Message from Dean - May 8th 2007

I am currently testing out a new version of the APF Bridge Component - If you notice any errors within this demo store please drop me a line.

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.265
EAN: 9780596001773
Edition: 2
ISBN: 0596001770
Label: O'Reilly
Manufacturer: O'Reilly
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 752
Publication Date: September 18, 2001
Publisher: O'Reilly
Studio: O'Reilly

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Alternate Versions: Click to Display

Related Items:

• Beginning REALbasic: From Novice to Professional (Expert's Voice)
• REALbasic Cross-Platform Application Development (Developer's Library)
• Learning REALbasic through Applications (Programming Series)
• REALbasic for Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide (Visual Quickstart Guides)
• Programming in Objective-C (Developer's Library)
• see more

Browse for similar items by category:

• Books > Specialty Stores > Custom Stores > By Publisher > O'Reilly > Macintosh
• Books > Specialty Stores > Custom Stores > By Publisher > O'Reilly > Programming > General
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• Books > Subjects > Computers & Internet > Programming > Languages & Tools > Basic
• Books > Subjects > Computers & Internet > Programming > Languages & Tools > General

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.com Review:
Matt Neuberg's REALbasic: The Definitive Guide is a diligent and thorough introductory text for REALbasic 2 on the Macintosh, an object-oriented programming environment based on components and BASIC. Even if you've never programmed before, this title--combined with the power and ease of use of REALbasic--is all you need to start writing your own software for the Mac.

In addition to being a tutorial to the REALbasic tool itself, the author's introduction to object-oriented software is remarkable for its patience while also getting the beginner to think in objects. (Besides an authority on Macintosh programming, Neuberg has a Ph.D. in ancient Greek. This book is probably alone in that it discusses objects while quoting Plato.) There is a full tour of REALbasic program statements, data types, and the nuts and bolts of working with the environment and building basic programs.

The heart of this text covers the various controls and features available in REALbasic. The author discusses simple and advanced user controls (like buttons, edit controls, menus, and list boxes). Neuberg's tour here will let any reader design user interfaces and add event handlers to provide program functionality. Highlights include how to display images and create animation, sound, and video within REALbasic. (Here, the author extends the already strong multimedia support in REALbasic with his own code for a simple video game.) For more experienced users, there are how-tos on using files, databases, and socket programming with TCP/IP and AppleScript.

In all, REALbasic: The Definitive Guide serves its purpose well as a one-volume reference and tutorial to getting the most out of this capable tool, whose functionality certainly rivals any of today's RAD-style programming environments. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Overview of the REALbasic environment, BASIC language keywords, constructs and datatypes, arrays, objects, classes and instances, subclasses, events, menus, application architecture, building and debugging, window basics, system events, mouse processing, canvases and graphics, displaying images, basic controls, list boxes, progress bars, sliders, shapes, menus, tab panels, keyboard and mouse processing, files, databases, clipboard, drag-and-drop functionality, sound and MIDI, playing movies, game animations, printing, socket programming, Apple Events and AppleScript, and language extensions with XCMDs and plug-ins.

Product Description:
REALbasic is a programming language in the best Macintosh tradition: visual, intuitive, and easy to learn. It allows you to create interfaces in minutes and entire, compiled applications without having to learn a complicated language; the strong object orientation makes it very easy even for beginners to develop, maintain, and alter projects. Best of all, an REALbasic 3, a single button click generates your project as a Mac OS 8/9 application, a Mac OS X native ("Carbon") application, or a Windows executable. No other application framework lets you compile for users on so many platforms so quickly and easily. REALbasic: The Definitive Guide not only gives you a firm grasp of the program's essential concepts, but also tells you things you won't learn from the official documentation alone. If you've never programmed before, the book offers both a primer in REALbasic and an intuitive approach to the concepts of programming itself, as you quickly reach the ability to program every aspect of REALbasic. You start out drawing the interface much as you would do in a drawing program: by selecting buttons, menus, dialog boxes, and the like from a tools menu. Then you use the code editor to fill in the code that tells these pieces what to do. The widely hailed first edition of REALbasic: The Definitive Guide has been completely rewritten to encompass reader suggestions and the many improvements of REALbasic 3--like its ability to compile and run under OS X. The book is divided into three sections:

