psychology experiment. How can I get millisecond timing from the keyboard (or mouse)? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The simple answer is that you can't. Although the new time manager can call routines every couple of microseconds, input goes through the event manager, which only posts events about every 16 milliseconds. Thus, even if you poll the keyboard every 30 microseconds, you will not get better than 16 ms. resolution. If you really need millisecond accuracy, you need to use external hardware. The good news is that you probably don't need better than 16 ms. resolution anyway. Measuring with 16 ms. accuracy only increases the standard deviation of your RT means by about 4.8 msec. Read: Ulrich, R. and Giray, M. (1989). Time resolution of clocks: Effects on reaction time measurement -- Good news for bad clocks. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 42, 1-12. By the way, there is a mailing list dedicated to running psychology experiments on the Mac. It frequently gets tied up in arguments about millisecond timing. The address to write to is macpsych-request@stolaf.edu. 6.2 Menus ---------- ------------------------------------------------------------- 6.2.1 When do you put an ellipsis on the end of a menu item? ------------------------------------------------------------- Put an ellipsis (...) at the end of any menu item which requires more information in order to complete or simply displays information. Usually this involves a dialog of some kind, be it modal or non modal. ----------------------------------------------------------- 6.2.2 How do I get the menubar to disappear and re-appear? ----------------------------------------------------------- A set of routines to do this in Pascal can be found in the Usenet Macintosh Programmer's Guide. You can also ftp some sample code in C from skinner.cs.uoregon.edu in /pub/mac/menu-bar.c. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.2.3 What's the difference between the resource ID of a 'MENU' resource and the menuID field of that resource? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The resource ID of a 'MENU' resource is just the resource ID - it has no hidden meaning. What is normally expected by beginning programmers is that the number that MenuSelect and MenuKey return is the resource ID of the menu. In fact, the number returned is the value of the menuID field of the menu, and has no relation to the resource ID of the menu. You can set the menuID to any number you want, but by convention it is expected to be the same as the resource ID of the menu. (You can change this value in ResEdit by opening the menu you wish to change, and selecting 'Edit Menu & MDEF ID...' from the MENU menu.) 6.3 Windows, Alerts, and Dialogs --------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.3.1 How do you put a border around the default button in a dialog? --------------------------------------------------------------------- The most common way to do this is to create a dummy user item in the dialog, and use SetDItem to install a procedure that outlines the default button. The dialog's "Initially visible" bit should be false and you should call ShowWindow before calling ModalDialog; otherwise, if the button is very tall, part of the outline won't be drawn. Here is an example in C: /* This function draws a border around dialog item #1 */ pascal void OutlineDefault( DialogPtr theDialog, short theItem ) { Rect itemRect; Handle itemHandle; short itemType; short diameter; GetDItem( theDialog, 1, &itemType, &itemHandle, &itemRect ); diameter = (itemRect.bottom - itemRect.top) / 2 + 6; if ( diameter < 16 ) diameter = 16; PenSize( 3, 3 ); InsetRect( &itemRect, -4, -4 ); FrameRoundRect( &itemRect, diameter, diameter ); } /* Assume myDialog has been initialized, and item #4 is the dummy user item for outlining the default button. The following lines install the outlining procedure OutlineDefault into the user item, so that OutlineDefault will be called by the Dialog Manager each time the dialog needs to be redrawn. Depending on your compiler, you may have to cast OutlineDefault to a Handle. */ GetDItem( myDialog, 4, &itemType, &itemHandle, &itemRect ); SetDItem( myDialog, 4, itemType, OutlineDefault, &itemRect ); 6.4 Drawing ------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------- 6.4.1 What is the fastest way to paint one pixel on the screen? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Using QuickDraw, the fastest way to draw one pixel is MoveTo( x, y ); Line( 0, 0 ); making sure that the pen size is 1 by 1. This is about twice as fast as setting the pen size to 0 by 1 or 1 by 0 and calling Line( 1, 0 ) or Line( 0, 1 ), respectively. I'm not sure why.... See below for how to draw a pixel without using QuickDraw. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.4.2 How do you draw directly into a pixmap without using QuickDraw? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- As an example, here is a routine that paints a single pixel in a pixmap. To use this procedure, you just have to know what 'value' to pass in. This depends on the current bit-depth of 'thePixMap.' The rightmost n bits of 'value' are used for the pixel value for depth = n. For depths of eight or less, the value of each pixel is an index into a color table. For depth = 16, each 16-bit pixel is interpreted as an RGB value, as follows: Bit: 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Value: R R R R R G G G G G B B B B B U where R = Red, G = Green, B = Blue, and U = Unused. For depth = 32, each 32-bit pixel is interpreted as an RGB value as follows: Bit: 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 Value: A A A A A A A A R R R R R R R R Bit: 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Value: G G G G G G G G B B B B B B B B where R = Red, G = Green, B = Blue, and A = Alpha. void SetPixel( short x, short y, long value, PixMapHandle thePixMap ) { unsigned long