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From: Russell L. Bryan <rbryan@Mail.trincoll.edu>
Subject: Re: Tads 2.0 Mac: How to Compile?
Message-ID: <1992Dec10.233915.24418@starbase.trincoll.edu>
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References: <1992Dec09.145506.10598@ncrcae.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM> <1992Dec10.084811.20101@ncrcae.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM>
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 23:39:15 GMT
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In article <1992Dec10.084811.20101@ncrcae.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM>
Alan.McNeely, mcneely@korg16.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM writes:
>This is a very poor design,  and should be corrected.   It's rather
glaring
>to have to click buttons that I can't see to use this product.

Although I DO have a large-screen monitor, and therefore have no problem
at all with the window sizes, I must agree that there are design problems
in the compiler's interface.  However, I have to keep in mind that Mike
Roberts
is, first and foremost, an IBM user.  His knowledge of window usage may
not
be all that advanced.

That's the problem with small companies.  If TADS was published by a large
commercial distributor, it would (cost a lot more) be ported to the Mac by
an expert Mac programmer, and would probably be loaded with extra
features,
such as an in-house text editor which could check for syntatic errors
during
the coding process, a la THINK Pascal.

Or maybe not... TADS syntax is quite similar to C syntax, and I don't
believe that there are many compilers out there with source-level
syntactic
checking.  I'm not sure about that, because I haven't purchased a new C
compiler in three years, but I know that it WAS true with THINK C 4.0.  C
programmers know the rule: "Anything will compile."  Maybe syntactic
checking
on TADS wouldn't be all that great, after all.

Any programmers out there who would like to throw together a quick hack
which
could do this, I pass along my best wishes and hopes.  I don't like the
clumsiness of programming in TADS, but let's face it, I'm a Mac user,
which
makes me spoiled.

-- Russ
