[Moderator] List Guidelines
[Moderator] List Guidelines
- Subject: [Moderator] List Guidelines
- From: CocoaDev Admins <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:56:19 -0400
iPhone SDK
----------
Until an announcement is made otherwise, developers should be aware
that the iPhone SDK is still under non-disclosure (section 5.3 of the
iPhone Development Agreement). It can't be discussed here, or anywhere
publicly. This includes other mailing lists, forums, services like
Twitter, and blogs. Violating the NDA will result in WWDR being
notified of the breach. Further action is at their (and legal's)
discretion.
The iPhone SDK situation is somewhat different than a Mac OS X release
in that a Mac OS X release includes a copy of the developer tools with
the distribution. The iPhone OS 2.0 release on devices and as an
upgrade does _not_ include the development tools. As a result, the SDK
is not automatically considered public because the release has occurred.
Section 5.3 of the iPhone Development Agreement remains in force at
this time, and will remain so until iPhone Developer Program members
are specifically and personally notified by an authorized
representative of Apple.
Xcode 3.1
---------
iPhone SDK requires Xcode 3.1 so it contains it (because it won't work
without it).
Xcode 3.1 is available indepently of the iPhone Developer Program and
its nondisclosure agreement, so it's available as a download
separately from the iPhone SDK,.
Whichever you choose, the Xcode build and installation is identical.
But you still can't discuss the iPhone SDK.
Questions about Xcode and Interface Builder are best addressed to the email@hidden
mailing list.
SnowLeopard NDA
===============
The SnowLeopard seed is under non-disclosure and can not be discussed
here.
Discussing Private API
======================
The discussion of Private API is also not appropriate for this list.
Using private API is strongly discouraged as it can (and often does)
change in future software revisions. If you feel some private API
should be made public contact WWDR directly or file a bug using
bugreporter.apple.com. Please do not advocate for those changes here,
it isn't effective.
Please stay on-topic
====================
There are currently more than 5000 subscribers to this list and
several hundred messages posted per day. In order to keep the list
useful please stay on topic and stick to technical discussion.
Cocoa-dev should not be the first place you turn when you encounter a
problem. First you should:
- Search the documentation in Xcode
- Remember to select the appropriate doc set and, if applicable,
turn on full text searching
- Search the list archives at apple.com or cocoabuilder.com
- Many questions have been asked repeatedly and good answers have
already been provided. Check the archives _every time_.
- Search Google
- There are many Cocoa developers who blog about their
experiences. This is a very useful resource.
- Ensure that this is actually Cocoa related.
- Basic C questions are not appropriate for this list.
If someone posts a message that is off-topic, please do not reply to
the list. You should contact the sender directly or alert a
moderator. If a moderator flags a thread (typically with [Moderator]
in the subject line), do not continue to post to that thread. Do feel
free to contact the list admins at email@hidden
with any issues.
If you post a message that is blatantly off-topic, you are liable to
be moderated.
While Apple engineers often subscribe to the list and answer
questions, they do so on a volunteer basis. This is not an official
support channel, and you should not expect an Apple engineer to
provide the answer. Instead contact <email@hidden> for technical
issues.
To file bugs use bugreporter at http://bugreporter.apple.com
Other mailing lists
===================
**** Other Apple mailing lists that may be relevant are listed at:
<http://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo>
in particular see:
Xcode-users: <http://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/xcode-users>
The Omni Group hosts a general Mac OS X developer list:
<http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/macosx-dev>
There is a Yahoo Group for discussion of business-related issues at:
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/macsb/>
List etiquette
==============
When you post a message, bear in mind that you are asking several
thousand people to listen to what you're saying. Please ensure that
you abide by the list rules:
<http://lists.apple.com/tc.html>
<http://lists.apple.com/tips.html>
In particular: please "Edit included messages in replies to
minimize the amount of text." There is no need, for example,
to include the list footer in your reply.
**** Before posting a question, please check the list archives (see
"Online resources" below) and try searching Google. Many questions
have been asked before and have already been answered.
