Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 (Tek) 9/28/84 based on 9/17/84; site iddic.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!orca!iddic!dorettas From: dorettas@iddic.UUCP (Doretta Schrock) Newsgroups: net.micro.mac Subject: Questions on Neon: to buy or not to buy... Message-ID: <2204@iddic.UUCP> Date: Fri, 27-Sep-85 20:04:22 EDT Article-I.D.: iddic.2204 Posted: Fri Sep 27 20:04:22 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 29-Sep-85 08:24:47 EDT Distribution: net Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR Lines: 29 I am a semi-novice to the Mac (though not to computing/programming) and I am considering buying Neon as a first language for my Mac. I am conversant with the rudiments of Smalltalk, 68000 assembly, and a bunch of other languages. I am looking for a language that I can use with a minimum of trouble on my poor single-drive thin Mac :-( (I do have some access to an external drive I can borrow), without spending two arms and a leg. It would also be nice if my wife & offspring could begin to learn about programming with whatever I get, though I am really more concerned about power (for me) than warm-fuzzyness (for them). I'm eventually interested in developing some graphically-oriented CAI-type programs, in addition to trying out a few game ideas that have been percolating away in my brain-pan for a while... As I am fairly new to this part of the net, I have not seen any discussion of Neon or other possibilities, and so I thought I'd ask. I've seen the reviews in Macworld and Mactutor, but I'd like to elicit some responses that don't require rather large grains of salt :-). So: Is the language as good as it looks to be? Is the documentation *really* the best thing since terminals with lower case? How much swapping on a single-drive machine will I be sentenced to do (can I explore the language and try trivial things with just the one drive)? Any other constructive comments would be appreciated. e-mail is great, but as this is a somewhat temporary address (getting a new one soon), if your comment seems likely to interest others as well, you might want to post it to the net. Thanks in advance, Mike Sellers