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From: svc@well.UUCP (Leonard Rosenthol)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Inside Mac DA
Summary: IMDA vs. Online Companion
Message-ID: <13860@well.UUCP>
Date: 28 Sep 89 17:10:20 GMT
References: <5437@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>
Reply-To: svc@well.UUCP (Leonard Rosenthol)
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
Lines: 36

In article <5437@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> lim@iris.ucdavis.edu (Lloyd Lim) writes:
>Some clarifications of earlier posts:
> [Stuff about Inside Mac DA]
>
>I haven't seen Programmer's Online Companion so I can't compare the two.  The
>IM DA can be invoked by a FKEY number if desired, BTW.
>
	I have both the IM DA and POC installed on my machine, and I find that
I use them both at times.  POC is the one that I use the most (of the two) as
it just has the calling conventions (in Pascal) which is what I really need.
After programming the Mac long enough (too long!??!) you learn what the calls
do, but not always all the parameters.  This lets me get to the params very
quickly (one hot key, plus the first couple letters of the routine name). It
also has everything from IM I-V, PLUS SANE.  The other thing that is nice is
that I can get to everything there via the keyboard, which I can not do (easily)
with the IM DA. (Oh, POC also has most of the low mem globals and all the data
structs also at key reach).
	The IMDA on the other hand is useful for it's COMPLETE text copy of 
IM.  For those times I need to look up funkyness about a routine (like the 
funky parms to Munger) or just to double-check soemthing about a particular
routines functionality, this is where I go.  Only when things get REALLY grim,
or it's in IM V (which is not in the IMDA database) do I go to IM itself.
	My IMDA database has through IM IV, though I have heard rumors of a
IMDA 2.0 which has through IMV, C syntax for the routines and more, but when
UI tried to order it, my check got sent back...

>Hope that answers all your questions.  If someone really has a version with
>a complete volume IV, i'd like to hear about it.
>
	Consider yourself heard.

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