**** When you ask a question, whenever possible please:
1. Describe what your high-level goal is
2. Include any relevant code
3. If appropriate, include URLs to screenshots
For more details, see:
<http://www.mikeash.com/getting_answers.html>
If you post a message to the list and do not get a reply, you should
not simply repost the message.
There may be reasons why no-one has answered, see the references
above.
If you want to send again, add more information or background, or
explain what further steps
you have taken in the interim to solve your problem.
Note that you should never post to the list any message that was
sent to you
privately unless you have the original author's permission.
Cocoa-related resources
=======================
Cocoa-related resources that may answer your question without the need
to wait for a reply from the list:
Apple's documentation
---------------------
The Cocoa Getting Started page.
If you haven't read any Cocoa documentation and want to learn
about
the technology, you should begin with this.
<http://developer.apple.com/referencelibrary/GettingStarted/GS_Cocoa/>
Main documentation links:
<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/>
<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Cocoa.html>
Apple produces several kinds of documentation. For an overview of how
to use the documentation, see:
<http://developer.apple.com/referencelibrary/usingreflib.html>
and
<http://developer.apple.com/macosx/newinreflibrary.html>
* Finding documentation
If you are not sure where to find documentation relevant to your
problem, a useful strategy is to go to the API reference for a
relevant class and look at its companion document. You can also
search the online documentation suite using the search field at the
top right of the page (see, for example, <http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/index.html
>). It is often a good idea to check the "Restrict to Cocoa" box.
If you need more precise search, you can use the Advanced Search panel
at <http://developer.apple.com/search/>.
Remember you can also view and search the documentation in Xcode --
see the "Help" menu. You can see all the methods associated with a
class (and links to relevant documentation) using Xcode's Class
Browser (see the Project > Class Browser menu item). In Xcode, you
can Option-double-click on a symbol to look it up in the
documentation, and you can Command-double-click on a symbol to go to
the header file in which it is declared.
* Keeping documentation up-to-date
You can keep your local documentation up-to-date by using the
Documentation update preference in Xcode. Apple's developer
documentation is updated en bloc about once a month. An update
package is made available at about the same time that updates are
published on the web site.
Code examples
-------------
Apple provides code samples in two places, on-disk (installed with the
developer tools) and online:
Developer examples
<file:///Developer/Examples/AppKit/>
ADC
<http://developer.apple.com/samplecode/>
Online resources
----------------
"UNOFFICIAL Cocoa-dev Frequently Asked Questions"
<http://www.alastairs-place.net/cocoa/faq.txt>
Especially useful for pointers to documents relating to memory
management
and book recommendations
List archives
<http://lists.apple.com/archives/cocoa-dev>
Combined Apple and Omni Cocoa developer list archives
<http://www.cocoabuilder.com/>
Cocoa-related sites
<http://www.cocoadev.com/>
<http://www.cocoadevcentral.com/>
<http://www.stepwise.com/>
Cocoa Bindings
<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/CocoaBindings/
>
<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/CocoaBindingsRef/
>
<http://developer.apple.com/cocoa/cocoabindings.html>
<http://homepage.mac.com/mmalc/CocoaExamples/controllers.html>
<http://www.cocoadevcentral.com/articles/000080.php>
<http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/04/06/cocoa.html>
Google
<http://www.google.com/>
(It is sometimes the case that using the subject line of a post as a
search term in
Google will yield an answer. If this is the case, you have probably
not invested sufficient
effort into finding an answer to your problem, and you are likely to
receive a reprimand.)
Memory management
-----------------
Developers are strongly discouraged from attempting to reformulate
Cocoa's memory management rules in posts to the list. Almost
invariably, someone makes a subtle or not-so-subtle mistake which then
results in confusion and additional messages to resolve the issue.
Simply post links to the relevant documentation, such as:
<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/MemoryMgmt/Tasks/MemoryManagementRules.html
>
Links to other reviewed articles that discuss memory management are
given in <http://www.alastairs-place.net/cocoa/faq.txt>
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