Hsoi's App Shell (HAS) is something that I wrote over the course of a year or so to teach myself more about MacOS programming. I had done the books, I had written a few things, and this was just my testing grounds to learn more. Doesn't do much by itself (in the end, the application just is a text editor), but it's real bonus is for other people learning about MacOS software development. The full C source code is in there and many people that have used it have found it to be a great library of "how-to's" for MacOS software development.

What can HAS do? There's a complete listing in the archive, but here's a short one. HAS can show you how to: use WASTE; use the WASTE Object Handlers; impliment Undo; use Gestalt; impliment and create UniversalProcPtr's (UPP's); do About Boxes; do splash screens; do registration dialogs; zoom windows in a more savvy way than the MacOS toolbox; be WorldScript aware; handle AppleEvents; properly read/write files; impliment 68k/PPC native VBL tasks; be Internet Config savvy; print; do drag and drop; use the Speech Manager to make your application speak; use the Process Manager to launch other applications; and the list can and does go on.

One item of note is that I am no longer actively developing Hsoi's App Shell. It was really a one-shot learning grounds for me. I don't use C that much any more, PowerPlant is a better framework, and I just don't have the time to keep maintaining this code. If someone cares to keep it up, Carbonate it, etc. please let me know!