rowBytes; unsigned char mask; unsigned char shiftBits; unsigned char *thePixel; unsigned char pixelDepth; char mode = true32b; Boolean swapMode; swapMode = PixMap32Bit( thePixMap ); LockPixels( thePixMap ); rowBytes = (unsigned long) ((*thePixMap)->rowBytes & 0x1fff); thePixel = (unsigned char *) GetPixBaseAddr( thePixMap ); pixelDepth = (*thePixMap)->pixelSize; switch ( pixelDepth ) { case 1: case 2: case 4: case 8: thePixel += (rowBytes * y) + (((unsigned long) pixelDepth * x) / 8L); shiftBits = ((8 - pixelDepth) - ((x * pixelDepth) % 8)); mask = (unsigned char) ((1 << pixelDepth) - 1) << shiftBits; if ( swapMode ) { SwapMMUMode( &mode ); } *thePixel &= ~mask; *thePixel |= (unsigned char) value << shiftBits; break; case 16: thePixel += (rowBytes * y) + (2L * x); if ( swapMode ) { SwapMMUMode( &mode ); } *((unsigned short *)thePixel) = (unsigned short) value; break; case 32: thePixel += (rowBytes * y) + (4L * x); if ( swapMode ) { SwapMMUMode( &mode ); } *((unsigned long *)thePixel) = value; break; default: break; } if ( swapMode ) { SwapMMUMode( &mode ); } UnlockPixels( thePixMap ); } ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6.4.3 How do you draw directly onto the screen without using QuickDraw? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Get the pixmap for the monitor that you want to draw on, and send it to the above procedure. For example, to draw a red dot at position 10,10 on the main screen (if the main screen is in 32-bit mode): GDHandle theDevice; theDevice = GetMainDevice(); SetPixel( x, y, 0x00FF0000, (*theDevice)->gdPMap ); If you are drawing directly to the screen, you should always wrap your drawing with calls to ShieldCursor and ShowCursor. Some monitors such as the Radius Pivot series keep a virtual screen, and they don't update the real screen unless they have to. When you write directly to the screen, you're actually writing to the virtual screen, and your drawing won't show up on the real screen until the system has some other reason to update the monitor. Calling ShieldCursor each time you draw will force these systems to update the real screen when you expect them to. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.4.4 What RGB value does the system use for dimmed buttons, menus and window titles? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The gray color does not have a fixed RGB value. It is a weighted average of the foreground and background colors. To obtain the appropriate 'gray' color for a given foreground and background color, use the Palette Manager routine GetGray (documented in Inside Macintosh Volume VI). pascal Boolean GetGray( GDHandle device, const RGBColor *backGround, RGBColor *foreGround ) = {0x303C,0x1219,0xAAA2}; If at least one gray or intermediate color is available, GetGray stores the color in foreGround and returns true. If no gray is available, or, if you supplied two colors, no third distinguishable color is available, the foreGround parameter is unchanged and the function returns false. GetGray is not available in older versions of the system. Use Gestalt to determine whether it is available. 6.5 Files ---------- ---------------------------------------------- 6.5.1 Why is the File Manager so hard to use? ---------------------------------------------- Its always those pesky wdrn's that are the problem. Here is a summary of some of the things to know: vrn = volume reference number (small negative number; e.g. -2) wdrn = working directory reference number (large negative number; e.g. -32123) dirID = directory ID (small (but long integer!) positive number; e.g. 4123) - vrn's and wdrn's can be used interchangably for the most part. - A vrn represents either a volume, or the root directory of a volume. - A wdrn represents a directory on a volume. - A dirID represents nothing without a vrn or a wdrn. - A dirID overrides the directory otherwise specified by the vrn or wdrn unless it's zero, in which case it's ignored. If it is 2 it specifies the root directory of the volume. - You should always use vrn,dirID pairs. To convert a wdrn into a vrn,dirID pair use GetWDInfo, which returns the vRefNum, the dirID and the procID of the wdRefNum. The procID is almost always 'ERIK'. - You can also use GetVol/SetVol to convert volume names to/from vrns. - To store a vrn,dirID pair (between invocations of a program) convert the vrn to a volume name & creation date (for verification) and store them and the dirID (and a filename perhaps). -------------------------------------- 6.5.2 How do you get a full pathname? -------------------------------------- Take a look at Tech Note #238, available from APDA (and other places). It tells you everything you need to know to get a full pathname, and why you should, in general, use a volume name, dirID, filename (and perhaps volume creation date) triple instead. Also check out the code snippets available from ftp.apple.com et al. There are a couple of snippets that give code to get a full pathname, as well as many other cool file manager tricks. -------------------------------------------------- 6.5.3 How do you set the SFGet/PutFile directory? -------------------------------------------------- To set the directory that is displayed by SFGet/PutFile, stuff the volume reference number into SFSaveDisk, and the dirID into CurDirStore. CurDirStore = $398; Current dirID from Standard File (long) SFSaveDisk = $214; Negative of current vRefNum ----------------------------------------------------- 6.5.3 How do you access the application's data fork? ----------------------------------------------------- Call CurResFile when the application starts up. Call PBGetFCBInfo to convert that refNum into a vRefNum, dirID and name. Call HOpen with the vRefNum, dirID, and name to open up your data fork. 6.6 Handles and Pointers ------------------------- ---------------------------------- 6.6.1 When should I call MoveHHi? ---------------------------------- MoveHHi is an expensive operation; calling it when you don't need to can significantly slow down your program. Additionally, over-calling of MoveHHi can fragment the top of your heap. Call MoveHHi before locking a handle that is followed by some memory allocation. To efficiently move a handle high in the heap and then lock it, you might want to call HLockHi, a call new with MPW 3.2 and THINK C 5.0 (probably THINK Pascal 4.0 as well). