[popeye]

Well, the last programming I did was long, long ago in college ('86) on a Vax/VMS, in BASIC and then in Pascal. I just switched to the PPC platform (I do love my iMac!) and wanted to break into programming again.
Somehow, I found myself swayed by REALbasic, versus using the dev tools and grinding out learning C/Obj-C and Cocoa -- long story short: I paid my $100 for RB, I'm getting my hands wet programming again, but am sorely discouraged by the 'bashing' RB seems to take here.
Tell me, did I waste my hard-earned cash? What should I do now, auction the license key on Ebay?

Thanks for any input.

Bob

[juanvaldes]

I wouldn't know never used RB but it sounds like you want to get into something else.

Install the developer tools (either a CD that came or in a folder called "Installers" in applications) and you can code in C/C++/Obj-C/Java/etc...

hey, it's free

[NeXTLoop]

Popeye, REALBasic is what you make of it. In other words, its only going to be as good as your are as a programmer. A lot of Cocoa developers, C++ developers, and Java developers don't care for REALBasic. And a lot of RB apps are crap.

But, on the other hand, there's a lot of good RB apps out there too. Apps that an individual wouldn't even know where made with RB if the developer didn't announce it.

And as far as cross-platform development goes, RB is still the easiest, most cost effective way of doing it.

[sambeau]

Don't listen to them - RealBasic is great.

If you want to make a quick app, want to link to a database and and make a simple solid front end, if you want to try your hand at GUI design etc etc then RealBasic is more than adequate.

Plus I have used some great Apps that I didn't realise were made with RealBasic only to fall off my chair when I looked at the about box.

The one that I still can't beleive is a RealBasic App is Free Ruler - have a look at it. It is simple, elegant, smooth solid and looks like was made by Apple out of something very fancy. But no... It's RealBasic.

I'm a hardened C hacker. But I dallied in RealBasic a long time back and it was beautifly simple to get a powerful App up and running in an afternoon. And what's more - they'll be smoother and better than any GUI knocked up in Java ;-)

Give it a go.

s.

[Chuckit]

Originally posted by sambeau:
I'm a hardened C hacker. But I dallied in RealBasic a long time back and it was beautifly simple to get a powerful App up and running in an afternoon. And what's more - they'll be smoother and better than any GUI knocked up in Java ;-)

Personally, I call that "Cocoa."

[hayesk]

I know what you mean. I use FileMaker to make database apps. People tell me I should be using mySQL, PostgreSQL, and some even suggest Oracle. Sorry, but FileMaker allows me to make complete, quick, and inexpensive solution. The others will give me one or two of those characteristics, but only FileMaker gives me all three.

People come out, unprovoked, to knock RB are simply elitists or feel inadequacy about their abilities on their preferred problem. I prefer using Objective-C/Cocoa but if you like RB, good for you. It's quick and easy to learn, and many people have made a lot of useful apps with it.

My advice to you, start programming in RB, and when you have time, learn Cocoa/Obj-C - it'll take at least a year before you really know enough about both platforms to really form a preference.

[CheesePuff]

Their are only a handful of good REALbasic made applications -- the other ugly/useless/poorly coded ones is what made it give it the bad name.

[popeye]

Thanks for the input. I purchased both "REALbasic for Dummies" and "REALbasic: The Definitive Guide" last night as a bundle from Amazon...and for good measure, purchased the two-book bundle "C for Dummies" Vols. I & II.
That ought to keep me busy for awhile. My goal in learning programming is to make some other (better) career paths available to me, as my current position doesn't really allow for further knowledge (or salary for that matter).
You can bet I'll be in here regularly. Thanks again.

Bob

[Phoenix1701]

RB: The Definitive Guide is quite good. I program in REALbasic myself, along with Java and some Objective-C (though the memory management is making me rather wary), and I can tell you that although it's really easy to write bad code in REALbasic, it's also fairly easy to write good code.

Since I doubt many trolls will be reading this thread, I think it's fairly safe of me to reveal here that Beachball, my freeware cursor changing software, is written entirely in REALbasic. No one's ever figured it out (or, if they have, they haven't told me or posted it on VersionTracker), because it doesn't act like the trolls think a REALbasic app should.

In particular, I think the thing most people hate about REALbasic can be summed up in a single piece of text: "An exception of type NilObjectException was not handled. The application must now quit." That text, more than any other, will instantly label your program as a shoddy one, and I've taken great pains in Beachball to make sure that every exception is handled and a meaningful error dialog generated. That's come to my rescue a lot recently, as the Mac OS X 10.2.2 update broke most of the cursors for some people, and the error dialogs I installed to handle the sorts of errors that were happening actually worked very well and produced a lot of meaningful information for me.

Most people, unfortunately, don't realize that REALbasic even includes "real" object-oriented programming features, like constructor methods and polymorphism. In general, they tend to write quick-and-dirty scripts to handle various events of various interface elements with no real cohesion, code reuse, or style. Global variables are the order of the day, and of course all properties are public. I think it's telltale that, by default, in REALbasic properties are public until you make one private, at which point RB realizes you know how to program and changes the default to private!

That said, I do have a few issues with REALbasic, most of which thankfully can be resolved with third-party plug-ins and Declare statements (which allow you to plug directly into CarbonLib functions). For example, the constants lightBevelBolor, darkBevelColor, backgroundColor, etc. aren't updated for Mac OS X, and so trying to draw appearance-savvy controls doesn't work. However, getting access to drawThemeControl in a Declare statement and then calling that will work perfectly (that's how Beachball draws all its image wells without incurring the overhead of a bunch of objects). One of the things I find very annoying about REALbasic, however, is that you can't declare classes in code. You have to do it using the IDE, and then add properties and methods using the menu items. If all you want to do is create a wrapper class around some array or another, though, it's a bit tedious and time-consuming to go through the trouble. Also, in REALbasic 4.x, all variable declarations must come at the top of your methods. This has changed in the alphas of REALbasic 5, however.

In short, REALbasic is not a waste of money if you care enough to do it right. Have fun!

[CheesePuff]

Write good code, follow the Aqua HIG, and market it correctly and no one will tell the difference/care. It shouldn't anyway.

I personally know of a few commerical products out there on the shelves of Apple stores and CompUSA that were made in RB.

I've been using RB since 1.0 and upgraded every version to 4.5, and it just gets better with each update.

[Rastar]

I have just started coding with RB. It looks like a 'real programming enviorment ' to me. All the bells and whisles are here, and the examples I had seen do not apper that bad to me. Lisen to Phoenix and Cheesepuff- they know basic programming and with the tools you have- You too can make a award winning (and hopefuly prospersus) program.
The Force will be with you- take it all the way to a *FINISHED* product..