Let me be the first to coin the phrase 'POCO' - for a Plain Old Cocoa Object!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

It isn't about you. It isn't about your code. And it isn't about your code doing this or that. It's first about the user and responding to the user. It's second about your code responding to the framework. You don't usually tell the framework what to do. It asks you for things when it needs something. You sit and wait for it to talk to you. You're not in charge. You don't control the runloop; it controls you. You register to be told when things happen, and you indicate that you're the object who knows something about something (data for a table for instance). And then you let go, and let Cocoa do the rest. It's a very different world. I like it very much.

– Rob Napier

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I've used Fireworks, Photoshop and Illustrator in the past but recently decided that I wanted to create graphics as awesome as those found on dribbble - so I set out to formally work through a few Photoshop books.

I started this evening with Chapter 01 of the "Classroom in a Book" series for Photoshop CS5 (on my kindle no less :)

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Well, not exactly.

I wasn't real excited about the Qt toolset - I got something working but the Mac interface doesn't quite work yet. Something as simple as selecting and copying text started to misbehave in their designer tool. The widgets themselves seem to work quite nicely but after a bit of thought, I decided to try my own hand at writing a small GUI framework for my Window's ports.

This morning I finished some C++ to open a MainWindow along with a SplitView child. It isn't Objective-C so it isn't perfect but indeed, I am including things like delegates and where approrpriate, opting to conform to Objective-C interfaces and general design decisions. It's turning out to be quite fun. Once I finish a rudimentary framework, I should be closer to completing the Windows port of my new idea!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I have an idea for an app that I'd need to port to the iOS, Mac and PC platforms and while I don't mind different codebases - a huge benefit for me will be the ability to write the PC version from my Mac.

Qt's current distribution includes an IDE that appears to work on the Mac, PC and Linux platforms and the fact that Qt natively supports Nokia and Windows CE devices seems like a lot of bang for the buck.

More to follow I'm sure!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Like every other blogger out there - I have to decide how to link to external websites. It's tricky because so often, websites get revamped causing all your links into their site to break. In a previous post, I wanted to reference the Windows API and I had to choose between a Wikipedia URL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_API) and Microsoft (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff657751(v=VS.85).aspx).

At first thought, the wiki version seems like the better bet. Wikipedia seems to understand internet addresses and even when pages move, instead of just dropping the link, they often leave behind a redirect to the new location. Microsoft, on the other hand, uses a URL that seems a little daunting - if not proprietary. My dilemma is that right now, the content on the Wikipedia page lacks any real meat while the Microsoft URL has the actual information I am referring to. I'm sure their addressing scheme makes sense to them but I certainly can't read it - not without a better understanding of their information structure.

Another link I included was for Cocoa: http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/… and while the actual URL is even longer :) it seems human readable. Even if the link goes dead, a farily astute human could likely google terms from the URL to find the new URL.

In this regard then, +1 if you keep your URLs human readable. I know they'll be around for along time but I'd prefer to avoid directing all my links to http://www.wikipedia.com/ or http://www.amazon.com/. No, sometimes I want to take you right to the source. I'm not trying to sell anything - I don' t need all these levels of indirection or advertising for my readers.

PS: what I really need to do it implement my own version of http://bit.ly and then monitor the links I publish. Then, if any of the links change content - it'd send me an alert and force me to find the new location! Heck, sounds like idea for a service of some sort …

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

One of our larger projects here requires native ports to multiple platforms. I spent this weekend creating the skeleton for a Windows windowing framework.

I am not trying to keep the code portable but I did try to follow some fundamental Cocoa Design Patterns. I ran into a little difficulty as C++ and the original Win32 API aren't a 1-to-1 match to Objective-C and Cocoa, but I was able to mimic the NSWindow object hierarchy and complete a naive retain and release mechanism.

I'm not sure why but I get the biggest kick from programming GUIs with Windows' API. I finished in as much as I was able to display the root window frame. I then popped open Interface Builder and started puttig the actual GUI together :) Funny how that works sometimes.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

If you use a computer mouse daily - try finding a way to control the computer mouse with the opposite hand every other day.

It cuts any type of repetitive stress usage down by 1/2, it works the opposite side of the brain and it is much easier than learning to write with your opposite hand :)

Personally, I work at home with my 'left' hand on the mouse - while at work, I use my right. They almost balance each other out perfectly.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Do you use Skype for conference calls?

I recently received a pair of usb headphones and find them really helpful to direct Skype to ring on my built in computer speaker while I participate (talk and listen) over the usb headphones.

That wouldn't be possible if I was actually using the mic and speaker jacks on the computer.

+1 Logitech!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

In the past 5 years I've really learned that it is really all about productivity.

Perfectionism isn't worth much if nobody sees it.

Go forth; get things done; get things published. Be productive.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

It was a bit of a bumpy start - like learning to write code with your opposite hand on the mouse - but I've really grown to prefer NetBeans over Eclipse for my own Java development.

As a whole, I find the functionality a bit more cohesive. It also seems to handle Python decently not to mention that Javascript, JSPs and HTML all have syntax coloring and formatting out of the box.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I was wondering why the YUI2 library uses this idiom in most of its examples:

1
2
3
4
5
6

(function() {

   // code here

})();

I came across Helephant - Javascript Anonymous Functions with an explanation of how this idiom scopes functions and variables and why it is useful (or possibly required). I also found a little help at How does an anonymous function in Javascript work and Why don't you have to declare variables in Javascript where some of the examples and dialog dig a little deeper into the need for and implications of scoping as such.

Hope you find these as helpful as I did.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »