Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!astroatc!rlz
From: rlz@astroatc.UUCP (Robert Ziegler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Programmer's Extender
Message-ID: <1334@astroatc.UUCP>
Date: 28 Nov 88 18:57:35 GMT
References: <8617@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> <1810@ndsuvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: rlz@astroatc.UUCP (Robert Ziegler)
Organization: Astronautics Technology Cntr, Madison, WI
Lines: 40

I bought Volumes I & II of the Programmer's Extender 18 months ago.

The company sent me the source code a few months after my first purchase.
Volume I had so many bugs that it was unusable without source.  I've sent 
numerous bug reports and made half a dozen phone calls to the company over 
time.  (The people are very nice there.)  

Volume II doesn't seem to have the bug problems that Volume I does.

A year later, I bought the Professional version.  The Professional Version 
contains Volumes I & II, plus all of the source code and documentation.  
None of the bugs had been fixed yet.

Once you get the hang of the package, it's great in concept.  It appears to be
much more flexible than Transkel (although I've only played with Transkel for 
a few months).  It's very convenient for throwing together a quick test
program.  If you're writing a monster program without a lot of Macintosh
experience, it let's you concentrate more on your program, and less on
the Macintosh itself.

Unfortunately, you need the source code.  If you buy it, check all the
string routines for off by one errors.  Check all the code for 
inappropriately unlocked handles.  I don't remember any more bug areas,
but I totally rewrote the text routines so scrolling worked correctly,
gutted the event routines for multifinder compatability, and replaced
all screen updating routines for both efficientcy and correctness.

A number of the demo programs provided didn't work.  They got caught by the
same bugs you'll run into.

Perhaps I was extra "lucky", but I spent the first 6 months getting my
credit card billed every month from them for one product or another.
It wasn't straightened out until I got the credit card company after them
and threatened to cancel the card, representing many long distance phone
calls.  In fairness, this problem seemed to be an office clerical error
that got confounded into a nightmare.

All in all, the package is useful and nice.  Volume II requires Volume I,
and contains some useful list handling and bit map routines.  But, BEWARE!
You must have the source; and you must be prepared to debug their code.