Re: [MacPerl] What are MacPerl's capabilities

[Chris Nandor <pudge@pobox.com>]

At 10.40 -0400 1999.04.07, Robert Pollard wrote:
>1) How far can MacPerl go in allowing me to use the Mac Toolbox to do
>things like display a window with the ability to enter into fields any
>information I want and store it in a database of my own design?

Yes.  :)


>2) If so, does MacPerl hide the Mac Toolbox enough that I don't have to
>be a C/C++ programmer to use it?

Yes, though the functions are mapped closely to their C equivalents, so
being a C programmer of the Mac helps.

The best resources for using the functions themselves is still Inside
Macintosh, available for free as PDF and HTML files at
<URL:http://www.appler.com/developer/>.  For the MacPerl usage, see this
list, the MacPerl book, and the macperl-toolbox list.


>3) What resource is their for understanding the OO portion of MacPerl.

The best resources for OO in MacPerl are not specific to MacPerl.  Several
books are good, including Perl: The Programmer's Companion, Effective Perl
Programming.  There is the MacPerl book, which does not discuss OO more
than a page or two.  There are some good manpages, that come with perl and
are here:

  <URL:http://www.perl.com/CPAN-local/doc/manual/html/pod/perlref.html>
  <URL:http://www.perl.com/CPAN-local/doc/manual/html/pod/perldsc.html>
  <URL:http://www.perl.com/CPAN-local/doc/manual/html/pod/perllol.html>
  <URL:http://www.perl.com/CPAN-local/doc/manual/html/pod/perltoot.html>
  <URL:http://www.perl.com/CPAN-local/doc/manual/html/pod/perlobj.html>


You can skip dsc and lol if you like, but if you want to understand
references well, you might want to read them.  Then there is the article
from MJD that is a new manpage as of 5.005_03, for more on references:

  <URL:http://www.plover.com/~mjd/perl/FAQs/references.html>



>I don't want to buy books and programming tools for MacPerl unless it
>will meet my needs.

There really isn't much of a need to buy tools.  Most tools are free and
open, as are most docs.  Some excellent books cost money, but you can get
good books for not much.  I recommend, in addition to the books mentioned
above, the Perl Cookbook as a compendium for every perl programmer.  The
others you should get as needed.

Good luck,

--
Chris Nandor          mailto:pudge@pobox.com         http://pudge.net/
%PGPKey = ('B76E72AD', [1024, '0824090B CE73CA10  1FF77F13 8180B6B6'])

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