Re: cocoa app from scratch
Re: cocoa app from scratch
- Subject: Re: cocoa app from scratch
- From: Steve Sims <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 31 Jul 2004 16:49:47 -0400
Over the past few weeks many people wrote many things in this thread.
I can't be bothered to quote anything. :-)
I didn't read this thread when it first appeared on the list, but have
just caught up with it. I must say I find it incredulous to think that
anybody would contemplate generating their UI completely
programatically.
There are two big reasons that I wouldn't contemplate doing this:
1) It's *way* too much hard work
2) It's rather difficult to create a UI programatically that matches UI
guidelines and looks good
Now I have no big problem with programatically generated interfaces.
I've created a few of them myself in the past, although they weren't
completely programatically generated - just the parts that had to be
done that way. It's incredibly rare that a UI will need to be
completely generated by code so it makes sense to me to use the tools
available to make the static parts of the UI easier to build. Going
the complete programatic route just means much more coding.
It should be noted that IB can be used to help programatically generate
interfaces - you can drag views into nib file windows (the window with
the instances, classes, images, etc. tabs), not just the windows
contained within the nib. These views can then be edited as if they
were a complete window. Link that view to an outlet in a controller
object so you get a reference then at run-time you can copy it and use
addSubView to add it to a window. As other people have pointed out you
can also get IB to re-read header files of your custom views and
controllers.
The second point I made above is about UI guidelines, and IB does a
great job at helping you follow the rules. Controls snap to
appropriate positions, ensuring that they are spaced correctly. The
Option key is also your friend - once you have selected a view holding
the option key means that you'll see distances from the selected view
to the one your pointer is hovering over. It's not quite so easy
through coding alone to make the UI of a Mac application look like it
belongs on a Macintosh.
Steve
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