The blog of Josh Johnson

Static Linking with C++ Project in Xcode

2011-12-07T00:00:00-05:00

Static Linking with C++ Project in Xcode

Posted on December 07, 2011 in Development and Xcode

This week at NSCoder Night, another developer was trying to statically link the MySQL library. He had initially linked it as a dynamic library and couldn't seem to get it working with Xcode. After working with it for a little while I figured out what needed to happen; and it wasn't clear. Here I'll discuss what process I went through to track down the problem and what tools I used.

Thinking this must be a settings issue, I dived into his project settings looking for that one linker flag that must be wrong. I saw nothing. He had his path set up properly to find the static library under /usr/local/mysql and the static library was added to the Build Phases area properly. Strange. So I started digging around with the output file. Using otool I inspected the file:

$ otool -L StaticLink

otool is a small tool that ships with Xcode. It gives you the ability to display specified parts of object files or libraries. Using the -L switch, I'm asking the object file to show me the shared libraries this object file uses.

In his case, however, otool showed me that the library was still dynamically linking against the dylib version of the library. The interesting part is that both the static library and the dynamic library lived in the same location on disk. Xcode seems to prefer linking against dynamic libraries over static libraries so it just loaded the dylib.

To get this working as expected I had to remove the static library from his project and add a line in OTHER_LINKER_FLAGS that is a direct link to the static library (/usr/local/mysql/libmysql.a). This way the linker is forced to load the static library over the dynamic library. Pretty straight forward but it was pretty frustrating for a while there.

CocoaConf Raleigh 2011

2011-12-06T00:00:00-05:00

CocoaConf Raleigh 2011

Posted on December 06, 2011 in Cocoa, Conferences, Community, and Speaking

This weekend I was a speaker and attendee at CocoaConf; a 2-day conference series for Mac and iOS developers. It was a small conference that left time for people to actually meet each other and had many great sessions from great developers. Here I'll review the conference, a selection of my favorite sessions, and a post-mortem of my sessions.

The Conference

After having been to Autodesk University a couple years and then WWDC this year, it is refreshing to go to a conference where you can actually talk to every attendee. This conference shines in that arena. I think there were around 60 people there from all over the country and while I didn't talk to everyone - I could have. I'm really impressed with how many good speakers and topics where put together. I really have to hand it to the Klein family for running this conference. They drove from St. Louis and still had enough energy to run a 3-day conference. I really hope they continue bringing these conferences around the country (and back to Raleigh).

For 2011, CocoaConf Raleigh was hosted in the Holiday Inn Brownstone Doubletree by Hilton¹ near NC State University. While I'm happy the conference came here to Raleigh, I was underwhelmed by the hotel. I can't tell if it was years of believing that the Brownstone was a high class hotel or if they were just undergoing major renovations. The constant musty smell, the lack of cell service, and the odd layout of the conference weren't the biggest problem though. You just can't have a technical conference without Wifi. I've hosted a few CocoaHeads events without Wifi and people start getting twitchy after an hour. Now imagine 2 days. The hotel failed horribly here. Next time the conference comes to Raleigh, I hope to help find a better conference facility.

The Sessions

I was able to attend 8 sessions and most of them were great. I'll cover a few that stood out in my memory but that doesn't lessen the others in any way :

NSPredicates For Fun and Profit by Josh Smith (@kognate)

NSPredicates are a big part of fetching data from a Core Data context. It is really easy forget that it is not a part of Core Data but rather another great part of Foundation. This session reminded me of a lot of great things about NSPredicates and showed me a few things I hadn't seen before.

MacRuby by Jonathan Penn (@jonathanpenn)

I've long been interested in finding more out about MacRuby. We had a speaker lined up to discuss it at our local CocoaHeads but it fell through. Jonathan's excitement about MacRuby and his presentation style made the session fun and exciting. It had me downloading and playing with MacRuby over the weekend.

