Newsbits

By Scott T Boyd, Editor

Dog Bites Code

Barking Dog Software Co., a developer of Macintosh software development tools, is now shipping “Call Tree” for both PowerMac and 68k Macintosh systems.

“Call Tree” is a stand-alone C source code analysis tool which automatically produces a function call tree. This call tree allows programmers to quickly understand the design and calling structure of simple or highly complex programs. Many applications are composed of thousands of functions and hundreds of files and understanding such code structure without an automated tool like “Call Tree” is so time consuming as to be impractical. However, “Call Tree”, which utilizes Drag & Drop functionality, produces its analysis by processing thousands of lines of C source code per second. The results may be saved or printed. “Call Tree” results are also useful for:

• Understanding weak or invisible modularity which may be exploited to increase code portability and reduce maintenance costs.

• Assist in optimizing, through a quick and more detailed understanding of function traversal and possible rearrangement of modules for efficiency.

• Tracking intentional (or unintentional) changes in program design and modularity in order to prevent accidental design shifts.

As such, “Call Tree” is valuable for both programmers and technical managers.

“Call Tree” is compatible with source files for CodeWarrior, MPW, Symantec and any other standard C formatted text files. “Call Tree” does not require MPW, a development environment or a compiler to operate and may be employed to analyze code for Windows as well as Macintosh. “Call Tree” is shipped as a fully functional, stand-alone tool with native versions for 68k and PowerMac machines.

“Call Tree” is designed to do one function well, be simple to use, and require virtually no time to install and learn; yet produce results which save hundreds of hours and provide information for better source code control and understanding.

“Call Tree” is available immediately and sells for US$149.

Barking Dog Software Co., 4822 Santa Monica Ave., Suite 179, San Diego, CA 92107. (619) 222-8361 or 
calltree@aol.com.

New Newton Tools

Creative Digital Systems, publisher of PDA Developers magazine and several Newton developer tools, announces the availability of developer toolkits for creating Macintosh and DOS desktop applications that can communicate with Newton MessagePads using wireless infrared connections. Applications built with these toolkits require that the desktop system have an IR transceiver such as a Sharp Electronics CE-IR2 or CE-IR3 attached to a serial port on the desktop system.

The Macintosh toolkit, called GizmoBeam™, is a Macintosh device driver that implements Apple Computer’s superset of the Sharp infrared data transfer protocol that is embedded in the ROM of every Newton device. GizmoBeam includes the driver resources and Think C 7.0 sample code. A programmer should have some understanding of Macintosh device drivers and the Device Manager in order to use GizmoBeam effectively.

The DOS toolkit, called MicroWave™, implements the Sharp infrared data transfer protocol, a Newton-compatible subset of Apple’s full Newton infrared protocol. It comes as both Borland and Microsoft-compatible linkable libraries. MicroWave has a straightforward interface that can be used by anyone familiar with C programming.

GizmoBeam and MicroWave are $250 for a single-seat SDK and five-user distribution license for a single product, with an additional $25 discount when both kits are purchased. Both have additional licensing fees for corporate and commercial distribution of products incorporating their code. A 500-unit distribution license for a single product is $1000; an unlimited single-product distribution license is $2000.

Creative Digital Systems, 293 Corbett Ave, San Francisco, CA 94114.  (415) 621-4252 voice, (415) 621-4922 
fax, e-mail cds@netcom.com                  

What’s New in CodeWarrior 5?

The following are a few new features in CodeWarrior 5:

- MPW tools for 68K and PowerPC

- Templates

- Global Optimizer

- Conditional breakpoints/expression evaluation in debugger

The Metrowerks CodeWarrior Volume Purchase Discount Program for commercial use will end. Existing site license agreements will continue. Metrowerks will convert to broad distribution and volume purchases will be processed by the distribution channel.

