I just finished reading the June 1995 issue of Dr. Dobb's Developer Update and found all of the articles interesting because of my curiosity about what other programmers actually are doing. In particular, Ray Valdes's article "App Frameworks in a Post-MFC World" hit the mark because I am a C/C++ developer who has not yet committed heavily (in terms of time and money) to any framework product. But I know that I must, and I know that, as Valdes alludes to in the article, the complexity of these products does not really allow a programmer to try each one before choosing.
My situation is somewhat different, however, than that of the developers Valdes seems to be addressing. I am - yes, I admit it! - an OS/2 bigot and have been heard to say that Windows is "not a real operating system." I also happen to like UNIX. It is not my intention to start arguments about this, but I do want to say that in terms of application frameworks, my course naturally bends toward C/Set++ and probably Taligent. Now, my predicament is that no one seems able to put those (or other) IBM products in perspective for me. Dr. Dobb's Journal has indeed had articles on OS/2 programming and on SOM. But when I read an article like Valdes's I am out to sea. I think C/Set++ is a good product - but, does anyone out there really know? Have there been comparisons with MFC? Dr. Dobb's Special Report on Interoperable Objects (Winter 1994/95) did compare SOM with COM, and concluded in SOM's favor. (Can an IBM product be sexy? Yep, I think so.) There should be more such comparisons. If nothing else, it would help keep IBM and Microsoft honest. In my view, Microsoft should be compared up front, fair and square with IBM whenever there is a chance to do so. I know this is hard to do, for exactly the reason I just mentioned - product complexity. Or maybe IBM product expertise is contrary to the original San Francisco microcomputers-to-the-people image. A nice image, I admit. Or maybe I am describing a rift between corporate and personal computing.
Don Asper
72114.661@compuserve.com