Storyboards by Daniel Steinberg (@dimsumthinking)

This year at WWDC, Apple announced many new features of the iOS SDK. Storyboards was one of the biggest news items that week and I missed it. In fact, I missed the talks on ARC and Storyboards. Daniel's presentation reminded me what all the hype was about. Storyboards look like a great addition to the framework and I'm excited to start a project using them. That coming from a guy who likes to build things with code.

Documents by Bill Dudney (@bdudney)

For yet another iOS 5 topic at this conference, Bill Dudney talked about using UIDocument with iCloud. I had only seen a little information about Documents and iCloud and seeing just how easy it is to set up was great. It is just another thing that I want to use in a project now.

My Sessions

I had two sessions on the schedule² and they ended up with mixed results. One of my goals is to become a better speaker, not only for these types of things but also for the challenge. In school, I was the kid who trembled during public speaking assignments. It is a fear I have overcome, but now drive to be better at communicating ideas. The biggest thing that helps me is visualizing the whole talk and practice.

Background Saving with Core Data

My first idea for a session was to cover something more specific than other sessions. Instead of a complete rush through a whole framework, what about focusing on one area. I was working on a project that used Core Data at the time, and with the current drive for concurrency in apps I thought it would be a great session for people. I think I was right, this session seemed to go well. I had practiced a lot with what I wanted to say and I think I kept the pace going well. Looking at the evaluation forms, most people agree with that. I feel like this is a session I could do again and improve upon it.

You can download the Keynote file from this presentation here

Introduction to Core Location

To contrast the more advanced level of the previous session, I thought I'd do a beginner session on Core Location. It was a good thought, there were more people in that session than the Core Data one. I wanted to cover the basics of receiving location data on the iPhone and review what is new in iOS 5. I think it ended well, people seemed really excited about the geocoding that is possible with iOS 5. The beginning was a bit more painful. Since the internet was an issue, I decided late Friday night to retool my presentation to not have live demos in it. I foolishly did this with out practicing the new flow. I struggled getting going and had forgotten to move some slides in the right place. The evaluation forms seemed to agree with this. Lessons learned: never change your talk at the last minute.

You can download the Keynote file from this presentation here

Summary

Overall, I had a great time. I would recommend the conference to anyone looking to learn more about Cocoa development on the Mac or iPhone. I'm looking forward to next year and will be voting for it to come back to Raleigh

1. Apparently, the Thursday that people started arriving at CocoaConf (for either the tutorial or the NSCoder Night) was the same day that DoubleTree decided to rebrand the Brownstone. I even drove pass the hotel that night..[↩]
2. Originally it was two, but thankfully they allowed me to drop the AutoCAD for Mac plugin session..[↩]

Back to blogging and working without a clock

2011-09-05T00:00:00-04:00

Back to blogging and working without a clock

Posted on September 05, 2011 in Getting things done

It's that time of year again. That time, late in the year, where I start wishing I blogged more often. It actually started earlier this year when I rewrote this whole blog¹ back in March. So what got me back here in a text editor writing a blog post? Really it came down to that weekly feeling at the end of the weekend that I've finished very little. I guess if I can finish at least one small blog post, I can start feeling like I've finished something.

Last night, I stumbled upon a post about working without a clock by developer Zach Waugh. It got me thinking a lot about how I spend the whole weekend looking at the clock, fretting about how little time I have left before the week begins. The idea is to remove the clock from your mind and just work. You may work late or have to take a really late lunch, but removing this one more thing from your mind frees you up. This isn't new either, this famous quote leads to the same conclusion:

"I owe my success to the fact I never had a clock in my workroom"
– Thomas Edison

I'll be trying this now. Most days, I don't need to know the time. I rarely have meetings. Mornings at work become a countdown to lunchtime. My laptops now have no time displaying, and I'll be making this change on my work machine as well. I guess if it helps me get more done by focusing on the work and not the clock, my posts will be more frequent than once a year.

