REALbasic Cross-Platform Application Development [Paperback]

Mark S. Choate (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 22, 2006

REALbasic Cross-Platform Application Development treats REALbasic as a serious development environment and is targeted to developers with a minimum of programming experience, but who may or may not be new to the REALbasic platform. Written by a writer and developer with extensive REALbasic experience with input and guidance from REAL Software, this book will show you how to take advantage of the new cross-platform abilities of REALbasic and teach you how to create cross-platform applications. Don't waste any more time with the other novice-oriented REALbasic books out there. Get inside this development environment with REALbasic Cross-Platform Application Development.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mark Choate's experience includes eight years of Internet development and content management at The News and Observer Publishing Company. Under his leadership, they were one of the first newspapers in the country to publish classified ads on the Web. Most recently, he joined Quoin, Inc., content management and online publishing practice. They develop content management solutions for media and other organizations with Cocoon and Lenya. Mark's particular area of expertise is with cross-media publishing tools (print and online), as well as Semantic Web technologies (RDF and metadata). For two years, he has used REALbasic to develop cross-platform tools for use in content management systems.

Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Sams (April 22, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672328135
• ISBN-13: 978-0672328138
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,095,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Cross-platform Development
  • #57 in Books > Computers & Technology > Apple > Mac Administration

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Run, flee, do not buy this book., May 23, 2006

By 

Eric William (Michigan) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: REALbasic Cross-Platform Application Development (Paperback)

I have been a RealBasic programmer since version 3. So I buy anything about RealBasic. I have EVERY RealBasic book and as long as I can get a few good tips I am happy. ... which is why I hated this book.

First, the writing style is dead dry. You'll need a heaping glass of water and a fist full of No-Doze to stay awake.

Next, the book is totally disorganized. There are chapters, but once you enter the chapter, your off in a maze of disorganized prose.

This 600+ page tome has a bunch of NOT-useful stuff (like the ten page copyright notice at the end of the book). TEN pages!

You'll also learn about DOS and Windows 3.1 (which do not run RealBasic applications). Totally worthless.

There seems to be huge sections are copied from the internet. Charts, and a huge blob of XML code.

Some of the code expamples have flaws. In the first few chapters we are presented with a program to find the end of a line. This code does not work. But the bigger flaw is that it is not commented. Having written RealBasic code for years, I could understand what the code was trying to do. But a person new to RealBasic would benefit from comments in the code.

There is a need for a book that address Cross-Platform Application development with RealBasic. I write code on a Mac, but my traget customers are Windows users. So there are some things about cross development that a book could cover. However, this book only spends about 20 pages (out of 600+) talking about cross development.

After reading 200 pages, I asked myself, "do I really need to read the rest of this book?" So painfull.

The book is SO poorly organized that it can't even make it as a refrance book.

Yick ... back away from the order button.

really, really bad.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Sadly disppointed, June 8, 2006

By 

Pietro Beretta - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: REALbasic Cross-Platform Application Development (Paperback)

I don't see the point of this book. It starts by telling us about advanced OOP techniques - still assuming that the reader does not even know what OOP is. Then it explains file management methods, then XML. Then I stopped. The author idly wanders around RB's and operative systems features, picking random subjects. It is not a tutorial, not a reference guide, not a cookbook. There is no study path, no audience. Who should read it? and why?.
As a programmer, I was looking forward to an up-to-date, well structured book about RB - that I still consider a worthy option for desktop development. But Choate's book is a missed opportunity. Well, two stars for being brave and writing about a 'minor' language. I'll still try and get the most out of it, but RB deserves better.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Ouch..... this one is a a disappointment, June 24, 2006

By 

Richard D. (VA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: REALbasic Cross-Platform Application Development (Paperback)

There are not many REALbasic books out there and most of them our sadly out of date. So I had high hopes for this book. Alas, the author just rambled on with no apparent purpose or direction.