Anyone using Xcode Tools?

[p03]

I'm a wannabe developer. I've followed tutorials, read books on Obj-C and Xcode and its predecessor, Project Builder. I'm familiar with the very basics of Cocoa development. And one day, I want to make a living out of it.

 

I've been excited with the addition of Core Data and Cocoa Bindings, I think it's great that the system is moving towards greater abstraction. Garbage collection and the other features of Obj-C 2.0 look pretty good, too.

 

Are there other developers or hobbyists who are not under NDA and are willing to discuss that kind of stuff over here? Or will InsanelyMac disallow that?

[tripdragon]

same here.. Thats all I want out of Leopard.. But check it.. even real developers that payed to get the advance beta of leopard can't talk about the new Obj-C 2.. It's crazy !

 

I guess you should just get started reading and hacking away at the new tools in it.. like i heard therre was a tool to show how a program is working... check that one out and come back with a report.. It can help everyone if some one tries it

[p03]

Well, I like what I've seen so far , though I've spent only about an hour on this stuff.

I know a lot of my technical terms will be way off, please bear with me though.

 

Xcode

There's a new feature (Code Folding) to highlight any logical part of your code, i.e. a function, a loop... anything between { and } signs. You can fold these things, making your code more navigable. There's probably more to it than that. There's inline Code Sense completion, I haven't even tried it.

 

Obj-C 2.0

There are some docs about it included in the preview. The big news is garbage collection. I guess I'll have to wait for John Siracusa at Ars Technica to let us know (whenever the NDA is lifted) how well it stacks up, though. It claims to be a "modern" system.

 

Then there's Properties. It's about key-value coding, simplifying things even further than Cocoa Bindings, but this time, in the model part, not the view or the controller. Basically, what I've gathered is that objects can have so-called Properties, which can be of any data type, and can be instance variables as well as other things. There's new syntax for accessing an object's properties by using

 

x = Object.property; // getting property
Object.property = 12; // setting property

 

Which actually are equivalent* to

 

x = [Object property]; // getting property
[Object setProperty:12]; // setting property

So encapsulation is preserved. I think the Properties feature spares you the declaration and implementation of accessor methods, though you can override things.

 

*Only in cases where a property is an instance variable. There are other types of properties, like some read-only properties that are calculated on the fly, etc.

 

And there's a bunch of other stuff too.

 

Interface Builder 3

 

There's a completely new version, which doesn't even resemble previous ones. It looks like the UI was rebuilt from the ground up. It really looks unfinished, labels, tooltips and basic functionalities are missing.

 

There's no help file, no manual, only docs on programming topics. IB 3 seems to add a lot of things, but it's hard to tell what's new and what has simply changed.

 

To me, the highlights are: the ability to create toolbars with IB, QuartzComposer views, a data filter widget (like the Finder or iTunes advanced search specification widgets), and like a dozen other things that made my head spin and forget all that after going to bed... Sorry.

 

IB projects seem more atomized than before. You don't start building an app with IB, you start off by creating a window, or a main menu, as your IB nib file. Looks like there may be more nib files per Xcode project than before.

 

Documentation

 

Looks like the new tools were really only meant for WWDC attendees. Without any basic walk-around tutorial, I was at a complete loss about how I could do anything with the new IB, let alone learn about the exciting new features.

 

If you have any comments, corrections or tips, let me know.

[tripdragon]

nah no correction s.. More like,, maybe ya should break up some small simple tutorials on-line and try and convert them into the new system.. It should be eaiser if it is ready once you get it's new design..

 

But ... it is beta... and that kinda explains things clearly, but who cares! We need to know now! More more!

[p03]

nah no correction s.. More like,, maybe ya should break up some small simple tutorials on-line and try and convert them into the new system.. It should be eaiser if it is ready once you get it's new design..

 

But ... it is beta... and that kinda explains things clearly, but who cares! We need to know now! More more!

 

Well I guess I could import old files, and even do the old stuff in the new environment... Maybe there are new fun ways to things like connecting outlets... But of course, it would be better if someone could clue us in on the newwwww stuff....

[bofors]

Interface Builder 3

 

There's a completely new version, which doesn't even resemble previous ones. It looks like the UI was rebuilt from the ground up. It really looks unfinished, labels, tooltips and basic functionalities are missing.

 

There's no help file, no manual, only docs on programming topics. IB 3 seems to add a lot of things, but it's hard to tell what's new and what has simply changed.

 

To me, the highlights are: the ability to create toolbars with IB, QuartzComposer views, a data filter widget (like the Finder or iTunes advanced search specification widgets), and like a dozen other things that made my head spin and forget all that after going to bed... Sorry.

