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O'Reilly Publishes The Definitive Guide to REALBasic

Press release: October 29, 1999

SEBASTOPOL, CA--REALbasic is a very inexpensive program that allows users to design full-fledged applications. Simply put, it is Visual Basic on the Mac. It is an application for writing applications that is astonishingly small and fast. REALbasic uses a simple interface and an object- and event-oriented language; this makes development, maintenance, and alteration of projects very easy. "REALbasic is a truly splendid way to program the Macintosh," says Matt Neuburg, author of the just-released book REALbasic: The Definitive Guide (O'Reilly, $29.95). "Even more, it's a splendid way to program, period."

There is no other program like this for the Mac. If you want to write a Mac application, you have little choice of application frameworks, and REALbasic is the only one with visual design, object orientation, and an easy language. Presently there are no instructional books for REALbasic, and the official documentation is woefully inadequate.

REALbasic: The Definitive Guide gives people the information they can't get from the documentation alone and provides new users with the details they need to grasp the program's essential concepts. "If you're a beginner, you'll find REALbasic an excellent way to learn programming; its native language is small and simple, and REALbasic reinforces good programming techniques through it's inherent object orientation, which inculcates, at an almost subconscious level, important higher-level concepts such as classes and instances, encapsulation, and inheritance," says Neuburg. "If you're an experienced programmer, you'll find REALbasic easy to learn, and its model of object orientation powerful and satisfying."

This book covers REALbasic 1 and REALbasic 2. Version 2 adds an internal database, an interface to SQL servers, and the ability to compile for Windows and Java. "Aspects of REALbasic may seem confusing or daunting or clumsy, but I find it lucid and powerful and brilliantly thought out. I knew that there needed to be a reasoned explanation of REALbasic, and that I wanted to be the one doing the explaining. This book is the result," Neuburg explains. REALbasic: The Definitive Guide is poised to become an essential reference for the expanding legion of developers who are discovering the power and flexibility of this program.

Online Resources

REALbasic: The Definitive Guide
By Matt Neuburg
1st Edition, October 1999 (US)
ISBN: 1-56592-657-9, 686 pages, $29.95 (US$)

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