Re: Cocoa et al as HCI usability problem
Re: Cocoa et al as HCI usability problem
- Subject: Re: Cocoa et al as HCI usability problem
- From: Torsten Curdt <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 19 May 2008 02:04:28 +0200
On May 18, 2008, at 22:38, P Teeson wrote:
begin rant:
Oh me oh my the poor newcomers to Cocoa. Sorry folks back in the
days of 360 mainframes there were manuals and they were inscrutable.
But if you took the Winston Churchill aproach and spent some blood,
sweat, toil and tears you would probably become a 1/2 decent
assembler language programmer.
I see - ignorance is bliss :-p
I have been writing a LOT of assembler code the early days and have a
strong C and OOP background - it should be a piece of cake, right?
Well, and you know what - the basics are! When you just need reference
documentation - well, then you are OK as well. But there is A LOT to
cover in the middle where your "RTFM" just sound like mockery.
I think what we are seeing now is (or will is) that (probably also
because of the iPhone) Cocoa programming is becoming more popular.
Just looking around me... the number of people (I know) that know how
to write a Cocoa program is -let's not make a comparison- ...but it's
tiny! This is changing and ...like or not - more newbies will hit this
list. Period! People coming from the Java and the .Net world. A world
that has a LOT more coverage on the net.
When you come from that world. You find yourself asking questions like:
"Someone must have done this before! Nothing on the blogosphere? No
articles?"
"The mail sending API is deprecated in Leopard - without an
alternative? WTF!"
"People say XCode is great - they can't have worked with Eclipse/
Idea. Where are my refactoring tools??"
Of course I have also been asking question that ARE explained in
Apple's docs. Guilty as charged! But - well, I just did not find them!
Now I think everyone on this list is probably picky about good UI -
for a good reason. Using your app should preferably be possible
without reading a big manual. Actually that is also one of the best
goals when designing a framework or API. (Not saying Cocoa does not
fit this shoe!) ...but this also applies to documentation. Just saying
- I searched for things and didn't find them. Knowing that I am not
entirely stupid this could mean there is room for improvement.
Reacting like "I don't get you newbies - I can work with it just fine"
is like saying "What's do you mean by you 'would like to use the
mouse'? I am happy with the terminal". (That said I am a command line
guy :-o )
If so many voices say "it's hard" ...there might be at least some
truth in it. And this is not the normal "I learn a new language/
framework" thing. Good programming is hard - I think we all know that.
But that is really not the point here (I think).
Frankly speaking I hope this discussion will resolve itself after a
while. I personally have the feeling that cocoa resources on the net
are increasing. Also I have high hopes for learning a couple of things
during WWDC :) (see you there!)
That said: Sweat of not - I still like getting into it :) Maybe you
guys just have to cut us newbies some slack. Maybe we are just
spoiled ;)
cheers
--
Torsten
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