Re: Mild Rant (was: make that dataSource...)
Re: Mild Rant (was: make that dataSource...)
- Subject: Re: Mild Rant (was: make that dataSource...)
- From: "Michael B. Johnson" <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 21:01:40 -0700
On Wednesday, September 12, 2001, at 08:24 PM, Lloyd Sargent wrote:
The major
impediment to an explosion of amazing apps is that you have to be very
smart,
Mmmm... I disagree, you don't have to be that smart. Even I managed to
figure a few things out on my own (threads were a piece of cake - now
distributed objects, that was another thing all together, but way cool!).
Then where is your amazing app? :-) (note: if you've shipped one, I
apologize, but that would make you the exception that proves the rule)
Seriously, it's one thing to be exposed to Cocoa, start to understand some
of it, and write bits of code, it's another thing to ship an app or
framework. Until I start seeing a bunch of these that aren't ports or
retreads, I stand by my rant. It took awhile to happen under NEXTSTEP,
and I expect it to happen again here, but truthfully, I'm still waiting...
We are, we are, we just need more books (and complete docs) with examples
<...> I think right now THAT is the biggest thing that is hurting Cocoa.
Hmm, sounds like we're in violent agreement. :-)
One of the points of putting classes on IB palettes is so that people
can use them with a minimum of
understanding - they should be able to drag an instance off a palette
and immediately use it - not
have to read header files, not have to read README files, not have to be
a terribly sophisticated IB
user.
A noble goal, but unless I can read your mind, how do I use the object?
Unless you are duplicating functionality of something else (only
different <grin>), I do not see the ability to "intuitively" use an
object. But perhaps I misunderstand what you mean...
Yes, you did. I'm talking about once you've basically grokked IB; when
you click on a palette you haven't seen before, what do you do? Drag one
of the objects to a window, fiddle with its inspector, go in and out of
"test interface" mode... I would claim that the best objects are
intuitive to get up and going with (caveat: that you know something about
the domain), and are "data dense" - they invite the non-casual user to
start examining them in more detail, but not be intimidated from casual
use. Those who used my old stuff in the NEXTSTEP world will hopefully
back up my claims of having done this in the past, but regardless of
whether I've succeeded in the past, the goal is what I said.
Learning curves are one thing, I'm railing against learning cliffs...
--> Michael B. Johnson, Ph.D. -- email@hidden
--> Studio Tools, Pixar Animation Studios
-->
http://xenia.media.mit.edu/~wave