Le Club Macintosh de MontrƯal
Publication: InterFace
Issue: Unknown
Author: John Markle
Series: None
Title: NeXT Developer SIG  -  Introduction
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NeXT Developer SIG  -  Introduction
John Vincent Markle

	NeXTstep, the software environment for the NeXT, provides a state-of-the-art graphical use interface which makes it easy for one to learn how to use the machine.  However, NeXTstep is also a sophisticated development environment which makes it possible for one to quickly design and develop an object-oriented application with a graphical user interface.  NeXTstep accomplishes this inherently difficult task using the Interface Builder and the Application Kit.

	The Interface Builder enables one to design the application's user interface using only the mouse and a large palette of predefined objects such as windows, menus, etc.  It also enables one to define connections between the various objects within that user interface.  Finally, it creates Objective C source code files describing the interface;  these files subsequently can be modified to provide any additional functionality which may be required by the application.

	The Application Kit is a library of over thirty major objects, including all the objects required to implement the NeXT user interface.  All objects are fully defined and implemented, including all event-handling behaviour.  This greatly reduces the time and effort involved in implementing a new application's own user interface.  It also standardizes the overall NeXT user interface:  since all applications use the objects in the Application Kit, they all behave the same.



"If you know what you want to accomplish, the NeXT Computer is superior to any programming platform I've encountered.  The reason is NeXTstep and object-oriented C." (NeXT on Campus, Fall 1990, p. 13)

"Also, we have found that the NeXTstep object-oriented environment makes the development process fairly rapid." (p. 13)

"Finally, Interface Builder made building the user interface easier by an order of magnitude.  I don't think we would have attempted building the interface without the NeXT Computer.  It would have taken too many resources." (p. 12)

"In a mouse-based environment, programming the user interface is usually difficult and time-consuming.  With Interface Builder, you can set up the look and feel of an application with comparative ease.  We've had success with it at Gustavus.  The students learn how to use it quickly and they like that." (p. 11)

"NeXTstep is the first object-oriented programming environment that I can imagine being used by faculty members who are part-time programmers.  The main reason is Interface Builder.  There are other appealing user interfaces, but they were designed originally for single-tasking computers, and have been improved gradually.  The NeXTstep environment incorporates multitasking and virtual memory from the start."  (p. 14)

"We chose the NeXT Computer as our primary knowledge-base development platform because of its outstanding object-oriented programming environment, and because of the ease with which we'll be able to build distributed, object-oriented knowledge-based systems to test our ideas. ... The design is that of a distributed system consisting of many independently developed modules running either on the same or different computers." (pp. 7 & 8)

"The most surprising thing was how much progress people made in a short time.  Most current models of faculty development maintain that it takes at least a year, and often two years, to create anything significant for the classroom. ... We honestly feel that these new tools are so powerful that faculty could do significant development in a three-month period - and come up with some high-quality projects." (p. 5)

"I hadn't had any experience using the NeXT Computer.  In fact, I had precious little experience usings computers at all.  The main advantage of the NeXT Computer is you don't have to be all that sophisticated to do things that are otherwise very sophisticated." (p. 4)


	Please feel free to attend the NeXT Developer SIG meetings, to be held at the Club's headquarters on the last Thursday of each month.  We will explore the development of applications within the dynamic world which the NeXT computer presents:  a visual, object-oriented, multitasking, distributed environment with  virtual memory and built-in CD-quality sound.