[cmeisenzahl]

Panther? I have a programming background (VB, C, a touch of Java and C++, and a touch of assembly) but I'm not familiar with the tools for the Mac. I've tinkered with Ruby and PERL a bit in the past.

I recently switched back to the Mac after many years away. Last month I got a 12" G4 iBook that I love. Is gcc on the machine? I haven't tried it yet. it would be great if there was a powerful adn cheap or free GUI development tool.


A few questions:

1.
What are the top freeware or open-source tools for Mac development?


2.
Is it true that you can build AppleScript apps with a GUI? If so, what tools do I need?


3.
Does the OS X platform have a tool roughly analagous to VB?


4.
Anything else notable I didn't even think to ask? :-)


Thanks very much in advance,

Chris

[Arclite]

1.
What are the top freeware or open-source tools for Mac development?

Xcode. Find it at developer.apple.com.

2.
Is it true that you can build AppleScript apps with a GUI? If so, what tools do I need?
Xcode. Find it at developer.apple.com.

3.
Does the OS X platform have a tool roughly analagous to VB?

I'm not familiar with Visual Basic, but RealBasic (http://www.realsoftware.com/) might be what you're looking for.

4.
Anything else notable I didn't even think to ask? :-)

"Should I join the ADC, even at only an online level?" Yes. The ADC give you access to endless resources and devtools.

[Chuckit]

Pretty much everything you'd find with Unix is available for Mac OS X. A special Apple-enhanced GCC is included with the Xcode Tools, and you can build the normal GCC from source if for some reason you're so inclined.

As for GUI tools, Interface Builder is very easy to use. You should check out Apple's developer site. It's got several nice intro docs for OS X development.

[eyadams]

I'm not familiar with Visual Basic, but RealBasic (http://www.realsoftware.com/) might be what you're looking for.

I am familiar with Visual Basic (God help me), and need to make a distinction. RealBasic is quite similar to Visual Basic 6. However, RealBasic (to it's credit) is not similar to Visual Basic.NET.

[smitty825]

For your VB Question/Extension to your AppleScript Question:

If you're just looking for a tool to do rapid application development, and you don't require the basic programming language, then you should check out the Cocoa bindings for many of the popular scripting languages (I know of Python and Ruby, I wouldn't be surprised to hear of many more).

That way, you can use a popular scripting language to rapidly develop native applications...

[zanyterp]

Originally posted by Arclite:
4.
Anything else notable I didn't even think to ask? :-)

"Should I join the ADC, even at only an online level?" Yes. The ADC give you access to endless resources and devtools.

you should also be able to find xcode in the installer folder (i think that is the name) that comes default from the factory. it will install gcc for you.

[Angus_D]

Originally posted by zanyterp:
you should also be able to find xcode in the installer folder (i think that is the name) that comes default from the factory. it will install gcc for you.

Chances are it's outdated, though.

[zanyterp]

Originally posted by Angus_D:
Chances are it's outdated, though.

oh. sorry.