Re: AppKit source available as reference?
Re: AppKit source available as reference?
- Subject: Re: AppKit source available as reference?
- From: jgo <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2001 18:56:43 -0700
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At 2001-06-30 16:00:41 -0400 Brian Howard wrote:
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On Friday, 2001 June 29 at 01:48, Scott Anguish wrote:
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> On Thursday, 2001 June 28 at 20:38, Karl Goiser wrote:
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>> Why are there so many tutorials on Cocoa? I contend that this is
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>> because it is so black boxy that it is like groping around in a
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>> darkened room!
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>
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> I'd contend that those who write the tutorials are enthusiastic
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> about getting others involved in a great set of frameworks and dev
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> environment.
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No doubt at all about the enthusiastic motives... Karl is right:
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a monkey see, monkey do tutorial is the easiest way to _TRY_ and teach
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someone something. Follow me and I will get you through the darkened
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room; but once through the room, you still won't know much about what
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was is the room, why the room was arranged the way it is, or much of
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anything else. Answer? Grope through enough dark rooms and eventually
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you'll learn enough to start guiding others through the night(mare)--by
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writing yet another tutorial...
That was an excellent analogy, but I'd add that before being
permitted to enter the room, each person is fitted with blinders
such that you can only see one tiny spot at a time, and must
remember all the tiny spots and how they were meant to fit
together in this instance, and to project from that how they
might be fit together in other contexts.
Still, the example code is much better than the formulaic
reference material with which such inferences are virtually
impossible because you don't know which room you're in or
even whether you're in a room... hmmm, perhaps like being
given a detailed list of parts (with only a few missing)
from which the furniture in the room is constructed but without
any information about how they are fit together, etc.
We can always sign up for the iServices CLEP class...
you know, elementary introductory general Cocoa...
for a mere $2500 + $350 for hotel + transport + a week away
from getting other development done. (I know, my brain's
never been suited to an inflationary environment -- or
stag-flationary as we have now -- I still think of a month-long
course costing $1500 + $150 hotel...) but if I could swing
it I could go for something a little more beefy.
If they fill out the reference, add a few more guides, and dozens
of example projects, eventually there will be enough clues to fit
together. And I appreciate how the NeXT developers had to pick up
things as they evolved without docs. One wonders how they made a
go of it economically while trying to use the experimental methods
to figure things out as they went along.
John G. Otto Nisus Software, Engineering
www.infoclick.com www.mathhelp.com www.nisus.com software4usa.com
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Will program Macs for food.