Scott Knaster and I wish you all the best with this sample code.
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The second edition is almost entirely new.
As you may recall, the first edition was split into two parts. The first part was a historical background and philosophy section. The second part was a technical section (but, alas, lacking in source code samples). The two sections were divided by a cartoon showing how the event manager worked.
In the new edition, the book is still split up into two parts. The first section is mostly the same, updated to take out anachronisms (like references to the possibilities of multi-tasking and 32-bit cleanliness) and add current information (like System 7.0 stuff).
The cartoon has been replaced by famous Apple About boxes. The first is the unexpurgated MultiFinder 1.0 about box (the official release version had all the good parts bleeped; we've put them back in for the book). The second is the text from the circus parade from one of the preliminary 7.0 release CD's.
The second section is where all the new information are.
Chapter 3 shows the application skeleton used for all the samples in the book. Rather than duplicate the same code that handles initialization, windows, and menus in each chapter, we show it just once. All the subsequent chapters tweak the skeleton a little and then get on with the interesting stuff.
Chapter 4 is on dialogs. It shows how to handle modal, modeless, and movable-modal dialogs. The sample for the modal dialog is based on an idea in the first book, where command-key equivalents are assigned to all the dialogs items. The modeless dialog shows a sample "Find" dialog that uses the 7.0 popupmenu control. The movable-modal dialog shows how to do a progress indicator like the Finder's.
Chapter 5 talks about QuickDraw. It starts off a lot like the QuickDraw chapter of the first edition, but then delves a little more into current color issues. The second half of the chapter implements an idea put forth in the first edition, where offscreen buffers are used to save the contents of background windows when a dialog is displayed, and then used to restore the contents of those windows when the dialog is dismissed.
Chapter 6 deals more with QuickDraw and shows how to do mouse tracking. The sample program reads in a MacPaint picture. The user can then use the mouse to etch out a rectangular selection that does the "marching ants" animation. The selection can then be clicked on and dragged around. Offscreen buffers are used for this, too.
Chapter 7 gets into window management. We show how to implement Tile Windows and Stack Windows menu items, and show how to do a Window menu that keeps track of all the open windows. The algorithms for tiling and stacking work across multiple monitors.
Chapter 8 delves into the File Manager. A simple program is shown that allows the user to select a file (using Standard File), and target directory (again, using Standard File) and then copies the file to the destination in small chunks. The reader is encouraged to integrate the copy routine with the progress indicator shown in Chapter 4.
Chapter 9 develops different kinds of standalone code. The first sample is a simple INIT that beeps at startup. Then a more realistic INIT is given that causes a command-key sequence to zoom the frontmost window (I actually use this INIT in my everyday work). Next, we show how to implement an LDEF that draws icons and grays out disabled items. Finally, we give the source code to a windoid WDEF (the kind of window usually associated with floating windows). Note that we don't actually show how to do floating windows (bummer).
Chapter 10 is a collection of little routines that aren't large enough to qualify for chapters of their own. We show how THINK programmers can do spinning cursors based on MPW's 'acur' resources. We even show how such animation can be done an interrupt time (even though I personally don't approve of the practice). We show how applications can check for Command-Period without calling WaitNextEvent, and how to implement a password-entry dialog box with the little bullet characters. We also show how to hide the menubar.
In summary, chapters 1 and 2 are a lot like the first edition. Chapters 4, 5, and 7 are partially based on information and ideas in the first edition. The remaining chapters (3, 6, 8, 9, and 10) are totally new. If you get the second edition, keep the first edition handy, because there's a lot of material we threw away (like a lot of stuff dealing with printing and the Finder desktop database).
All of the chapters include complete source code (in THINK C) to all of the interesting stuff we talk about. Two people have complained about our not including and resource dumps, but all of the resources we use are straightforward enough that we didn't want to fill up pages and pages with blocks of data (Like icons. I used to hate that about the old MacTutor -- I hope the new MacTutor is better). Besides, we used ResEdit exclusively, and there were no .r files.
