CharCounter a simple, mostly useless app released by me

[GeeYouEye]

CharCounter: a mostly useless app, written by me. Availible here (http://homepage.mac.com/danhd123/software.html).

[macfreek57]

that's cool
I can appreciate that as I am trying to write code in cocoa and have yet to succeed! of course I've only been trying for a little while and I am teaching myself.
did you write it with Apple's developer tools? that's what I'm using.

[GeeYouEye]

Originally posted by macfreek57
that's cool
I can appreciate that as I am trying to write code in cocoa and have yet to succeed! of course I've only been trying for a little while and I am teaching myself.
did you write it with Apple's developer tools? that's what I'm using.

Yep, Xcode and Interface Builder. The trick that few tutorials except some books leave out is: build the interface first and define the actions through Interface Builder.

[wdlove]

Originally posted by GeeYouEye
CharCounter: a mostly useless app, written by me. Availible here (http://homepage.mac.com/danhd123/software.html).

You shouldn't sell yourself short. You were successful you your attempt. I downloaded your program. Will take it for a spin as soon as I upgrade to X. Is this your 1st attempt? :)

[Catfish_Man]

Originally posted by macfreek57
that's cool
I can appreciate that as I am trying to write code in cocoa and have yet to succeed! of course I've only been trying for a little while and I am teaching myself.
did you write it with Apple's developer tools? that's what I'm using.

I've found Apple's developer tools are a mixed bag. Interface Builder is fantastic (although I have a number of things I'd like improved), but Project Builder/XCode isn't so great. XCode 1.1 is a lot better than the previous version though. If you're running into Cocoa problems IM me (catfishman42), I might be able to help you out.

[mj_1903]

I actually think that XCode is a very good IDE for development, especially for Cocoa. Saying this of course, I don't use advanced features of it like code completion simply because I have memorized 90% of AppKit and Foundation.

As for Cocoa development, congrats on your release. Every piece of software, no matter how simple, is a good thing for the Mac community, just keep it up.

Mat

[drewIP]

Yes, you've proven that you can create a program, but that program practically only needs one line of actual code. Something like [myTextField2 setIntValue:[[myTextField stringValue] length]]; I recommend just doing more. It will give you better ideas of what people want and give you a good place to start other programs.

[beatle888]

heres an icon. if you use it, just mention my brilliance.

thanks

[GeeYouEye]

Originally posted by drewIP
Yes, you've proven that you can create a program, but that program practically only needs one line of actual code. Something like [myTextField2 setIntValue:[[myTextField stringValue] length]]; I recommend just doing more. It will give you better ideas of what people want and give you a good place to start other programs.

True, but a) I didn't do only that (source code available if you want it, just PM me an email address and I'll send it), b) any C programmer remotely familiar with messeging syntax would realize that would be the way to do it, and c) there's the rest of the infrastructure to build, and besides, the way I built it leaves plenty of perfectly reusable code fragments. That, if it were teh only thing necessary, would not. Oh, and d) I am starting to write other programs - right now I'm working on a time billing program (a non-FileMaker database app that will actually generate invoices as appropriate), and looking into writing a word processor (why, with Word, TextEdit and Mellel? Because (hopefully) I can). But in the meantime, as I learn more about Cocoa, I'll probably write and release a few more small proof-of-concept apps like CharCounter.

beetle888: love the icon. do you have something i can use without the white square?

mj_1903: i find code completion to be absolutely great, not only for looking up obscure messages, but for completing your own code; long variables name completion in particular (ex: BOOL patientConditionWasResultOfInjury) saves me a second or two each time since I only have to hit tab.

[beatle888]

i can email you the adobe illustrator 10.0 file if you'd like. otherwise i'll send it to you as a photoshop file.

p.s. once you have the actual file you'll see that you can put the logo on any color background....glad you liked it.

happy holidays

[mj_1903]

mj_1903: i find code completion to be absolutely great, not only for looking up obscure messages, but for completing your own code; long variables name completion in particular (ex: BOOL patientConditionWasResultOfInjury) saves me a second or two each time since I only have to hit tab. [/B]

Call me old fashioned, but Apple just didn't implement it very well (in Xcode 1.0) and yeah I know it works better in 1.1 but still not well enough.

