Aimed at developers who want to work with low-level C APIs on the new Mac OS X,
Carbon Programming provides a monumental and thorough tutorial and reference. With plenty of information on "legacy" Mac OS 8/9, this text will bridge the gap between the old and new for developers.
Weighing in at over 1,500 pages, Carbon Programming is truly comprehensive and packed with extensive source code. The meticulous detail and extensive programming examples that show off most every API at work help make this title a standout. The programming samples (several run over 50 pages) not only show off every API at work, but each is preceded by a listing of all available API methods and constants used in each demo, making this a reference as well as a programming tutorial.
The author provides a great tour of every imaginable area of the Carbon API (which allows developers to target both the Mac X OS and older versions of the Mac OS). Beginning with the organization of memory in the new PowerPC architecture, the author looks at new guidelines for memory management. (This material is reprised with a later discussion of the 68LC040 emulation.) The tour of Carbon APIs begins in earnest with a full tour of basic window processing, from designing and displaying windows to event handling. A welcome feature of this text is that screen shots of windows in both the new Mac X OS and Mac 9 OS are presented side by side, so you can compare visual differences. Wherever possible, the author highlights new-and-improved features on the Mac X OS (compared to older standards). Meticulous charts map out compiled resources (using the Resorcerer tool) for Carbon developers.
Sections on menu processing options help anchor the early part of the book. Detailed sections on common operations on windows help give you a command of essential Carbon programming. Sections on the Appearance Manager, the Finder, Carbon Event Manager, and new speech and sound APIs will help you take advantage of recent enhancements to the platform.
Another reason to buy this book is the tour of basic Carbon control programming, on both basic and advanced controls, across several lengthy chapters. There is also full coverage of advanced features that will be needed to create professional-quality software on Mac OS X, with coverage of printing, scrap, and drag-and-drop techniques. Later chapters delve into file I/O (including support for built-in file dialogs) and extensive coverage of the TextEdit control for displaying and editing text with a variety of options. The book concludes with a look at international support with a glance at the Multilingual Text Engine.
This sprawling and massive tutorial is sure to be a must-have for any serious Mac developer who works in C/C++. It covers all the current features in Carbon and will allow any developer to master "traditional" client-side programming for the latest on the Mac platform. --Richard Dragan
Topics covered: Introduction to Carbon APIs and the Mac OS 8/9 and Mac OS X platforms (the PowerPC run-time environment, memory management and resources); low-level event handling; basic menu processing (including pull-down and pop-up menus, and help balloons); window basics in Carbon (the Window Manager and graphics ports); window types; creating basic windows; basic event handling with windows (including mouse and keyboard processing); backward compatibility with 68LC040 Emulator and the Mixed Mode Manager (including Universal Procedure Pointers); using the Appearance Manager and themes (changing visual appearance of common screen elements); basic Carbon controls and operations (including enabling/disabling and showing/hiding controls); embedding controls; creating controls dynamically; scrollbars; small versions of controls; dialogs and alerts (including modal and modeless dialogs, plus event handling); using the Finder in Carbon applications; icons and resources; Mac OS 9 packages versus Mac OS X bundles; in-depth guide to Apple Events; QuickDraw graphics tutorial (including colors, the graphics port, drawing basic shapes and images, text and fonts); saving and restoring the graphics port state; using offscreen graphics worlds; pictures, cursors, and icons; guide to two dozen advanced Mac controls (including image wells, sliders, clocks, progress, picture, and icon controls); Carbon printing APIs; advanced window features (including floating windows, proxy icons, using animation and sounds, moving and positioning windows); the Carbon Event Manager (event handling APIs and techniques); file I/O (including Open Dialog and Save Location Dialogs); advanced Carbon resources; the Carbon Scrap Manager, Carbon APIs for text, dates, times, and numbers (including the TextEdit text editor); using Carbon lists, drag and drop support; using sound and speech (including sound production and recording); miscellaneous Carbon features (including progress bars, the color picker, help tags); the CarbonLib and Mac OS 8/9; the Gestalt Manager; and the Multilingual Text Engine (MLTE).
Carbon Programming is a comprehensive guide that is logically organized, compatible with the current system software, and includes ready-to-run demonstration programs within each chapter. The book covers Mac programming using the Carbon API. Topics include:
* Scrap;
* Event Manager;
* Appearance Manager;
* Controls;
* Lists.
This book is for Mac programmers who are familiar with the C language but who are new to the Carbon API. Professionals coming to the Macintosh and computer science students will benefit from the book as a learning tool relating specifically to the Macintosh computer and the Carbon API.