1. Using Jekyll, I'll probably write about it later.[↩]

Things I wish I knew yesterday

2010-11-24T00:00:00-05:00

Things I wish I knew yesterday

Posted on November 24, 2010 in Cocoa, Programming, and Xcode

Even when you’ve been working in an environment for years, you still find things you never knew. I liken it to learning about a famous actor you had never heard of, but has starred in all your favorite movies.

I found two things that I wish I had known or seen, but for whatever reason, I missed.

First up, convenience functions for converting a CGRect to a NSString or a NSString to a CGRect.

I’ve often needed to log the frame I am working on and have either created this as a macro or just quickly typed out the string format. Never again! Not sure how much I’ll use the CGRectFromString function, I much prefer the C-style:

Next up, SPLIT SCREEN VIEW in Xcode. I work on a 30” monitor and sometime having so many open windows gets to be a mess. I’ve often seen the little button for a horizontal split view in the upper right of the editor window, but didn’t know how to do a vertical split.

The icon even looks like a horizontal split (icon right below the lock in the image). Fortunately, holding OPTION (⌥) while clicking it will create a vertical split window.

Over the Air Beta Testing for iOS Apps

2010-11-03T00:00:00-04:00

Over the Air Beta Testing for iOS Apps

Posted on November 03, 2010 in iOS and Testing

As an enterprise iOS developer, I’ve had the wonders of over-the-air installation for my apps since iOS 4 dropped. I’ve enjoyed it so much so that I’ve pushed to make sure all our users have moved to iOS 4 (not the only reason, of course). So instead of sending a user an IPA file, they simply browse to your site from the device itself.

A few months ago, Hockey was announced that brought a similar workflow to beta testers of non-enterprise apps. Today, I learned about what could be the coolest start-up for iOS developers: TestFlightApp.

TestFlight App seems to wrap this process in a web application that makes the whole process even less of a hassle. I haven’t received a beta invitation yet so I can’t talk about it any more than that. Here’s hoping for a fast beta release!

TestFlightApp
TestFlightApp on Twitter.

My talk on bad movies from PechaKucha Raleigh

2010-10-14T00:00:00-04:00

My talk on bad movies from PechaKucha Raleigh

Posted on October 14, 2010 in Bad Movies and Speaking

My talk on Bad Movies from September’s PechaKucha. I think it went over pretty well. The event was well run and many of the other talks were also great. I especially enjoyed a talk about Physicist Richard Feynman and his decade-long attempt to visit Tannu Tuva.

Global hotkeys in Cocoa on Snow Leopard

2010-07-23T00:00:00-04:00

Global hotkeys in Cocoa on Snow Leopard

Posted on July 23, 2010 in Cocoa and Programming

I am working on a small app at the office for all our mac users to help locate files on the network (more on this later), I decided to go with a spotlight style NSStatusItem based app. I’ve been really inspired by these apps lately (when done right). Mostly thanks to Notify.

To make this more handy I decided to include a global hotkey. For Leopard and earlier, one problem is you have to use the old Carbon-based events. Most likely due to my Carbon-naivety, I had troubles with this.

Luckily, I found this post and learned that Snow Leopard added addGlobalMonitorForEventsMatchingMask:maskhandler: to NSEvent:

Moleskine for iPad = Dodocase

2010-07-10T00:00:00-04:00

Moleskine for iPad = Dodocase

Posted on April 23, 2011 in iPad and Cases

I’m generally not a case type person. I try to find the smallest case possible for my iPhone. Still, I wanted something that protected my iPad when tossed in my bag. Generally a fan of the Moleskine, the Dodocase was the top of my list. So how is it? I like it, and it actually makes me want to carry the iPad around more.

The Good

The overall feel is wonderful. It really does lead me to carry it more. It just feels good. I haven’t had the issue I’ve seen on youtube where the iPad easily falls out. I can see how it is possible as the corner foam really is all that is holding it in.