• Fundamentals: a detailed summary of the language that quickly shows you how to think about programming and accomplish your goals in less time
• User Interface: how to create a complete application using the rich classes and pre-defined tools that make life so much easier for the REALbasic programmer.
• Reaching Out: Internet communications, databases, multimedia, game programming and more!

Rating: - A Potentially Outstanding Computer Book That Is Flawed By It's Style
Matt Neuburg is a genius. This is both a blessing and a curse for those who want to learn REALbasic. In his love for REALbasic, and his desire to teach it all and be exhaustive, as well as write a book that he himself would like to read, he takes a certain course: he covers terrain that is both flat, smooth and quick to run over, and terrain that is deep, craggy, convoluted and only for the determined traveler. There is no warning when you might suddenly encounter the unforgiving steep canyon or sheer wall.

At one time I decided to try and learn REALbasic, and it sounded from the introduction to the book and his biography that he could give me the deep grounding in theory that I wanted, and that his style and personality would be a good match for mine (I was a philosophy major; he taught classics). Well, I got bogged down in Chapter Three in both of my attempts to get through the book. Among the thickets of Classes and Instances, I lost interest.

I found myself ... Read More

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Rating: - Definitive for REALbasic 3 but not for REALbasic 2006
In its day was the best REALbasic book around. Sure, it was a little bit of a hard read, but it was still the best. But not anymore. Let's hope O'reilly decides to publish a 3rd edition.

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Rating: - Sadly, The Best Book On REALbasic Programming
Computer books tend to be outdated rather quickly, sometimes before hitting the shelves. Programming books tend to have a longer shelf life.

When REALbasic: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition was released over four years ago in 2001, it was current and truly the definitive book on REALbasic. It still is, though that isn't the praise you might think.

The folks at REALsoftware are constantly improving the language and the Definitive Guide was outdated by 2003. Today it is about as relevant as a definitive guide to home theater telling you to use a 21" TV, Quadraphonic stereo with 8 Track tape and turntable and a Sony Betamax.

Today's REALbasic generates programs that work on Windows, Linux and Mac OS9, OS X and soon OS X/86. The technologies incorporate XML, XST, DOM, SOAP and more. The only reference to ANY of these in this book is that you can save your source code as XML and edit it with a standard text editor.

All this said, Mr. Neuburg's ... Read More

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Rating: - RealBasic -- but dated
This is the best reference for REALBasic version 3, as of September 2005. However, you should be aware that REALBasic was at version 5.5.5 as of June, 2005, and REALBasic 2005 was released August of 2005.

Also, REALBasic started out on Macintosh platforms. It has now been ported to Windows -- but that's fairly recent, too. Thus, this book covers mostly Macintosh or generic applications.

O'Reilly seems to have dropped support for this book, too. This means there won't be another revision. However, if you can find it used, and you still want to use REALBasic on Windows, buy it. It's that good, and still useful.

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Rating: - Not the definitive guide
I've been using Realbasic for many years. If you are expecting to actually use Realbasic to build practical applications, this book will not be of use to you. As others have stated, if you are beginner, this book will not be very helpful to you. I've seen some really helpful books for learning and using Java and VB, but unfortunately Realbasic doesn't have the same quality of books out there (nor will it ever, likely). The omissions in this book are glaring, the writing style unnecessarily obtuse. The Realbasic through Applications book and the Realbasic for Dummies books are better, although still not great.

You'll do no better than to simply look through Realbasic code samples freely available on the web, and ask questions on the mailing lists instead of needing to purchase any Realbasic book.

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