Re: Conditionally modifying NIBs?

FROM : Mike Fischer
DATE : Thu May 15 13:25:55 2008

Am 15.05.2008 um 02:20 schrieb Jonathan Hess:

> As for the original question, you can modify an IB file, to some 
> extent, using ibtool --import and ibtool --export. For example, you 
> might consider placing all of your views and objects in the XIB/
> NIB, and then using these options to control the isHidden property 
> of various views.


That's certainly the most interesting idea I've heard so far. So with 
this method I could in theory assemble different nibs into a single 
one at build time?


> That won't be easy though, as it isn't an intended usage of ibtool. 
> I think the best option here is to make the changes in code, and to 
> only use on IB file.


I gather that IB is apparently not meant to allow for scripted build 
processes. It seems to be a purely graphical tool operated manually. 
For many purposes this is fine. But once you have a complex nib and 
want to make incremental changes or changes dependent on some build 
setting it becomes very complicated.

Even worse IMHO a nib can hide many rather important settings making 
it very hard to understand for someone who is not the original author 
for example. This makes nibs very fragile because small mistakes in 
say connecting things can lead to program errors that are hard to 
debug later on.


> Good Luck -
> Jon Hess



Yes thanks! I keep wondering though how companies that make large 
complicated apps in teams are coping with these limitations. I can't 
imagine building something like Photoshop using nibs for everything 
and working on a nib with more than one person. I'd guess one would 
use nibs for simple things and possibly building blocks and do 
everything else at run-time where what happens is clear and self 
documenting.


Mike
--
Mike Fischer    Softwareentwicklung, EDV-Beratung
                                Schulung, Vertrieb
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