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01 Apr 1995 | Print

C What I Mean?

by Geoff Duncan

UrbanWerks Incorporated, a startup company based in the Cayman Islands with employees worldwide, today announced the immediate availability of its new Macintosh application development environment, Multimedia C++ 1.0. "This product marks a transition from the traditional software development model," says UrbanWerks chairman Ian P. Frehley. "It's geared toward the coming generation of Mac programmers who have been raised on multimedia and hi-res video games."

"Kids today are bored with environments like MPW, Symantec C++, or CodeWarrior," Frehley explains. "What's cool about those products? Nothing! Look at their displays - they're boring! We try to make software development an engaging interactive experience." And indeed, Multimedia C++ is a radical departure from earlier development environments. For instance, compiler errors appear on screen as various scenarios. Attempting a build with a missing library might deposit the developer in an abandoned castle. How to overcome the error? Find the hidden key and unlock the wizard's tower. Performing a search and replace throughout a source tree becomes a seek-and-destroy commando scenario through a deviously clever maze. "Kids understand this stuff," Frehley explains. "These techniques greatly enhance their productivity as programmers." Indeed, one thirteen-year-old beta tester wrote a complete page layout program in a seven-hour session.

Interactive scenarios aren't the only enhancements UrbanWerks has made. QuickTime videos featuring celebrities from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder guide fledgling programmers through common tasks such as creating an event loop or implementing graceful error handling. The interface of Multimedia C++ uses the latest in 3-D technology to provide fully-rendered and anti-aliased function templates, and its code-optimization routines are uniquely intuitive (a secondary window is displayed, and the faster your code scrolls by, the faster it's running). Taking advantage of Macintosh Drag and Drop technology, Multimedia C++ allows users to simply drag syntax errors to the trash. "Sure beats looking it up in a manual," said one beta tester. "I probably didn't need that code anyway."

UrbanWerks says the suggested price of the Multimedia C++ CD-ROM is $299.95, with a special six-player network edition retailing for $499.95 (includes ADB game controller adapter for Sega and Nintendo systems).

UrbanWerks -- <info@urbanwerks.com>

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