Re: Guidance for Cocoa's steep learning curve

FROM : Jens Alfke
DATE : Fri May 16 03:06:51 2008

On 15 May '08, at 5:03 PM, mmalc crawford wrote:

> My guidance for Cocoa's alleged "steep learning curve" is, "Why are 
> you making it steep?"
> It reminds me of the clichéd joke: "Doctor, it hurts when I do 
> this."  "Well, don't do that."


I agree. There are so many questions on this list from people who are 
clearly Cocoa newbies, who are trying to do really difficult/advanced 
things.

If you're learning Cocoa, just write something straightforward like a 
simple app, like the CurrencyConverter or whatever. Learn the basics 
of how to write action methods, wire up an interface in IB, and do 
basic things with Foundation classes. Add features one at a time ... 
documents, copy and paste, drag and drop, whatever. Just don't try to 
start out all at once with CoreData and XML and AppleScript and 
accessing other apps' windows!

—Jens