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.6.2 Why does malloc/calloc keep crashing or returning NULL in Think C? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- #include <stdlib.h> Explanation: In THINK C, parameters and return values are 2-byte ints by default, which causes the value passed to malloc to be $10000 times as large as you think it is, and causes the upper bytes of the return value to be zeroed. Including stdlib includes a prototype which overrides the defaults. Another common cause of problems with malloc is overwriting the end of a string, such as only mallocing the size of the string and then writing the string plus a null into the malloc'd space. Think's malloc algorithm stores block size information in space adjacent to the storage it allocates, so overwriting the storage tends to cause havoc. The problem may not show immediately since it will probably be the next malloc that encounters problems. 6.7 Standalone Code -------------------- ------------------------------ 6.7.1 How do I write an INIT? ------------------------------ There is a simple INIT (SetWindow INIT) with source code and explanations in the Usenet Macintosh Programmer's Guide. There is also a chapter on writing system extensions in Macintosh Programming Secrets (2nd Ed.). Be sure to check out the ftp sites (especially ftp.apple.com) for sample inits. 6.8 General ------------ -------------------------------------------------------------- 6.8.1 How do I register signatures and file types with Apple? -------------------------------------------------------------- Registering a signature and file type is free, and you don't have to be an Apple Partner or Associate. You can ftp the registration form from ftp.apple.com; it's available as /dts/mac/registration/creator-file-type-form.txt. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.8.2 How do I go about writing serial port communications? These days, it is best to use the new Comunications Toolbox (CTB). By utiizing the CTB, you will be able to write your code to a single specification, and the code will work with all current CTB "tools" and all future CTB tools. The CTB tools allow programmers to extend the CTB's functionality. There is a tool for each facet of the communications puzzle: Connection Tools, Terminal Tools, and File Transfer Tools. For example, once I have written a piece of code that uses the Serial tool to connect me to a terminal server, combined with the VT102 Tool to emulate a vt102 terminal, and the XMODEM Macbinary Tool to transfer files, the same code will work with Apple Modem Tool, TCP/IP, AppleTalk ADSP, ISDN, X.25, and all future Connection Tools. Further, the terminal can emulate a VT320, ASCII, or other terminals. Files may be transfered with XMODEM, TEXT, and soon ZMODEM and Kermit protocols. The disadvantage of the CTB is that you must limit yourself to the specification of the Connection, Terminal, and File Transfer interfaces. These limitations are *rarely* a problem, but clearly something like a FAX interface program or real time data analyzer, would have to seriously consider the interfaces before committing. For most standard communications applications, such as terminal emulators, Bulletin Board Systems, etc., the CTB is the correct choice. You can only get the CTB development kit from APDA. It is affordable, somewhere just under $100. This includes working sample code. ================================ Section VII: Eternal Debates ================================ These questions have no final answers. They pop up every few months and waste a tremendous amount of valuable network resources on discussions that will never be resolved. Most people would be happy if they were never discussed again in this newsgroup. 7.1 Why doesn't the Mac do preemptive multitasking? ---------------------------------------------------- Pro-preemptives claim the current scheme is too vulnerable to ill-behaved applications and too much trouble for application writers. Anti- preemptives claim that preemptive multitasking would reduce interactive response, and that the current cooperative system works well. ============================== Credits / Acknowledgements ============================== Many thanks to Ben Haller, who started this whole thing, and did quite a lot of work on this posting before handing it off to Michael A. Kelly. Many thanks to Michael A. Kelly also, for all his work in establishing and maintaining this FAQ (in addition to continuing to keep the Comp.Sys.Mac.Programmer Digest) before passing the baton. Thanks to these people for proofreading this list during its development: Ben Haller Wally Wedel John B. Matthews Patrick Beard Steve Zellers Thanks to Chris Webster for the one-liners. Thanks to Peter Lewis for the answers to the following specific questions: 6.2.1 When do you put an ellipsis on the end of a menu item? 6.5.1 Why is the File Manager so hard to use? 6.5.2 How do you get a full pathname? 6.5.3 How do you set the SFGet/PutFile directory? Thanks to Greg Ferrar for the review on TMON Pro. Thanks to John Rinaldo for the review on Jasik's Debugger. Thanks for Fritz Anderson for his descriptions of SourceBug and the new Inside Macintosh volumes. And thanks to everyone who has offered suggestions or constructive criticism.... Keep those comments coming! -- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Daryl_Spitzer@mindlink.bc.ca "Life isn't just, life just is." a2251@mindlink.bc.ca -- Me (I think.) -------------------------------------------------------------------