@neuro: great tut Scott, but again it is too advanced to me
Thanks, though this wasn't really intended as a tutorial. It was mainly a demo of how Core Animation can be helpful for this sort of thing, and I just tossed in a few details about how the effect was done.
i loved it for quite some time until you skipped things all the way to the advanced issues i.e quartz and screen savers
It's a massive task to create a complete set of tutorials that takes somebody from zero desktop programming experience to accomplished Mac programmer. It's complicated by the fact that the tools and frameworks are constantly changing, and need to be updated on a regular basis (which takes time away from writing new material, and vice versa).
The time to create one of the tutorials on Cocoa Dev Central is usally about one-to-three weeks, depending on the complexity of the topic. There are tons of iterations before the finished product is delivered. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out which parts can be cut, which things need to be added, how I can reorganize the thing so it flows more cleanly. Even though the final result may seem pretty simple to read, it's generally a lot of work to get it to that point.
Now I really enjoy doing it, so it's not a matter of desire. The thing is that even with donations, it doesn't come close to providing a reasonable income. So it's not something I can do all the time. So instead of writing a complete series, I try to pick the topics that I think will be most helpful to programmers right now. I also try to provide a mix of beginner and more advanced material.
In other words, it's not just absolute beginners that need help. There are accomplished, veteran programmers that are looking for tutorials on Cocoa as well.
so how did you become a mac developer yourself?
I learned Java first, using Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java. That book helped cement the object-oriented concepts for me. After that, I read Aaron Hillegass's Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X, then starting working on a Cocoa project. I learned C somewhere in there as well, but I don't remember when exactly.
It certainly helped me to have access to other Cocoa programmers here in Cupertino, but that was before internet-based Cocoa mailing lists, forums, and blogs had really taken off. I think StepWise was the only big one around then.
by Scott Stevenson — Sep 05
Thanks, though this wasn't really intended as a tutorial. It was mainly a demo of how Core Animation can be helpful for this sort of thing, and I just tossed in a few details about how the effect was done.
i loved it for quite some time until you skipped things all the way to the advanced issues i.e quartz and screen savers
It's a massive task to create a complete set of tutorials that takes somebody from zero desktop programming experience to accomplished Mac programmer. It's complicated by the fact that the tools and frameworks are constantly changing, and need to be updated on a regular basis (which takes time away from writing new material, and vice versa).
The time to create one of the tutorials on Cocoa Dev Central is usally about one-to-three weeks, depending on the complexity of the topic. There are tons of iterations before the finished product is delivered. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out which parts can be cut, which things need to be added, how I can reorganize the thing so it flows more cleanly. Even though the final result may seem pretty simple to read, it's generally a lot of work to get it to that point.
Now I really enjoy doing it, so it's not a matter of desire. The thing is that even with donations, it doesn't come close to providing a reasonable income. So it's not something I can do all the time. So instead of writing a complete series, I try to pick the topics that I think will be most helpful to programmers right now. I also try to provide a mix of beginner and more advanced material.
In other words, it's not just absolute beginners that need help. There are accomplished, veteran programmers that are looking for tutorials on Cocoa as well.
so how did you become a mac developer yourself?
I learned Java first, using Bruce Eckel's Thinking in Java. That book helped cement the object-oriented concepts for me. After that, I read Aaron Hillegass's Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X, then starting working on a Cocoa project. I learned C somewhere in there as well, but I don't remember when exactly.
It certainly helped me to have access to other Cocoa programmers here in Cupertino, but that was before internet-based Cocoa mailing lists, forums, and blogs had really taken off. I think StepWise was the only big one around then.