Re: Visualizing Cocoa
Re: Visualizing Cocoa
- Subject: Re: Visualizing Cocoa
- From: David Trevas <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2001 20:30:16 -0500
Thank you, Brian.
I'll bet you don't know and I've never seen it discussed, but this is
not the first time Apple has had a programming environment called
Cocoa. A few years ago, Apple had a highly visual, object-oriented
system for making little video games called Cocoa. You didn't write
code, you simply defined rules using icons. For example, you would
choose a rule that described how one object interacted with another like
your little Pac-man like creature would stop if he hit a wall.
I read in the documentation that it was a fun way to learn OOP and kids
as young as FOUR (!) created "worlds".
The problem with going the simple route is that the people most worthy
to critique it (seasoned programmers) will find all of its shortcomings
and scare would-be students away. REALbasic is a terrific example. I
was using CodeWarrior and trying to learn the Mac OS Toolbox, but it was
too much. I even wrote to Metrowerks and said it would be great if
there were a Mac version of Visual Basic. Lo and behold a few weeks
later, I discovered REALbasic (very coincidentally it was also written
in Austin, Texas). I was doing great things with it almost right away,
but I hit the wall after a few months. I needed to be able to make the
menu bar disappear and prevent the triangle key (power button) from
shutting down the computer. The people at REAL software were unwilling
to help and suggested I write a plug-in with CodeWarrior (if I had that
capability, why would I use REALbasic!?) Nevertheless, the experience
boosted my skills in the Mac Toolbox.
I think a successful approach would be one that is unabashedly and
self-effacingly hokey. The pros would realize the target audience and
not regard it as an insult to their intelligence. I've just read the
sample chapter of "Learning Cocoa" and between that and from what I've
read here, it seems it takes itself too seriously and doesn't do enough
hand-holding for beginners, but is not as complete as more experienced
users would have liked.
By the way, does anyone know whether the old Cocoa is related to the
current incarnation? Was Apple experimenting with pedagogical
(teaching) techniques for future use?
Dave