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making the leap


matto

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just wondering from people who already use SDK.

How big a leap it is from VS to SDK?

i have some very minor programming experince (java), and have written a few things in VS but finding it limited for what i really want to do.

How do you normally tend to work?

Do you write part of the script first in VS?

then move it to Codewarrior.

or work from scratch in codewarrior?

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  • 7 months later...

Hey! I never realize that we could develop our own plugings otherwise than with vs... Why the SKD is only aviable in classic? Is gone a while ago to make space! has anyone try with the apple developer tools? Imagine a second have access to objective-c classes, multithread computing and unix app from our loved VW interface...

I never look much on the C++ area (in of struggle with Obj-c), but we should be able to make calls, like from all the other languages of the platform?

Any word JKoppi?

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Yep Sure it might be a bit of work to move vectorscript from being MiniPascal to being a framework in Developer studio, and the equivalant in windows,

but Java is cross platform and it's performance is being improved all the time. and the C variants for those more add advanced.

You can just imagine the good things that could come from such a move

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I must correct myself:

Te SDK try to run the classic environment because he was compress on it. But once uncompress you can see all the package as normals PDF, HTML files and all the VW plugins.

He looks like a hard and long road. Now I need to purchase Codewarrior and have a struggle with C++... when I just start to fell at ease with the apple developer tools and the cocoa framework...

I still need to find a way to Unix, and run my grid calculation systems on VW objects (get rid of the linux PC multiprocessor network... and use G5 farms): somehow he must be a way!

If anybody have a idea...

Thanks.

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  • 2 months later...

It's a pretty big leap unless you've had some programming experience before. You will have three things to learn: the SDK API, the C/C++ language, and the developer tools.

The VS and SDK api's are similar, but not exactly the same, so it will take some time learning the new functions.

The C/C++ languages are different from Pascal, but you can make the transition. You'll probably want to get some books. The "C Programming Language" by B. Kernighan and D. Ritchie is the best concise reference of the C language. The "C++ Primer" by Stanley Lippman is a good introduction to the C++ language. I have the 2nd edition which is around 600 pages and quite managable, but I've heard the latest (3rd edition) has ballooned to over 1000 pages.

As for the developer tools, you will need to purchase CodeWarrior on the Mac and Visual C++ on Windows. Unlike VectorScript plug-ins, the SDK plug-ins need to be compiled separately on each platform. So you will need both sets of tools so you can distribute your plug-in for both platforms.

Another note about cross-platform development...if your plug-in uses our Layout Manager (aka Modern Dialogs) to present its user interface, then most of your source code can be cross platform. It will compile on both Mac and Windows.

What I would suggest is that you download the SDK and check it out. Skim through the documentation and look at the sample plug-ins to get an idea of what the environment is like. You can view the source code in any text editor- so you can look at the samples before you decide to buy the developer tools.

Jeff

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To answer a few of the other questions in this thread...

- The SDK distribution for Mac was compressed using Stuffit 5.5 which creates a self-extracting archive. When you double-click this archive it runs in Classic (or MacOS 9) to decompress the files. This makes it available to all Mac developers. In the future I may choose to post an archive that is not self-extracting, and you can use whichever version of stuffit expander that you have.

The SDK can be used to create plug-ins that will run on both MacOS 9 and MacOS X. They are Carbon shared libraries, and VectorWorks is a Carbon application.

- I think SDK developers typically only use the SDK, but I could be wrong. If you know VectorScript, then you certainly could use it to quickly mock-up some object code and then "port" it to the SDK.

- SDK plug-ins can only be developed with the C/C++ language. The SDK api only has C/C++ bindings. While you may be able to call a DLL written in another language, that plug-in would not be able to call back into VectorWorks using any of the SDK functions.

Let me know if you have more questions.

Jeff

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