Justin Carmony » iPhone SDK

Goal for 2011: Learn C

Justin Carmony — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 02:09:53 +0000

I feel this is one area of my computer science education that is rather weak. The years I spent in schooling learning C, C++, or another derivative, either my teachers / professors really didn’t teach it well, or were only around of half a semester. Truly, computer science teachers when I was in school were the “professor of defense against the dark arts,” as they were always changing, even mid semester.

Also, I’ve never had a very strong need to learn C. Almost all of my work is web based, and so traditional LAMP skills were more than enough. However, things are changing in the industry, and there are a few reasons why I want to polish up on my C and re-learn it.

First off, there are a lot of new, cool technologies coming out for web development. The whole NoSQL concept and the different solutions for it are being written in C based languages. Even after all these years, many are being written in C. Now, I doubt I would be willing to write my own NoSQL solution when there are great ones out there, but I would love to contribute bug fixes, or be able to read and understand on a lower level how they work.

Second, I’ve been cautious or nervous compiling my own binaries on Linux. Almost always, if a new PHP release came out, I would want to wait for my distribution to release and update. Sometimes, that can be months, and even years. By learning C and learning more how it works, I hope to be able to compile my own binaries when needed, and not feel so hopeless if something breaks.

Third, PHP is written in C. There have been times where I’ve wondered exactly how a specific function or worked, or have found a bug I would love to submit a fix for. Its amazing how large the PHP community is, and yet how few contribute to help. I would love to become a code contributer, and learning C is a prerequisite definitely. Also, with web development and PHP, sometimes certain tasks could be performed much quicker when compiled, such as the score generation system for Dating DNA. It would be great if I could generate millions of compatibility scores at a C level, instead of just in PHP.

Fourth, is iPhone development is not going anywhere but up. We pay the bills and more with our iPhone sales for Dating DNA and Clipish, and having the option to do some iPhone Development when needed would be great. Granted, iPhone Development is done in Obj-C 2.0, but when I first tried iPhone development, almost every single one of my problems were from a fundamental lack of understanding on how Obj-C 2.0 worked. A better of understanding of C would help me greatly in this.

Firth, it would just be good to learn. Even if I don’t use it a lot, learning the programming language that is used by so many of my tools would be great. So, along side my posts on Redis, PHP, and web service development, you might be seeing on beginner information on Learning C.

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iPhone SDK 2.1 – Another NDA

Justin Carmony — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 06:24:20 +0000

Until Apple change’s their attitude and policies, they will never be a Microsoft, Sun, or other monolithic technology company. Why? Their NDA on the new iPhone SDK 2.1 hinders developers seriously. They are so tight lipped about everything and are such control freaks that they will never replace Microsoft. If someone asked me today if I could magically snap my fingers and have Apple replace Microsoft, I would say “hell no.” Using their Laptops and Phones is one thing. Developing blindly with nothing but half-baked documentation and a NDA shoved down my throat is another beast.

I don’t have time to describe every little detail as to why Apple is absolutely retarded about prohibiting developers from collaborating with each other. We endured it while the iPhone 2.0 wasn’t out, but if Apple can’t trust anyone, they are in the wrong business. Maybe one day I’ll rant some more, but until I want to waste some time on complaining about Apple, I think I’ll just let everyone else do it to. I just wanted to throw in my two cents that I’m frustrated with Apple.

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Alright, an iPhone App that is definitly going te cause horror stories: Friend Book

Justin Carmony — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:22:40 +0000

… Is it me or is this idea just bad:

http://lifehacker.com/398228/friend-book-to-beam-your-iphones-contact-data-with-a-shake

Here is an except about what Friend Book does:

The coolest feature without a doubt is the new “Handshake”: put two iPhones running Friend Book together, shake them up and down, and the personal contact information of the phones’ owners will be beamed through the net to the paired phones. Handshake doesn’t work through a device-to-device connection, but instead passes location data back to Tapulous’ servers – two shaking phones in the same location means it’s time to swap information.

