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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