Opening the front cover shows the Ex Libris label. Can’t quite decide if I want to put my name in there or not. Maybe this is a spot for one of my many Apple stickers.

The not-so-good

While I don’t regret the dodocase, there are a few things that bug me. First up, the promo photos seem to show a different fabric on the outside of the case. The fabric on my case seem much more smooth and less of the texture that sold me on the case.

Second, the binding feels week. I am a little fearful that it will wear down over time.

If you want one, you’ll be waiting. We ordered this one in early June and it just now arrived. Now priced $59, it is a bit more than other cases. Knowing it is handmade helps make it feel worth it. Overall, I’m happy with it.

❖ Toasters and Trucks

2010-07-03T00:00:00-04:00

❖ Toasters and Trucks

Posted on July 03, 2010 in Apple and Tech

A great lunch-time conversation occurred yesterday about what the iPad means and the future of the desktop. There have been a lot of questions floating around; moreso before and during WWDC and it’s lack of Mac-based content. So, what is the future of the Mac? Is the iPhone and iOS the future of the Desktop?

“I think PCs are going to be like trucks,” Steve Jobs said at D8

While that answer is simple, I think it is spot on. Here’s why – PCs are from the 80s. Sure, they’ve made vast improvements, but the Macintosh Classic I had in the early 90s is much closer to my Macbook Pro than it is to my iPad.

What I think is interesting here is the change of the average computer user. Some time ago, a coworker said under the stress of helping a relative, “Windows or Mac OS X is way too complicated and complex for most people”. I didn’t think much of it then, but the iPad and iOS are the direct result of this thinking. Most people (Mom?) don’t need a full on computer operating system. They need, and WANT, a toaster. The iPad is a toaster.

In the 80s when PCs were booming, a larger percentage of them were computer geeks. People who were interested in how it worked, or how they can tear it apart and make it better. The shift that has occurred is most computer users today could care less about how it works. They just want a pipeline to facebook and farmville.

Does this replace the need for the personal computer? I don’t think so. I believe what Steve Jobs said above. It will be a truck; A tool for doing specific things. For example, I love my iPad, but nothing beats my 30” monitor for writing code (except two 30” monitors). Xcode for the iPad would be dreadful.

Getting kids excited about coding.

2010-07-03T00:00:00-04:00

Getting kids excited about coding.

Posted on July 03, 2010 in Arduino, Programming, and Kids

Want to get your kids excited about coding? Think about looking into arduino. My fashion design and meteorology loving daughter was having a great time and even said “coding is fun!”.

My iPhone App's Icon in the Apple Storefront Display

2009-11-25T00:00:00-05:00

My iPhone App's Icon in the Apple Storefront Display

Posted on November 25, 2009 in iPhone, Apps, and Apple

With over 100,000 apps available on the iTunes App Store, developers are striving to be seen. If your iPhone App is on the front page of the App Store, sales tend to rise. What if your App is in the actual Apple Store? Will it help sales? I guess it could, but most users won't make the leap from an image in the store to the app in iTunes. That said, at least you can say "My app was featured in the Apple Store".

My app was featured in the Apple Store.

This morning I received an email from another iPhone developer in the Raleigh-Durham area (Tantrum Apps, if you have small kids these apps are a great find). He shared an image he had taken from one of two local Apple Stores showing the icon for my app, iAdvent (no longer available). Checking out the other local store, I found the icon hanging up as well.

So how does this happen? I can only speculate. I wasn't contacted by Apple or anything. I assume a store planner designed an in-store "App-Christmas" tree, and searched the store for matching themes. The design was approved, printed and sent to the stores. I have learned that this design is likely in most of the US stores, so my App is hanging up with other Christmas apps all over the US. (If you see this as true or not, let me know, it would be interesting to know if these displays are standard)

Still quite exciting to walk into your local Apple Store and see the icon you created hanging up for all to see.

iPhone App UI Tricks - Drag from outside the Screen

2009-11-05T00:00:00-05:00

iPhone App UI Tricks - Drag from outside the Screen

Posted on November 05, 2009 in iPhone, Programming, and UI

This really isn't a trick, or even a tip. In fact, no additional code was written to get this behavior. However, it is too cool not to show some how and the small pictures on the App Store don't do it justice. By placing a UIView (or subclassed view) on the bottom of my main view, messages to touchesMoved:withEvent: are made as soon as your finger crosses into the iPhone's screen. Voila!, the illusion of dragging from the outside of the screen.

