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How to Write Macintosh Software (3rd Edition) by Scott Knaster Recommended

ISBN: 0-201-60805-7       Publisher: Addison-Wesley       Pages: 423pp       Price: £24-95

Categories:   macintosh

Reviewed by Gary Thompson in C Vu 5-5 (Jul 1993)

The book is divided into three sections. The first, 'How it Works' looks mainly at how the Mac's memory manager works and the problems you can get into with relocatable memory. The next section, 'Debugging' examines the assembler which typical C and Pascal compilers will emit for standard language constructs, and then moves on to a real live debugging session on a program provided in the book. Unfortunately the disk of the book is $20:-( from the US. The final section 'Tips Tricks and Techniques' is fairly self explanatory.
As with Scott's other books, the style of writing is highly readable with a good smattering of jokes and fun quotes spread through the text (for a longer review of the style see the review of Macintosh Programming Secrets which I wrote a few months ago). However, this does not mean that this is a light weight book. The author has an excellent command of his subject, and this tome is packed with useful information especially for the programmer who wants to use a low level debugger and 'rootle' around in the Macintoshes tool box as. If you have ever wondered what the rest of the QuickDraw globals are, or if there is a good list of low memory globals or even what a double bus error is all this information and more is given in this one book. In some cases this information is not available anywhere else.

If you are a system programmer at Apple you don't need this book, but the rest of us do. It will help most Mac programmers in a variety of ways and even if you don't use a low level debugger the breadth of information and understanding which you will gain will still make it worth the money. Get It, Its Great!!!