TweetFollow Us on Twitter

Oct 98 Factory Floor

Volume Number: 14 (1998)
Issue Number: 10
Column Tag: From The Factory Floor

A PowerPlant Update

by Greg Dow and Dave Mark, ©1998 by Metrowerks, Inc., all rights reserved

This month's column is the start of a series on PowerPlant. We'll start off with a short interview with the godfather of PowerPlant, Greg Dow. Look for more on PowerPlant in next month's column.

Gregory Dow pretends to be the creator and chief architect of PowerPlant at Metrowerks. In reality, he is the sock puppet of a stuffed pink bear named Snuffles, who enjoys watching television, doing backflips, and casino gambling.

Dave: How would you suggest someone get started learning PowerPlant?

Greg: The best way to learn PowerPlant is to come up with an idea for a program that you'd like to write and then begin reading The PowerPlant Book which comes with CodeWarrior. While reading the first few chapters of the book and performing the code exercises, think about how the concepts apply to your program.

After you absorb the basic concepts, create a new project for your program using one of the PowerPlant stationery projects. As you read about features in the book, try implementing them in your project. Also, concurrently read the first few chapters of the manual for Constructor, which is the visual editor for PowerPlant. If you're too impatient to finish the entire book, at least read enough to reach the point where you can build menus and windows, and add code to respond to menu selections and manipulate views.

As you continue to work on your program, look at the sample PowerPlant projects on the CodeWarrior reference CD and at the PowerPlant Contributed Class Archives on the Metrowerks web site: http://www.metrowerks.com

Very often, someone else has already done something similar to what you want to do.

Finally, participate in the Usenet newsgroup comp.sys.mac.oop.powerplant. Follow the discussions, ask your own questions, and answer other's questions if you can. John C. Daub, one of the PowerPlant programmers at Metrowerks, and I read every message on this newsgroup and frequently answer questions.

Dave: Tell me about some of the more recent additions that have made PowerPlant easier to use.

Greg: The LString class provides many routines for creating and manipulating the Pascal-style strings (the first byte is a length count) used by the Mac Toolbox. For example, it can concatenate strings, find substrings within a string, and load strings from resources.

Based on some recent postings on the PowerPlant newsgroup, I just added new functions for converting between strings and floating point numbers. These conversion routines use the Toolbox's StringToExtended and ExtendedToString functions, which have flexible formatting options that account for country-based differences such as the currency symbol and whether to use a comma or period for the decimal point.

The LRadioGroupView and LTabGroupView classes are replacements for the old LRadioGroup and LTabGroup classes. As the names imply, the new classes are views, which makes them easier to create in the Constructor visual editor. I wrote the old classes before Constructor existed, so I didn't consider the problems of dealing with non-visual elements.

Another improvement is a set of debugging classes that John Daub wrote. These classes help stress test a program and provide diagnostic information while a program is running. For example, you can have a debugging window which dynamically displays the chain of command and visual hierarchy.

Dave: How did Mac OS 8 affect PowerPlant?

Greg: Mac OS 8 introduced many changes to the standard Mac interface. The platinum appearance makes traditional controls such as buttons and check boxes look gray and puffy. And there are many new controls, progress bars, sliders, and buttons containing graphics.

PowerPlant already had versions of most of these controls based on the Apple Grayscale Appearance (AGA). Apple published the AGA specification in technical notes for developers, giving pixel-level detail on how to draw each visual element. Robin Mair wrote PowerPlant classes for these visual elements, mostly for internal use by Metrowerks for the interface of the CodeWarrior IDE (integrated development environment). Unfortunately, the Mac OS 8 versions of the visual elements did not follow the AGA specification.

Whenever Apple introduces new OS features, I need to decide how to support them in PowerPlant and whether to have backward compatibility. Backward compatibility means supporting the same or similar features on older versions of the OS.

In this case, it meant implementing all the new Mac OS 8 visual elements with code that runs on System 7. The goal was to allow PowerPlant users to write programs that look and work the same on System 7 and Mac OS 8. So, we made the AGA classes obsolete, and wrote new ones that have the Mac OS 8 look and feel. We call these the GA (Grayscale Appearance) implementations.

At the same time, we wrote classes that create the controls using the new Toolbox calls in Mac OS 8. We call these the AM (Appearance Manager) implementations.

To make a program that runs on both System 7 and Mac OS 8, a programmer can always use the GA version, or can use the hybrid approach of performing a runtime check and using the AM version if the machine supports it. The hybrid approach has more code, but has the advantage of tracking changes that Apple makes to the new Toolbox calls in future versions of Mac OS.

Dave: What about PowerPlant and Carbon?

Greg: Carbon will support a subset of the current Toolbox. Fortunately, PowerPlant does not use many Toolbox calls that Carbon won't support. Typical PowerPlant programs are over 90% Carbon-compatible according to Apple's Carbon Dater program. As Apple provides more details, we will make PowerPlant 100% Carbon-compatible.

One thing that you can do now to prepare for Carbon is to use Navigation Services instead of Standard File to present the dialogs that ask a user to open or save a file. I just finshed adding Navigation Services support to PowerPlant. You can read about Navigation Services by downloading the SDK (software development kit) from Apple's web site at http://developer.apple.com/sdk/.

Dave: What do you see as the next big directional change for PowerPlant?

Greg: Presently, PowerPlant view layouts are static. There is no built-in mechanism for creating, rearranging, and resizing views based on content or runtime conditions. Future versions of PowerPlant will have better support for changing program appearance and behavior at runtime.

As part of this runtime adaptability, visual editing will be part of the framework itself. By attaching special editor objects, you'll be able to directly manipulate visual elements while a program is running.