My last app, or rather, Triple D Design's latest app "100 Percent" (which is now available on iTunes) has this little trick. See the video below.

I know this is insanely simple, but sometimes, the simplest things are the neat too.

Are we in the Wild Wild West of iPhone App Marketing?

2009-11-04T00:00:00-05:00

Are we in the Wild Wild West of iPhone App Marketing?

Posted on November 04, 2009 in iPhone, Apple, and Thoughts

I don't remember where, or when; but I heard someone recently say "we are in the wild west of iPhone Apps". Is this really true?

Yesterday, I attended the local iPhone Developer meetup (maybe that is where I heard it). The topic was iPhone App Marketing and featured some great presentations on where to go to spread the word, and what to say. It all goes back to one principle: Start with a great App, then communicate it well.

There is this feeling though, not just locally, that the app store is in the wild west and people are taking advantage of that to be the next big thing. Well, of course they are. I think the build a business overnight success of the App Store is even more few and far between than we like to think (or hope), but there are still a lot of devices out there.

You might not make it to the scale some have, but you can still succeed. In our area, there are dozens or hundreds, I can only think of one who made the big jump in leaving a day job. So, are we in the Wild Wild West? I don't believe so.

(Disclaimer: I'm a coder, not a marketer, not a salesman, not even a businessman.)

Sure, there are people squatting on app names, pushing out so many junk iPhone apps they are banned from the store, and several other crazy stories. In those areas, sure, wildness can roam. But how is this different from other industry?

An example: My other passion is filmmaking. What are the chances that I make a movie that will be the next Paranormal Activity? About the same as writing the next iShoot. Is this really a problem with the app store or is it sheer numbers. People pump out movies at an unbelievable rate just to make small audiences.

Thanks to YouTube, everyone is a filmmaker. Thanks to the iPhone, everyone is an app developer. In other words, every industry has trash.

I don't believe that taking advantage of what Apple provides is bad. You do what you can to make your product sell. If you find your niche, you have to work it or it won't be with you long. That is not the Wild West, that is business. I wish for people to stop buying fart apps, but their existence is not a reflection of the app store. It is a reflection of society.

For what it's worth, I really like how Tantrum Apps has found a niche and has worked on it. This really goes well with a presentation from David Heinemeier on making money online (by not trying to be the next Twitter); find your niche and work it.

iPhone App Design Evolution - 100percent

2009-09-30T00:00:00-04:00

iPhone App Design Evolution - 100percent

Posted on September 30, 2009 in iPhone, Programming, and UI

Here it is, yet another video showing the process of creating an iPhone app, just a bit inspired by the video posted by tap tap tap. As you'll see, this whole post is full of inspiration.

My latest project has been for a client that was looking for a focused percentage calculator. A quick search through the App Store shows a lot of tip calculators and even some percentage calculators. It would be very easy to pop a few controls and some simple math together to make an app, but aren't Mac / iPhone interfaces supposed to be a bit more thought out? Well, yeah.

Keep reading for a video showing the process of designing the app from sketch, to final product. Or just check out the app on iTunes (iTunes link)

More on Inspiration

Ok, I said the post would be about inspiration. You don't have to look far to see the inspiration for the design of 100percent. Tapbots create wonderful apps that are "utility robots designed and engineered for your iPhone and iPod Touch". Now, 100percent is not a robot and not a direct clone, but you have to give credit when its due.

Learn more about 100percent at Triple D Design or buy it now on the iTunes App Store