Okay….. is it just me, or is this idea just bad? If I see to people shaking their phones together, I can shake mine too and see if I can’t leach of a few contacts. No to mention “Wii” syndrom where iPhones will be flying out of people’s hands. I’m sorry, but this “feature” seems just crazy to me.

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_CGRectZero Error with UITableViewCell

Justin Carmony — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:06:11 +0000

Preface

If you haven’t agreed to the iPhone SDK License Agreement and NDA, please ignore this post, or Apple might hunt you down with their lawyers… and what a horrible death that would be.

Problem

I keep getting a build error when trying to subclass the UITableViewCell

Solution

Add the CoreGraphics.framework to your project

Resource

Found my answer at the MacRumors forums.

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iPhone SDK – Learning the Basics by Removing the Touch

Justin Carmony — Wed, 21 May 2008 03:12:28 +0000

After looking around for tutorials on the iPhone SDK, I’ve come to a revolutionary idea on learning the iPhone SDK: Learn it by programming in something else.

The iPhone SDK, which is basically Cocoa Touch, is based of the Cocoa framework, which is used to make programs for the Mac OSX. While the documentation for the iPhone SDK is limited, and outside resources are non-existent, information for the regular Cocoa framework is very large. There are tons of books, tutorials, videos, etc.

Many iPhone developers are experiencing Objective-C, XCode, Interface Builder, etc. for the first time. Most of us have backgrounds in web design, java, C#, Visual Studio, etc. Many of us have never, ever programmed for a Mac before. Due to the iPhone breaking the barriers of cell phones, many new developers are entering into a Mac world. My work bought a MacBook Pro for me to use for making an iPhone application.

My suggestion is to try making simple Cocoa applications. Get a good book that helps walk through the ideas of programming, I’ve been using Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X. Learning how to use Cocoa will teach you the same principles such as:

Using Objective-C
Familiarity using the basics of Interface Builder.
Using Apple Frameworks, such as Cocoa.
Using Xcode
And much more!

Hopefully I’ll be able to post more on my experience without breaking any NDAs…..

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iPhone SDK DNA – A Frustrating Issue

Justin Carmony — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:16:06 +0000

I’ve been searching all over the internet for good resources on the iPhone SDK and tutorials. I know that many times that an SDK can sometimes be a little much to take in, and that it’s documentation usually is too comprehensive for simple tutorials. It also is very important to have 3rd party tutorials for places where documentation is thin.

The documentation on how to use the iPhone Interface Builder is non-existent on apple’s site, so I searched on the internet for some insight. I found links to several tutorials, but each tutorial listed something like the following:

I’m sorry, but I didn’t realize I was under NDA, so I’ve removed this tutorial.

I checked the agreement, and sure enough, there is a little mini “NDA” stating iPhone SDK developers are not allowed discuss things about the SDK in public. Now I can understand why, they don’t want companies like Microsoft, Nokia, etc. gaining access to the SDK’s details without having to agree to the NDA.

But where am I suppose to get help and collaborate with the iPhone SDK when the documentation is unclear? Or I need other examples? If Apple had a collaborative website for the ADC members, with forums, wiki, etc, this wouldn’t be a problem, because every person on the website would have agreed to the NDA. But no, I’m left with nothing but the Apple public forums, which really doesn’t do the trick.

So, I’m glad Apple has successfully stifled the collaborative efforts of developers, at least legally anyways.

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iPhone SDK release on March 6th?

Justin Carmony — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:01:37 +0000

According to Information Week the iPhone SDK will be released March 6th. It seems a full blown event is happening, so I doubt we’ll have to worry about it being pushed back. However from their news post it seems applications have to be approved. Will there be a way to get apps without having Apple’s consent? I hope so. I’m tired off my applications, PCs, and devices treating me like I’m a 4 year-old. Yes, I understand the general populous will download, install, infect, and destroy any of their devices while the whole time saying “what? what happened?”

But I am not that way. I am a developer who understands viruses and using trusted applications. I don’t need Apple to babysit me. Hopefully they will allow you to get non-approved apple programs, becuase you never know what Apple might censor as a “non-approved” item. (VoIP, etc)

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