What is VIP-C 2.0?

Compared with old-fashioned command-line computing, creating a program in today's graphics-intensive, menu-driven environment means writing prodigious amounts of code. Mainstay's VIP C reduces this organizational anti typing loud by allowing quick access to the Mac Toolbox through special routine templates and by displaying code in flowchart form. That means you can perform basic Mac tasks, such as defining the main program event loop and setting up windows and menus, without risking a case of carpal runnel syndrome.

Besides updating VIP C to accommodate the Universal Header Tiles 2.0.1 APIs that are part of modern Mac programming, Mainstay has moved the function libraries and frequently used tools out of the main program. They’re now in the System Extensions folder, so you can modify or update them without overhauling VIP C itself This neve and improved version is also bigger, for the first time absolutely requiring System 7 and a CD player. Despite its size, though, its operation is amazingly fast.

Attesting to Mainstay's belief that more developers make a living programming database-like applications than anything else, VIP C 2.0 includes a special forms construct. Forms in VIP-ese aren't of the traditional variety, but chunks of code that list interface elements (buttons, check boxes, and other Mac favorites) and their event handlers. VIP C comes with sample code that show s you how to program input and output screens for a fast, low-overhead database. It even includes a limited version of Mainstay's $195 Database Manager that lets you study prototypes of database designs, though you’ll want the full version if you're writing commercial applications.

You’ll be impressed with the fast, compact databases you can create using this system rather than a “real" database development tool such as ACI US's 4th Dimension; an instant address or invoice database program coded in VIP C can fit in 20 to 30 kilobytes! Smaller file size is due partly to VIP C’s virtues and partly to compiler optimizations in Metroworks' CodeWarrior C (now built directly into a VIP C menu; see "Riding the Metro”). That's great for CodeWarrior C users, but it leaves fans of Symantec's earlier Think C and Apple's Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (MPW) out in the cold.

The Last Word

VIP C 2.0 is a real improvement over the already excellent earlier versions. It's not cheap, but developers who are committed to writing commercial software for the Mac will find it produces finished, debugged code for the CodeWarrior C compiler faster than any competing tool.

Seiter, Charles. (July 1996). VIP C 2.0. Macworld. (pg. 80).

Download VIP-C 2.0 for Mac

Architecture

68K + PPC (FAT)

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II