[toopok4k3]

I don't think Steve would have allowed this to happen. Developers are way too important part of the whole "where the money comes from?" question. He would have noticed the complaints before anyone wrote a blog about it.

iOS docs were great back in 2011.

[analog31]

Docs for the 68k Mac were abysmal. There was a collection of books entitled "Inside Macintosh" that were nearly impenetrable, and only scratched the surface of the elaborate class libraries. Instructions for creating "Hello World" on the Mac were dozens of pages long.

From what I've read, Jobs certainly understood the importance of software, but only great software. He didn't want the Apple ecosystem to become loaded up with crapware like on the IBM, or on the Apple ][ for that matter. So, if a small time developer couldn't write and distribute a crude but useful app, so be it. Favored developers probably didn't fare any better with the documentation, but help was a phone call away.

This was the "closed box" philosophy that I don't think has changed much over the years.

The irony was that "crappy but open" attracted more developers than "wonderful but closed." This is why apps such as assemblers for microcontrollers were written for MS-DOS. Essentially, even after the introduction of MS Windows, the ability to write for DOS provided a way to create and share simple apps.

[rjsw]

I still have my copies of Inside Macintosh, I consider them to be examples of good documentation.

They didn't cover "class libraries". I don't have copies of whatever documentation was provided with MacApp, I do have a Think-C manual that describes their environment.

[analog31]

Thanks. I appreciate the counterpoint. I don't remember when class libraries became part of the Mac programming experience, but like you say it might not have been with the original docs.