Re: Rethinking my approach; rather overwhelmed.
Re: Rethinking my approach; rather overwhelmed.
- Subject: Re: Rethinking my approach; rather overwhelmed.
- From: "Scott Ellsworth" <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:08:21 -0700
On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 10:52 AM, Josh de Lioncourt
<email@hidden> wrote:
> Thanks for the advice. Being visually impaired, I haven't been able to find
> *ANY* up-to-date Cocoa/Objective C books in an accessible format. I have a
> couple of books that were written around 2002-ish, but have been hesitant to
> delve into those before being able to determine how much of what they teach
> is no longer applicable. The other drawback to these books is they rely
> heavily on Interface Builder, which Apple hasn't yet made accessible with
> their VoiceOver technology. That shuts me out of GUI development with IB,
> forcing me to rely on using code for what little GUI I do need, something
> not covered in these books either. I do have some sample code for building
> a GUI, and I plan to draw from it, but seems exceptionally complex.
That makes life a lot more complex - IB is the 'main line' of most mac
app development, so not being able to use it will make things harder.
For what it is worth, though, I really would try to learn ObjC and
Cocoa for your UI. That UI may very quickly call back to your cross
platform C++ code, but ObjC is in your future if you want to deliver a
good mac app. The language is not that hard, really, so you will
spend most of your time learning the Cocoa APIs.
There are Ruby, Python, and Perl bindings for ObjC, but based on
hallway conversations with people using those, you will still need to
be able to understand the ObjC core language to figure out Apple's
sample code. The leg up these other bindings give you will be
somewhat reduced if you do not already know the appropriate language
well.
You might want to contact Apple's Developer Relations group to see if
they have any suggestions. They certainly do not want to become known
as an impairment-hostile company, given how much effort they put into
accessibility in the OS itself.
> As you can see, I have a multitude of obstacles to work through. :)
>
> And, you know, if anyone is out there who would like to take me under their
> wing for a few days off list and try to get me up to speed, I'd not object.
> LOL.
You might want to contact Aaron Hillegas of Big Nerd Ranch, to see if
he has ever run his Cocoa training class with someone with similar
accessibility needs. The training is not cheap, but it is incredibly
valuable. Aaron is a wonderful teacher, according to the half dozen
people I know personally who have taken his course. He is also a
great guy on a personal level.
> Thanks again to all who have been very helpful so far.
>
> Josh de Lioncourt
>
> ...my other mail provider is an owl...
>
>
>
> On Jun 17, 2008, at 10:24 AM, Rush Manbert wrote:
>
>> Hi Josh,
>>
>> Just my opinion, but I have written cross-platform apps recently. Your
>> approach sounds basically good. Use the Boost libraries as much as you can
>> in your C++ code because they are cross platform, and may help you avoid
>> implementing certain things (filesystem stuff, for instance) separately on
>> each platform. Define a very clear API for your C++ code that will be used
>> by the native code on each platform. (It helps to think of your C++ code as
>> a library that you link against on each platform.)
>>
>> For the Mac side, get "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X" by Aaron Hillegass.
>> I assume there is a current version that corresponds with Xcode 3. You will
>> need this because the way the GUI part of a Mac app is put together is
>> frankly difficult to get your head around when you're new at it. Learn
>> Objective-C. It's not hard, given your background, and you really do want to
>> use the native tools to build your GUI, even if it's simple (and Cocoa is
>> really very cool). I also use it to build an adapter between my C++ API and
>> my Obj-C app code.
>>
>> If all you need is a command line app, then just use C++ and treat the OS
>> like the Unix system that it (mostly) is. Works great.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Rush
>
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