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product, which will be operable on

the Mac, DOS, and OS/2, both in the

character mode and under Presenta-

don Manager, and we are doing the

bulk of our development on Macs.

What is it about the Mac that suits

it to your application and vice

versa?

DF: I think they are well suited to

each other. Let me give you a couple

of examples. First of all, a graphical

image of the work areas, the

databases, and the relations that you

establish between databases is very

useful in interpreting at a glance what

your setup is. Under DOS

[FoxBASE +Jyou can only see that in

tabular form or in terms of the pro-

gram you just executed. That’s not

very informative.

Another obvious area where the

Mac shines is in a screen painting

capacity. Our screen painter is a

Mac-Draw style implementation, ob-

ject-oriented, where you pick up

fields and drag them around with the

mouse, and select groups of fields,

ungroup them, change font, pattern,

et cetera. In the layout of screens,

forms, reports, labels -- that kind of

thing the Mac can do a better job

because of the graphical interface.

I think there’s a little more to it

also. I think that the dBASE lan-

guage, because it’s a very mature and

full featured language whatever its

other virtues or defects is quite

regular. That makes it harmonious

with the regularity and consistency of

the Mac interface more so than

some of the Mac databases that have

been previously developed.

Were you unable to Implement

any features of FoxBASE on the Mac,

and are there features on the Mac

version that simply didn’t exist In the

PC version?

DF: ...Eric had the DOS version of

FoxBASE essentially intact on the

Mac within three weeks. The rest of

the nine months was spent outfitting

it with the Mac interface, which was

an experience for all of us.

The language is identical, al-

though there are many extensions.

For example, user screens can take

advantage of interactive devices like

pop-ups, radio buttons, check boxes,

and memo fields which can be edited

in scrollable rectangular regions on

screen, so there are many extensions.

Obviously the inclusion of a picture

data type is another example.

Do you think that the Mac version

is, either from a developer’s or an

end user’s point of view, better than

the DOS version?

DF: No question. Adam Green

got FoxBASE + IMac in a very early

alpha copy, and since then he’s been

doing all his Dbase programming on

the Mac and porting it back to DOS.

The advantage is that, for ex-

ample, you can have up to twenty pro-

gram editing windows open simul-

taneously. You can cut and paste be-

tween programs. You can pull down

a menu option, execute a program,

and when an error occurs it throws up

an editing window with the program

in it ready to be modified. Also, the

debugging environment is so much

better on the Mac. I think it’s far

better than the DOS product. We

view it as the pilot product; all of our

future products should look very

much like this one.

How straightforward a process

was It for you to work with the Mac

Toolbox?

EC: Well, it wasn’t especially dif-

ficult; it was just a lot of code. A lot

of the work fell in the category of

having to maintain several separate

data structures which all mimicked

each other, and you had to make sure

they were all constantly in line so that

the display would be consistent and

integral. But it wasn’t really a big

deal.

DF: The fact is that for most

programmers it would have been a

three year project. Eric took about

three weeks. There’s no magic here.

Just talent.

AF: With regard to the view win-

dow, coming up with a design was

probably easier than getting it imple-

mented. I think implementing a view

window and all the panels in it be-

came easier after the first item was

done. In other words, once you were

familiar with all the tools and had

learned how to use them, the rest of

it fell into place.

It was like learning an entirely dif-

ferent computer language. Even

though you’re actually writing in C,

there’s so much new information in

commands and calls that it’s a whole

new language.

WF: There was a mental adjust-

ment of almost literally turning your

mind inside out. Where normally in

programming you think of the pro-

gram driving the user, in the Mac

interface the user manipulating

things drives a program. The con-

ceptual gap that you have to bridge is

very large; that’s the big step that you

have to take before you can actually

create something Mac-like.

EC: The process is enticing, yet

frustrating.

DF: You’ve probably seen the In-

side Macintosh books. There are five

volumes now, and if you add to that

the technical notes there’s probably

two or three thousand pages of

documentation. The problem with

the Toolbox is not that it’s particular-

ly profound at any point, although

some of the graphic routines are pret-

ty magical, but that it’s very big. To

continued on page 6

Help Wanted

We’re still looking for a permanent room at a good price. The room

should accomodate 150 people, be centrally located on the West Side, and

be as accessible as possible to a freeway.

We also need audiovisual equipment: an overhead projector and screen,

and LCD viewers for both the PC (VGA support strongly preferred) and

Mac. If you have a source for borrowing these or renting them cheaply,

we’d sure like to know. Right now we’re spending between $150 and $250

each meeting for rental of the A/V equipment alone.

We also need your active participation in planning and putting on

meetings, and in the newsletter. L.A.Fox needs:

Presenters

Suggestions (and phone numbers) for presenters

A club disk librarian

Someone to run a bulletin board

Advertising salesperson

LA. FOX