Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!apple!bionet!agate!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim
From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: LSC 3.0 critique (long)
Message-ID: <5453@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 26 Sep 88 00:35:03 GMT
References: <2367@munnari.oz>
Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco
Lines: 36

My biggest objection is that the DA shell is useless.  I spent two weeks
writing a DA under that shell, only to have practically everything break
when I converted it to a real DA.  Some things simply couldn't be made to
work at all in the DA, though they could in the fake version -- for instance,
the Standard File Package in front of a DA window under MultiFinder, and
saving function pointers in a multi-segment DA.  What a rip-off.  Would
it be so hard to make the debugger smart enough to follow what a real DA
is doing?  What is the point of debugging in a friendly environment if
the debugging only works for a mock-up?

And regardless of the environment, I'm pretty tired of bugs stepping on my
project files.  The documentation is positively snide on this point, like
it's my fault if I write code that has bugs in it.  Bugs are what programming
is all about; I challenge anyone to write a 75K+ program with no unforseen
bugs.  Apparently we're supposed to back up the project file before every
test run.  If there is some way on the Mac to ensure you never write to
other applications' memory during development, I sure would love to hear
about it, as would the validation theorists working on SDI.  Saying "You've
got to be more careful with dangling pointers" is like saying "Be careful
whose car you hit."  If you can help it, you won't hit anyone's.  If you
can't, there isn't much opportunity for choice in the matter.

As development environments go, LSC 3.0 does have some unusual virtues.
But its flaws are brain-damaged, unavoidable, and extremely annoying.

(By the way, I had no problem whatsoever getting the List Manager to work with
a custom list definition, in either environment.  In fact, except for A4
handling and the LDEF resource id, list code from an application worked just
fine the first time in a DA.  I don't know what the problem could be.)
-- 
Tim Maroney, Consultant, Eclectic Software, sun!hoptoad!tim
"Because there is something in you that I respect, and that makes me desire
 to have you for my enemy."
"Thats well said.  On those terms, sir, I will accept your enmity or any
 man's."
    - Shaw, "The Devil's Disciple"