Re: ever felt like a complete BONZO??
Re: ever felt like a complete BONZO??
- Subject: Re: ever felt like a complete BONZO??
- From: "David W. Halliday" <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 22:53:06 -0500
- Organization: TNRCC
Jim Rankin wrote:
>
Learning Cocoa often has a long stretch where it seems like nothing is
>
making sense, followed by an AHA! moment and lots of productivity.
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>
In other words, yes, there's a learning curve, but it has a big payoff
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at the end.
>
>
Some things necessary for the "light" to go off:
(I would word that as "for the "light" to go /on/. :-) )
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1. Understand the Model-View-Controller design pattern.
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2. Understand the target-action design pattern (and how it facilitates
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MVC).
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3. Understand Cocoa memory management (part way between C's
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do-everything-yourself approach and Java's we-do-it-all-for-you
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approach).
Unfortunately, it appears that our friend, Christian, may be at an even more
basic level.
Christian, it sounds like you haven't done /any/ programming before. Is that
right?
If so, I would recommend learning about Object Oriented programming before
tackling the above list (thanks, Jim). Actually, this will, most likely, take you
rather naturally into the "Model-View-Controller design pattern".
It's quite possible that the recommendations of Alex Rice <email@hidden>
are the best for you. However, it's also possible that you may be able to make use
of the "Object-Oriented Programming and the Objective-C Language" book (at
<
http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/macosx/Cocoa/ObjectiveC/>).
Unfortunately, in order the actually /program/ in Objective-C, you will have to
work with many of the C language idioms, and, since you, apparently, haven't yet
learned the C language, this will be a sticking point. I really wish we had a
SmallTalk system, with Cocoa "bindings" (I suspect, Christian, that you don't know
what such "programmer speak", but, in this context, it means the ability to use the
Cocoa libraries from a given language). (Has anyone ported Squeak?)
Actually, for the sake of simply learning about Object Oriented programming, you
/really/ don't need any particular set of libraries---just something that lets you
get your feet wet, so to speak. I know I found that some studying of the premier
Object Oriented language (the one for which the phrase, Object Oriented was coined),
SmallTalk, helped /me/ tremendously in understanding what Object Oriented is all
about (also, the fact that I'm a Physicist, and used to the concept of physical,
and, somewhat, abstract objects [think Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity]
helped as well---working with objects in my code came naturally). (Unfortunately, I
cannot speak for the likes of Python or Ruby, so I don't know how well they
illustrate the Object Oriented paradigm. I would have a tendency to say that
AppleScript does not make the Object Oriented way very transparent, even though I
would say it is, essentially, there.)
So, Christian, please be patient with yourself, give yourself time, start from
as basic a foundation as you need, and don't hesitate to ask questions.
I wish you the best of good fortune in your pursuits. :-)
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If you can internalize these, a lot of other things will start making
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sense.
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Good luck!
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>
Jim Rankin
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>
WebObjects/EOF/Cocoa/AppleScript Studio developer for hire
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>
On Thursday, April 11, 2002, at 08:25 PM, Christian Kraemer wrote:
>
>
> .... and now that I am
>
> subsciribing to this list I feel like I need a COCOA FOR (REAL) DUMMIES
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> Book ... David Pogue should write that ...
>
> ...
>
>
>
> I will watch this list and as soon as I understand the first post here
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> I will let you all know ...
>
>
>
> Christian
>
> ...
email@hidden
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