When Apple manage to get it working with no lag, I might switch, but for now I won't.

And that is a massive BOOL you have happening there. Most of my variables are 5-10 characters.

[GeeYouEye]

Originally posted by mj_1903
Call me old fashioned, but Apple just didn't implement it very well (in Xcode 1.0) and yeah I know it works better in 1.1 but still not well enough.

When Apple manage to get it working with no lag, I might switch, but for now I won't.

And that is a massive BOOL you have happening there. Most of my variables are 5-10 characters. Yeah I know, but there's no way (in this particular app) to avoid several large variables. Fortunately, I only need to type it less than a dozen times for this program as it only has bearing on a checkbox and printing.

[GeeYouEye]

Originally posted by beatle888
i can email you the adobe illustrator 10.0 file if you'd like. otherwise i'll send it to you as a photoshop file.

p.s. once you have the actual file you'll see that you can put the logo on any color background....glad you liked it.

happy holidays

Great. The Photoshop file would be better; I don't have Illustrator.

[johnnowak]

Wow... a whole program around strlen(). Fantastic!

Just a tip man.. we all start out with programs like this. However most of us have the common sense not to subject the public to them. ;-)

main() {
// get text
printf("%d", strlen(text));
return 0;
}

[g30ffr3y]

Just a tip man.. we all start out with programs like this. However most of us have the common sense not to subject the public to them. ;-)


geeyoueye is just proud of his/her program... every baby starts off as a crying pile of mucus but everybody wants to show off their kid... i wish i could do programming...

anyhow... congrats... keep going with it...

[beatle888]

I cant post a psd file here and dropstuff wont let me create a zip compressed file.
if you give me your email i'll send it off sometime today.

keep up the good work.

beatle


edit: just found out 10.3 creates .zip files however its still to large to upload here at macrumros (234kb). i'll still have to email it to you.

[mj_1903]

Originally posted by johnnowak
main() {
// get text
printf("%d", strlen(text));
return 0;
}

But then you don't have a gui. I much prefer a simple object manipulation, even if it is to the command line:

- (IBAction)performLength:(id)sender
{
NSLog(@"%d", [[string stringValue] length]);
}

As that has a gui. Of course, you could manipulate the NSString into a cstring and get its length via strlen(), but that's just added complexity that NSString gives you for free.

Of course, the above needs Mac OS X so its a little reliant on one platform, but there is always gnustep.

[GeeYouEye]

Originally posted by beatle888
I cant post a psd file here and dropstuff wont let me create a zip compressed file.
if you give me your email i'll send it off sometime today.

keep up the good work.

beatle


edit: just found out 10.3 creates .zip files however its still to large to upload here at macrumros (234kb). i'll still have to email it to you.

danhd123 AT mac DOT com

[GeeYouEye]

Originally posted by johnnowak
Wow... a whole program around strlen(). Fantastic!

Just a tip man.. we all start out with programs like this. However most of us have the common sense not to subject the public to them. ;-)

main() {
// get text
printf("%d", strlen(text));
return 0;
}

You may have a point, but then this isn't my first program; I've done a bunch of C++ programs a lot more complex than this, but they were all CLI, and Carbon is one thing I don't want to have to learn. Cocoa is so much more elegant, even than C++ without any GUI.

To be more specific, this is my first Cocoa program that does anything remotely useful, that actually works reliably.

[johnnowak]

Originally posted by mj_1903
But then you don't have a gui. I much prefer a simple object manipulation, even if it is to the command line:

- (IBAction)performLength:(id)sender
{
NSLog(@"%d", [[string stringValue] length]);
}

Of course, the above needs Mac OS X so its a little reliant on one platform, but there is always gnustep.

I fail to see how that's simple compared to my example. ;-) Then again I favor procedural code over object-oriented code in most circumstances.

As for gnustep, what's the deal with that anyway? How far along is it? Is it really viable at this point? Is it a possible alternative to X?

[hvfsl]

I find Real Basic easier to use (as a programming language) as I learnt Visual Basic on the PC a few years ago now. Although the best I can do are programs that do things like work out your taxes.