This month for the My Mac Interview I spoke with Greg Landweber, better known as the creator of Aaron, Greg’s Buttons, Greg’s Browser, ..well, you get the idea. He is a prolific shareware author who continues to produce new items at the proverbial drop of a hat. So adjust your chair, get comfortable and learn some new info on Greg Landweber.
My Mac- Greg, thanks for taking time in your busy schedule to speak with me. Can you provide our readers with some background on yourself, your work and how you first became involved with the Mac?
Greg: I am currently a third year graduate student in mathematics at Harvard. I have been interested in computers since I was in the fifth grade when my school bought a TRS-80. I began programming in BASIC, and got an Apple IIe of my own in the sixth grade. In high school, I learned Pascal and wrote a class rank program for the teachers at my school. I first started using the Mac in 1988 after my high school computer team won one in a national programming contest, and I finally got a Mac SE for myself in 1989.
My Mac- How did you first get started in developing programs for the Mac?
Greg: The summer after my freshman year in college, I worked as a Mac programmer for a small biotech company a few blocks away from my house. This gave me the opportunity to immerse myself in Mac programming and get a feel for how the machine worked. I had access to lots of machines and development environments, and I read most of Macintosh Revealed and Inside Mac.
My Mac- How long does it take you to develop and write a program?
Greg: That varies on the program. Some of my small hacks materialize in a weekend or two. For instance, I wrote Greg’s Hack (now called SmoothType) in two days at MacHack in June 1995. On the other hand, it took me over six months to put together Greg’s Browser.
My Mac- Where do you find the inspiration for your programs?
Greg: My earlier programs, Greg’s Buttons and Greg’s Browser were inspired by the interface of Steve Jobs’ NeXT machine. Once I had written those, I realized that I could do pretty much anything I wanted with the Mac’s interface. So, whenever I saw something I liked, or read about an exciting technology, I would implement it on my own machine. If I liked how it looked, I would clean it up and release it as shareware.
My Mac- Aaron, BeView, Greg’s Buttons and Greg’s Browser (just some of your
programs) are all colorful needed improvements to the bland looking Mac Finder and System . What other changes would you make to the Mac OS if you were in charge?
Greg: If I could, I would change how applications draw the contents of their windows. Right now, windows are drawn using a system of update events. When something needs to be redrawn, instead of drawing it immediately, the program marks the area as “invalid”, and the next time the processor is free, it updates it. This makes window updating slow, and it cannot be triggered on the fly by extensions such as Power Windows. Using buffers or a good multi-tasking system, window updating could be instantaneous.
My Mac- Your newest addition to your growing list of programs is named “ACID”
Can you fill us in on what ACID is and what we can expect from it?
Greg: Well, Acid was the code name for my latest project, Kaleidoscope. Kaleidoscope
is a control panel that completely overhauls your Mac’s user interface using plug-in color schemes. One of these color schemes does everything that Aaron does, but Kaleidoscope includes six other interfaces as well. It also provides various customization features, and you can set the system font and size to any font you have installed.
My Mac- What’s next after “Kaleidoscope?” What other programs would you like to
develop?
Greg: At some point I will probably write a color scheme editor for Kaleidoscope
to let people have complete control over their Mac’s user interface. But my immediate priority is finishing up my graduate work.
My Mac- What type of Mac do you use at work and at home?
Greg: At home I have a Power Mac 7600/120, and in my office I have a Power Mac
6100/60. I also have a PowerBook Duo 2300 for when I’m in between.
My Mac- What are your favorite pieces of shareware/freeware that you would
consider essential for Mac users?
Greg: Aside from my own programs, I like HoverBar, the text editor Alpha, and
of course,the StuffIt Expander/DropStuff combination.
My Mac- What are your favorite software programs? Why?
Greg: My favorite program has to be ClarisWorks. It does everything I want, and it is small and fast. I write letters in the word processor, keep track of my finances in the spreadsheet, and maintain a database of registered users. I also find Eudora Pro to be essential.
My Mac- What would you consider to be the “ideal” Mac for you?
Greg: I would have to be fast–fast enough to run the software I write. Both
SmoothType and PowerWindows, particularly the translucent version, are extremely processor intensive, and I want a machine fast enough that I do not notice any speed degradation. It would also have a large monitor with a very high screen resolution. I do not care about having lots of PCI slots, gigabytes of RAM or a huge hard disk.
My Mac- What advice do you have for those Mac users involved in or thinking of
becoming involved in developing shareware or freeware programs?
Greg: Shareware is a lot of fun. You get mail from around the world, and people
appreciate what you do. It is not a reliable way of making money, though. Shareware should be written for the sake of creating good software.
Many people ask me for advice about starting out programming the Mac. I usually recommend the book “Macintosh Programming Secrets” if you already know C, or “Learn C on the Macintosh” for people who do not. People wanting to write interface software like I do should try reading “A Fragment of your Imagination”.
My Mac- What do you see as the future of the Mac and the Mac OS from your
vantage point as a software developer and Mac user?
Greg: From where I stand, the future seems unclear. I am confident that Apple
and the Mac OS will last for a very long time, but Apple is sending mixed
signals about where it is heading. In the short term, I think things will
stay essentially the same, or at least evolve slowly, particularly now that
Apple has adopted the incremental release strategy and is no longer
planning the monolithic Mac OS 8 release.
My Mac- What do you see as the future for shareware programs?
Greg: The future of shareware is bright. More and more people are buying computers,
and the online world is growing at at amazing rate. The world is realizing what
shareware authors knew all along: the internet is a great way to market your
products.
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