[parallax]

Hello everyone!

Can someone tell me how I should continue learning OS X dev stuff?

I have the dev tools, and have built a few Carbon apps in C (Sillyballs-esque stuff), but I'm wondering if Cocoa is more worth it.

Is it? I've seen a bit of Objective-C code and it looks too OOP for me.
Is it at all possible to code Cocoa in normal C?
Will Cocoa start to gain more development? Or is Carbon going to stay for a while?

Also, how can I use IB to create apps? Is there documentation for all of the nib functions?

[parallax]

Could someone help me with this please?

[ali]

Originally posted by parallax:
Hello everyone!

Can someone tell me how I should continue learning OS X dev stuff?

I have the dev tools, and have built a few Carbon apps in C (Sillyballs-esque stuff), but I'm wondering if Cocoa is more worth it.

Is it? I've seen a bit of Objective-C code and it looks too OOP for me.
Is it at all possible to code Cocoa in normal C?
Will Cocoa start to gain more development? Or is Carbon going to stay for a while?

Also, how can I use IB to create apps? Is there documentation for all of the nib functions?

Objective-C is a small superset of C, a much smaller superset than C++. It adds a little bit of syntax in order to allow you to declare classes, and adds the message sending syntax: [obj someMessage:arg] is really like obj->someMessage(arg). Other than that an Objective-C program is really a C program.

The object-oriented nature of Cocoa provides you with a high level abstractions and a lot of the functionality that most apps need; this means your apps are smaller and leverage the system a lot more. So for Mac OS X only apps, or Mac OS X-only sections of cross-platform apps, Cocoa is a great choice.

Cocoa is an integral part of Mac OS X (many apps on the system are Cocoa); and judging from the increasing interest in this and other mailing lists, many developers are looking at it. There are some third-party Cocoa applications out there already available for Mac OS X (and Mac OS X Server).

You can find Cocoa docs both on your system and on http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/...oaTopics.html. The latter might be more uptodate as the docs are actively being updated. There is also a tutorial or two there.

Some additional Cocoa examples are also available on your machine, in /Developer/Examples/AppKit and /Developer/Examples/Foundation.

The OmniGroup developer mailing list (http://www.omnigroup.com/community/d...sts/macosx-dev) is also a good resource for both advanced and beginner Mac OS X developers.

Ali

[This message has been edited by ali (edited 11-01-2000).]

[This message has been edited by ali (edited 11-01-2000).]

[gabrielf]

If you want you can also do Cocoa programming in Java if you like that language better. There is a tutorial on the webpage Ali mentioned that goes through the steps in making a small Cocoa program in Java.

/Gabbe

[michaelb]

Also check out Apple's recently posted "SimpleCocoaApp" which is a very small but fully functional sample program intended to familiarize newcomers to the process of writing software in Cocoa.
http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn2005.html

Fully documented by the Apple team, and you can pull the working project to pieces in Project Builder and Interface Builder to learn how things are done.

Excellent first time introduction to the Cocoa environment.

I too am a Cocoa virgin. Coming from a PowerPlant background, it is very interesting to see the parallels between Metrowerks Constructor and Interface Builder.

[parallax]

Thanks all!