Re: AppKit source available as reference?
Re: AppKit source available as reference?
- Subject: Re: AppKit source available as reference?
- From: Jonathan Hendry <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 13:24:00 -0500
Personally, I'd rather have a well-designed framework than
one which requires you to look through the source code to
figure out how to use it.
I should think a risk of learning from source is that
you may rely on things that you shouldn't, making it more
likely your code will break later. On the flipside, making
source code available might cause Apple to make fewer
changes to the framework, in order to avoid precisely that
problem, but slowing advancement of the platform and
allowing poor designs to become entrenched.
Subclassing could sometimes be easier if you have code, but
there's always poseAs and Categories to fall back on.
The AppKit and Foundation are really pretty small, compared
to most other frameworks these days. Compared to Swing, there's
really not as much to learn.
Also, doesn't C++ sometimes make it necessary to rebuild the
frameworks you're basing your classes on? I could be wrong
on this tho, having avoided C++ so far.
- Jon
On Thursday, June 28, 2001, at 12:33 , Michael Dagate wrote:
I concur with Karl. More information is better than less. If that
means reading source code, fine. I prefer to do that before
bugging others with tedious questions. ;)
FWIW, Microsoft always provided the source to MFC (Microsoft
Foundation Classes). In addition to reading it and learning from
it, you could debug into it and that was really handy.
Michael
On Thursday, June 28, 2001, at 11:13 AM, Karl Goiser wrote:
I used Smalltalk for a few years. You get the source to pretty
well everything and, generally, just fairly high-level
documentation.
The source provided me with invaluable insights into how to
program in Smalltalk. With a source browser, I would scan
through likely classes, finding relevant methods and who called
them and why. In the calling methods, I would find the style of
usage of the methods - examples.
I did this sort of thing when I was learning the environment AND
after becoming more proficient. This is because I would find
myself working in an area of the environment that I hadn't before
or hadn't touched for a while, consequently forgetting most of
the details. Having access to the source increased my
productivity a lot.
In Cocoa, I feel lost. How do I find the methods or class that I
will want? Look at the documentation. But how do I find what I
need without reading and/or knowing the documentation of every
single class? I may know it all one day, but what about know?
The upshot is that, in order to program effectively in Cocoa, I
will have to know, pretty well, every method of every class!
Then, how do I find examples of usage of the method(s)?
Compared to Smalltalk, I feel like I am working in the dark!
Karl
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