Re: Doc search strategy
Re: Doc search strategy
- Subject: Re: Doc search strategy
- From: "Erik M. Buck" <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 15:56:59 -0500
To answer the specific quiry:
First, I have been programming for UNIX for > 15 years and I don't need to
look up things like random() and srandom(). However, just for fun I typed
the following into google:
BSD random
and got
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=BSD+random&num=10&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&;
btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all
&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=images
The first hit tells me everything I want to know. I can also then read the
Mac OS X man page for random() once I know it exists.
The general answer to the question about how I search documentation:
If it is Cocoa or Carbon related I do the following until I have an answer:
1) I search with google or directly at developer.apple.com (a broad search
gets hits at apple too.)
2) I use MTLibrarian on the local copies of documentation.
3) I use Project Builders find feature
4) I would consult "Cocoa Programming" ISBN 0-672-32230-7 more often, but I
wrote a lot of it so I have the information already in my head ;)
5) I use cocoa.mamasam.com to search the mailing lists
If the question is not specifically about Cocoa or Carbon:
1) google with key words like BSD or UNIX or man. e.g. search for man random
get this hit on google
http://www.hmug.org/man/4/urandom.html
It is nice to see the actual Darwin man page ;)
2) I use man -k which finds man pages that include the word specified. This
is also known as the apropos command.
3) I consult one of the many programming books I own
4) I check relevant company web sites. For example, I looked up the SVG spec
today from w3.
Philosophically, if you are a Carbon programmer, you should be able to find
everything you need in Carbon. Carbon is supposedly self sufficient since it
was once the ONLY set of APIs available (Mac OS < X). Cocoa is a bit
different because all versions of Cocoa and its ancestors have existed in an
environment where relatively standard UNIX APIs were available. Cocoa
programmers have always had the ability to drop down to Unix APIs for a few
things. Therefore, historically, all Cocoa programmers have also been Unix
programmers who know common functions like random() or rand() and quickly
learned how to use man pages.
NeXT and Apple used to provide an excellent application called
DigitalLibrarian. This application could search indexed online
documentation as well as man pages and your own personal files. I miss
DigitalLibrarian for its speed, flexibility,... MTLibrarian is an attempt
to copy DigitalLibrarian, but it isn't quite all there yet :(
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