We surveyed thousands of Mac developers and these are the things you wanted to make programming easier.
Experienced programmers have been buying BOT like crazy because it simply handles things "real" programmer just don't want to fool around with. My personal favorites are the New List Manager and the Scroll Bars. I always dreaded putting those in my app.
And unlike most other packages, you can use them stand-alone. Nearly every other package on the Mac has you using someone else's event loop. With other packages you have to use all or nothing. But with BOT you pick what you want and simply link it into your program.
BOT comes with C source code, so you can change it keep it up to date with newer Think C or MPW versions. But Think and MPW Pascal developers are buying it like crazy too. That's because it comes with complete with libraries, interface files and complete working example programs in Pascal.
And the document is more than 140 pages.
I've included some information below about each section of BOT.
Price is $249.95 plus shipping and handling (Washington State add sales tax).
Developers may include BOT in one application, royalty free.
Our library can handle huge lists at high-speed (and no 32K limit, either). We also sort the list alphabetically or numerically, ascending or descending. Plus, we provide a new "QSORT" for your ANSII file (or as a library if you're using Pascal) that is 1,000 times faster than the one that ships with Think C. Our functions are much simpler than List Manager, plus we offer element marks ("checkmarks") and refCons attached to every element.
The List library is a major product enhancer and programming time-saver.
2. Text Rotation
We provide some fast routines that will draw text strings (or text pointers) 90°, 180° rotated left or right as well as "flip vertical" and "flip horizontal." These are as easy to use as DrawString or DrawText.
Our text rotation is a major time-saver if you aren't already doing it.
3. Modem/Communications Support
We give you some excellent, canned functions to "make a connection" and/or "wait for a call and connect." Have you ever tried doing this? It's a can of worms. We leave the comm protocol up to you, but with our library you say "Here's the phone number, come back to me when you've established the connection with the other terminal."
The Modem library is an excellent communications building block.
4. Intelligent Scrollbars
Scrollbar controls are usually a hassle. Even if you already have code for this area, our method provides simple functions that will work for all cases, over and over. Simply stated, you can program a pair of fully-functioning scrollbars in less than ten lines of code!
The scrollbar library can save any programmer some time.
5. Offscreen GrafPorts
This library makes drawing to an offscreen port a breeze. You can open a port (for both bitMap and PixMap images), draw anything to it, and you can copy to screen, rotate or flip in any 90° increment.
This library is a "must" for any kind of graphics application.
6. Dialog Support
We have a dialog filter to slap a list (from our list library ) into a dialog userItem in two lines of code. We also have "grouped radio button" functions and lots of get/set functions for dialog items that otherwise take 3 additional steps (or more).
Dialogs can be a hassle — this one is a "must see."
7. Miscellaneous Goodies
Our "misc." section alone is loaded. We have one called "PushPort" which saves the current GrafPort and a "PopPort" that restores it; and these can be nested. We have another for "PushClip" and "PopClip" to save/restore the clip region also at nested levels. We have another for handling cursors (changing to I-beams and that sort of thing) and ways to detect System environment items.
The miscellaneous section alone is probably worth the whole price of Bag of Tricks.
For permission to distribute this demo to prospective users, write, fax or email to the above address. This file must accompany the Programmer's "Bag of Tricks" demo program.
