How to use Xcode Developer Document to find answers
How to use Xcode Developer Document to find answers
- Subject: How to use Xcode Developer Document to find answers
- From: Steve Evangelou <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 20:36:52 -0800
Phil,
You might also try searching for "getting started" in "Full-Text
Search" mode. This will turn up introductory material for dozens of
Apple technologies. A Getting Started document provides an overview
of its technology and will help you find available conceptual,
reference, and tutorial documentation.
Or by typing "tutorial" you can find tutorials directly, though as
mentioned in the previous response, these are not comprehensive.
Steve
On Mar 18, 2006, at 12:06 PM, email@hidden wrote:
Message: 4
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2006 08:34:50 -0700
From: James Bucanek <email@hidden>
Subject: Re: Xcode Newbie - How to use Xcode Developer Document to
find answers
To: Phil Faber <email@hidden>
Cc: email@hidden
Message-ID:
<r02010500-1045-BD8B5242B69411DA86BB000A959D1544@[10.0.1.5]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Phil Faber wrote on Saturday, March 18, 2006:
I'm new to software development but have been an avid Apple/Mac user
since ... well since the Apple ][ !!
It seems to me that Xcode's built-in documentation probably answers
most questions. Except one: How to use it effectively!?
For example, I've created a simple window with a box to enter data
into and a button to process that data; if I want to work out how to
display a simple dialog box once the data has been processed (i.e.
"Are you sure you want to delete this? [Yes] [No]"), how can I look
up how to achieve this using the documentation?
In this example, I tried entering 'dialog' in the 'API Search' and
the 'Full Text Search' and received a great deal of information but
as a beginner, most of it means nothing to me. All I'm after is the
coding (presumably only a one-liner).
Can anyone advise how to use the documentation to look up relatively
simply stuff like this?
Welcome Phil,
Let me start with the technical part of your question.
In "API Search" mode, search terms are matched instantly against
the programming interfaces you have selected in the Preferences.
Thus, if you're programming in Cocoa then you would probably want
to limit your searches to the Cocoa (and possibly C) interface.
Start typing the name of a class, type, method, constant, etc. and
links to the matching API documentation will instantly appear in
the "hits" table at the top of the window. Any selection that
you've made in Search Groups is ignored in API search mode.
"Full-Text Search" mode is completely different, almost the
opposite of, "API Search" mode. A text search searches the text of
the group or groups you have selected in the Search Groups. You can
perform complex boolean searches that include conditionals and
quotes, such as "alert (dialog | sheet)" which would search or all
article containing the word "alert" and either of the words
"dialog" or "sheet".
The more pressing question is how to effectively find what you want
to know. This is particularly difficult in the beginning because
you can't know where to start looking if you don't know what you're
looking for. Even after decades of programming, I have found myself
stymied by this very conundrum.
The key to remember is that Apple produces, for the most part,
_reference_ documentation. While there are some very good
introductions to Cocoa and such, most of Apple's documentation is
just that: documentation. It documents exactly how things work. It
is not (generally) intended to be instructional or tutorial.
When looking for an introduction or an overview to a particular
technology, browse or search (using Full-Text Search) the articles
in Reference Library groups. Narrow your search to the particular
technology group (i.e. Carbon, Cocoa, Quicktime, etc.) that you are
focused on.
When looking for a specific function call or class, use the API
search. This is also available interactively in your source code by
holding down the Option key while double-clicking on a symbol name.
However, these are only useful if you already have some idea of
what you're looking for. The grey area of the documentation -- any,
not just Apple's -- is the "how do I" questions. These are not
going to be easily answered in the documentation. What you need is
a good tutorial, which takes you step-by-step through the process
of building an application, putting up a dialog, and so forth. You
need a guide that gives you a high-level overview of the landscape
so you can get your bearings. For this I would strongly suggest
that you look for an introductory book to Cocoa (or Carbon) and
start your inquiries there. Once you have a direction, then turn to
Apple's documentation for additional details.
And if you're still stuck, make use of the various forums (Cocoa-
Dev, Carbon-Dev, ...). If you're just starting out, it doesn't
matter what direction you want to go in; it's highly likely that
someone else has already gone down that road before you.
James Bucanek
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