Deciding if REALbasic Is Right for You


In my opinion, the single most compelling reason to use REALbasic instead of something like Visual Basic is that you can compile REALbasic applications to run natively on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux machines. Whereas older versions of Basic were interpreted, REALbasic is compiled. It also makes use of the native operating system whenever possible so that Macintosh programs act like most other Macintosh programs and most Windows programs act like other Windows programs.

There are a lot of languages to choose fromsome closed-source and others open-source. For example, there is that other cross-platform programming language, Java, for which there are high-quality and free IDEs.

The advantage of programming in a modern Basic variant is twofold. First, an awful lot of us have programmed in Basic before, so the learning curve won't be too steep. Second, Basic is called Basic because it's supposed to be, well, basic. In other words, even if you've never heard of Basic before, Basic is a good choice because it is easy to learn.

REALbasic has taken a big leap in maturity in recent years, both as a cross-platform development solution and as a serious tool for programmers, so don't let the word "basic" fool you. You can write very complex programs with it. Although the best of REALbasic is the cross-platform application development potential, it also lets you pop the hood and get deep into the underlying system and do whatever you want. This book will focus on the cross-platform aspects of REALbasic, but I will give you enough information to get you started in the more single-platform topics. If you're a VB developer, you'll be familiar with Declares; if you code in C++, you'll be interested in hearing about writing plug-ins for REALbasic.




REALbasic Cross-Platform Application Development
REALbasic Cross-Platform Application Development
ISBN: 0672328135
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 149

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