Re: Bypassing Interface Builder

FROM : Julius Guzy
DATE : Wed May 14 22:05:53 2008

> Might there be not a tutorial but more documented examples of creating
> a window, calling to the window, adding widgets(buttons and such) and
> altering an NSCustomView.
>
> My goal is to make a drawing app from the Drawkit framework but for
> the life of me I just can't get past the use IB but Drawkit does not
> use IB but the books do and swear that I should fiasco! Ah ha ha ha ha
> h haha h  hah aa haa

Sorry to be coming in late when this discussion seems all over and 
especially that I have nothing technical to contribute.
I do want however to say that I understand colo's frustration with IB.

I have just spent the best part of five months learning enough 
objective-c and cocoa to create useful apps.
I have been programming for 30 plus years and this has been the most 
difficult learning experience of my life.
It is not just IB but also Project Builder and Xcode and now Xcode 
under Leopard. And Objective-C also has its little ways.

I have no idea how the rest of you gained your expertise but working 
on my own, even with the help of books and the internet it has been 
an absolute nightmare. One problem intially was with IB itself which 
wanted me to drag from controls to outlets etc. and which I found 
very hard to learn and books like Cocoa Programming for Mac OSX and 
Vermont recipes were very hard going. Perhaps it was their verbosity, 
or the learning by rote. The examples on the internet are not that 
plentiful and it takes a long time to find one's way around.

Now under Leopard people should find IB easier to learn because the 
emphasis is on creating the header files first and this is easier to 
understand. I could say masses more about this learning hell but will 
desist except to say it is not over yet. When I moved over to Leopard 
the compiler ceased to assign the proper type to the variables passed 
in dynamically typed  messages. And I still have not solved this!!!

So I write merely to give heart to others. The learning nightmare 
does ease over time but never forget the system's tendency every now 
and then to send you right back to square one.

All this said, cocoa and Objective-C is beautiful. I just wish it 
were easier to learn.

Julius


http://juliuspaintings.co.uk