 

IB projects seem more atomized than before. You don't start building an app with IB, you start off by creating a window, or a main menu, as your IB nib file. Looks like there may be more nib files per Xcode project than before.

 

I think your perhaps missing the major feature of IB3, that is enhanced plug-in support. Before IB3, IB was extensible only via palettes. Now it looks like Apple is really opening things up.

 

 

Obj-C 2.0

There are some docs about it included in the preview. The big news is garbage collection. I guess I'll have to wait for John Siracusa at Ars Technica to let us know (whenever the NDA is lifted) how well it stacks up, though. It claims to be a "modern" system.

Siracusa may be an authority on the Finder, but he certainly is not on Obj-C.

 

Then there's Properties. It's about key-value coding, simplifying things even further than Cocoa Bindings...

That's not how I would describe the situation.

 

There's new syntax for accessing an object's properties by using

 

x = Object.property; // getting property
Object.property = 12; // setting property

 

Which actually are equivalent* to

 

x = [Object property]; // getting property
[Object setProperty:12]; // setting property

 

So encapsulation is preserved.

 

So direct access to @public ivars still perserved with Object->property ?

[p03]

I think your perhaps missing the major feature of IB3, that is enhanced plug-in support. Before IB3, IB was extensible only via palettes. Now it looks like Apple is really opening things up.

 

Yep, that should be huge. Can't imagine the potential just right off the bat, though.

 

Siracusa may be an authority on the Finder, but he certainly is not on Obj-C.

 

What makes you think so?

I was reading his worries about how OS X may not be future-proof. He says that merely "grafting" garbage collection on Obj-C may not make it enough of a managed language. We'll see what he thinks now.

 

And of course, there Slashdot thread on GC and Obj-C must have opinions by about a thousand people by now, with the usual trolling and stuff...

 

That's not how I would describe the situation.

(About Properties.)

 

Well, how would you?

 

On a second, better look, I need to correct myself. Properties is not an extension to Key-Value Coding (KVC), but more like a replacement for it. Now you simply declare Properties in a class interface, and if you don't write accessor methods for them, the compiler will synthesize them for you.

 

So just like Cocoa Bindings did away with a lot of the tedious, repetitive "glue code" in a controller, now Properties will spare you the tedium of declaring and implementing cookie-cutter accessor methods that merely set and retrieve values.

 

KVC attempted something similar, but had drawbacks, and was more complicated.

 

Anyway, this is my limited understanding of the issue.

 

So direct access to @public ivars still perserved with Object->property ?

 

Honestly, I never planned to use public ivars, maybe just out of ignorance, but somehow I was taught that encapsulation is a good thing in an OO environment.

 

I guess access to public ivars is preserved (I don't think anything is not preserved), but Properties is something that still relies on messaging to access private ivars. It's just that the accessor methods need not be explicitly declared or implemented unless you want to.

[qwertyu]

Has anyone figured out Interface Builder 3.0 yet?

[MacHD]

As far as I can tell IB3.0 still needs some work. It has a much more intuitive way to make connections between objects. The new method uses aperture like floating panes (opened via right click or ctrl-click) listing actions and outlets, however I found that selecting an item from the list is quite buggy and often misconnects to the wrong item. The workaround I found was to connect from the pane to the object instead of from the object to the pane. Note: These new floating panes are separate from the inspector, the inspector still shows connections and outlets like in the Tiger IB.

 

It is also apparent that IB3.0 has not been tied in with Xcode 3.0 yet. An example of this is how when you open a Nib via Xcode 3 it will not show images from the Xcode project, like the older Tiger version does. Also, as far as I could tell the default IB was still the Tiger version (which is included in Xcode 3).

 

Edit: Some more stuff:

Selected objects now have an added blue highlight along with the bounds.

 

Resize bounds have been simplified, for example a round button has no bounds, a push button only has them on left and right and a gradient type has them on all sides and corners. So basically bounds respect the fact that certain objects can only be resized from certain points.

 

It is now possible to make connections via right click, from what I can tell only ctrl+click works on the Tiger IB.

 

The default NSApplication object no longer has basic actions like hide and terminate which you could see in the Tiger IB, although both IB have those actions in First Responder.

 

The inspector has a really cool way of viewing info from different objects quickly. Simply click and drag the white cog on the top left over any object in your IB project to see it's info in the inspector.

 

[bronxbomber92]

This should tell you more about objective-c 2.0 http://andymatuschak.org/articles/2006/08/...objective-c-2-0

[tripdragon]

and who owns this Obj-c 2.0 ? I thought Languages like C and C++ no longer get updates..

 

The new connections system sound kinda neat.. But will it save time and make sence in the long run??

[bronxbomber92]

I think apple does (originally NestStep I believe)..

 

BTW, doesn't c++ keep on getting updates?