 

Community Search:
MacTech Search:

Software Updates via MacUpdate

Latest Forum Discussions

See All

Top Mobile Game Discounts
Every day, we pick out a curated list of the best mobile discounts on the App Store and post them here. This list won't be comprehensive, but it every game on it is recommended. Feel free to check out the coverage we did on them in the links... | Read more »
Price of Glory unleashes its 1.4 Alpha u...
As much as we all probably dislike Maths as a subject, we do have to hand it to geometry for giving us the good old Hexgrid, home of some of the best strategy games. One such example, Price of Glory, has dropped its 1.4 Alpha update, stocked full... | Read more »
The SLC 2025 kicks off this month to cro...
Ever since the Solo Leveling: Arise Championship 2025 was announced, I have been looking forward to it. The promotional clip they released a month or two back showed crowds going absolutely nuts for the previous competitions, so imagine the... | Read more »
Dive into some early Magicpunk fun as Cr...
Excellent news for fans of steampunk and magic; the Precursor Test for Magicpunk MMORPG Crystal of Atlan opens today. This rather fancy way of saying beta test will remain open until March 5th and is available for PC - boo - and Android devices -... | Read more »
Prepare to get your mind melted as Evang...
If you are a fan of sci-fi shooters and incredibly weird, mind-bending anime series, then you are in for a treat, as Goddess of Victory: Nikke is gearing up for its second collaboration with Evangelion. We were also treated to an upcoming... | Read more »
Square Enix gives with one hand and slap...
We have something of a mixed bag coming over from Square Enix HQ today. Two of their mobile games are revelling in life with new events keeping them alive, whilst another has been thrown onto the ever-growing discard pile Square is building. I... | Read more »
Let the world burn as you have some fest...
It is time to leave the world burning once again as you take a much-needed break from that whole “hero” lark and enjoy some celebrations in Genshin Impact. Version 5.4, Moonlight Amidst Dreams, will see you in Inazuma to attend the Mikawa Flower... | Read more »
Full Moon Over the Abyssal Sea lands on...
Aether Gazer has announced its latest major update, and it is one of the loveliest event names I have ever heard. Full Moon Over the Abyssal Sea is an amazing name, and it comes loaded with two side stories, a new S-grade Modifier, and some fancy... | Read more »
Open your own eatery for all the forest...
Very important question; when you read the title Zoo Restaurant, do you also immediately think of running a restaurant in which you cook Zoo animals as the course? I will just assume yes. Anyway, come June 23rd we will all be able to start up our... | Read more »
Crystal of Atlan opens registration for...
Nuverse was prominently featured in the last month for all the wrong reasons with the USA TikTok debacle, but now it is putting all that behind it and preparing for the Crystal of Atlan beta test. Taking place between February 18th and March 5th,... | Read more »

Price Scanner via MacPrices.net

AT&T is offering a 65% discount on the ne...
AT&T is offering the new iPhone 16e for up to 65% off their monthly finance fee with 36-months of service. No trade-in is required. Discount is applied via monthly bill credits over the 36 month... Read more
Use this code to get a free iPhone 13 at Visi...
For a limited time, use code SWEETDEAL to get a free 128GB iPhone 13 Visible, Verizon’s low-cost wireless cell service, Visible. Deal is valid when you purchase the Visible+ annual plan. Free... Read more
M4 Mac minis on sale for $50-$80 off MSRP at...
B&H Photo has M4 Mac minis in stock and on sale right now for $50 to $80 off Apple’s MSRP, each including free 1-2 day shipping to most US addresses: – M4 Mac mini (16GB/256GB): $549, $50 off... Read more
Buy an iPhone 16 at Boost Mobile and get one...
Boost Mobile, an MVNO using AT&T and T-Mobile’s networks, is offering one year of free Unlimited service with the purchase of any iPhone 16. Purchase the iPhone at standard MSRP, and then choose... Read more
Get an iPhone 15 for only $299 at Boost Mobil...
Boost Mobile, an MVNO using AT&T and T-Mobile’s networks, is offering the 128GB iPhone 15 for $299.99 including service with their Unlimited Premium plan (50GB of premium data, $60/month), or $20... Read more
Unreal Mobile is offering $100 off any new iP...
Unreal Mobile, an MVNO using AT&T and T-Mobile’s networks, is offering a $100 discount on any new iPhone with service. This includes new iPhone 16 models as well as iPhone 15, 14, 13, and SE... Read more
Apple drops prices on clearance iPhone 14 mod...
With today’s introduction of the new iPhone 16e, Apple has discontinued the iPhone 14, 14 Pro, and SE. In response, Apple has dropped prices on unlocked, Certified Refurbished, iPhone 14 models to a... Read more
B&H has 16-inch M4 Max MacBook Pros on sa...
B&H Photo is offering a $360-$410 discount on new 16-inch MacBook Pros with M4 Max CPUs right now. B&H offers free 1-2 day shipping to most US addresses: – 16″ M4 Max MacBook Pro (36GB/1TB/... Read more
Amazon is offering a $100 discount on the M4...
Amazon has the M4 Pro Mac mini discounted $100 off MSRP right now. Shipping is free. Their price is the lowest currently available for this popular mini: – Mac mini M4 Pro (24GB/512GB): $1299, $100... Read more
B&H continues to offer $150-$220 discount...
B&H Photo has 14-inch M4 MacBook Pros on sale for $150-$220 off MSRP. B&H offers free 1-2 day shipping to most US addresses: – 14″ M4 MacBook Pro (16GB/512GB): $1449, $150 off MSRP – 14″ M4... Read more

Jobs Board

All contents are Copyright 1984-2011 by Xplain Corporation. All rights reserved. Theme designed by Icreon.