Look for information on the CodeWarrior 5 release on AOL, AppleLink, eWorld, Compuserve, GEnie, WWW 
at Fairgate and Comp.sys.mac.programmer.codewarrior on the net. For more information contact:  sales@metrowerks.com

Apprentice 2.0 - 600 MB for $35

Celestin Company announces Apprentice release 2, an attractively priced CD-ROM compilation of Mac source code and utilities. Many Macintosh programmers have been frustrated by the lack of an inexpensive collection of sample source code. The few collections that are available are not only out of the price range of many people, but contain outdated examples that may no longer demonstrate effective programming techniques. Apprentice contains programmer utilities and up-to-date source code in CodeWarrior, Symantec, and MPW projects for C, C++, and Pascal.

In order to compile such an exhaustive collection of quality source code, Celestin Company contacted over 200 Macintosh developers and received their permission to include some of the best programming examples available. Users will find complete working examples of applications, games, control panels, extensions, utilities, and much more.

Those new to Mac programming will find the included “frameworks” very useful. These are complete application shells that take care of many of the tedious tasks associated with Mac programming including menus, standard dialogs, file handling, and the like. A complete Mac application can be built in no time, by simply providing the code to perform specific activities. All other aspects of the Mac environment are handled by the shell utilities.

Apprentice contains dozens of libraries and classes (including a complete suite of Think Class Libraries), from graphics and sounds to menu management and serial communications. Many of these libraries include complete source code. Also included are hundreds of code “snippets”, small routines that perform specific programming tasks. From displaying a color icon or resolving a file name alias, developers will find what they are looking for in this definitive collection.

Apprentice contains more than 20 complete standalone programming environments. Ada, C, Forth, Lisp, Modula-2, Oberon, and Prolog are only a few of the languages included. Most come with complete documentation and programming examples, and some include complete source code to the language itself.

The information hungry will find technical specifications, language guidelines, programming hints, as well as a complete collection of the comp.sys.mac.programmer digest, a compendium of information from one of the best Mac programmer discussion groups on the electronic networks. Also included are demonstration versions of commercial programmer utilities, including installers, code and resource editors, database libraries, and much more.

Everything on the disc is indexed using several different utilities, so users will find what they are looking for quickly and easily. A text-only version of this index is available via anonymous ftp from the following site:

  ftp://ftp.teleport.com/vendors/cci/apprentice/apprentice.hqx

Apprentice is $35, which includes standard shipping within the United States and Canada. It comes with an unconditional 30-day money-back guarantee, and customers who for any reason are dissatisfied with their purchase, are entitled to an immediate refund.

For more information about Celestin Company and its products, call (360) 385-3767 voice, (360) 385-3586 
fax, or email celestin@olympus.net

Newton Technology Journal

Xplain Corporation, the publisher of MacTech magazine announced today that it is working with Apple Computer, Inc. to produce the Newton® Technology Journal™. As a central piece of the Newton monthly mailing, the Newton Technology Journal was created to disseminate information to Newton developers in the range of Developer Programs introduced by Apple in December 1994.

The Newton Technology Journal is a bi-monthly publication tailored specifically to the Newton platform developer. The Newton Technology Journal is the primary resource for the latest information on Newton platform technology, Newton development tools, PDA business, and market news from Apple and its Newton licensees. In addition to the technical information, the Newton Technology Journal will also provide developers with a well-rounded picture of the opportunities that the Newton platform is building for developers.

The Newton Technology Journal, produced and edited by Xplain Corporation, benefits from Xplain’s experience in producing technical publications since 1984. The publication is a no-nonsense, easy to read publication that caters to the readers’ information needs. The journal’s Managing Editor is Lee Dorsey of Apple’s PIE division. The articles are authored by Newton engineers and other Newton business and technology experts from inside and outside of Apple.

For more information on the Newton Technology Journal or the Newton Developer Programs, contact:  Apple’s 
Developer Support Center at 408-974-4897 or devsupport@applelink.apple.com