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blue-lion

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 26, 2010
50
0
Hi, i just can't seem to get a 'foot hold' in writing simple Apps . The problem is i'm not a complete beginner and am fairly proficient in objective c, but would like to do something more challenging than 'hello world' , but not something so difficult i become completely swamped.

However , i struggling with Xcode

First I start with Xcode 3 , start to learn it.. , don't fully understand XIB's but persevere anyway , then as i start to get to grips with that , then Xcode 4 comes along and the interface changes subtly and confuses me , then 4.2 and storyboarding....??


sometimes i think should just forget all 'aids to programming' and do everything programatically .


am i fool hardy ?,
 
You can do everything without xibs, but if you are serious about iOS development then you should learn how to use them, with or without storyboarding.
 
Don't worry. You are not alone. All of my pro work was built without XIBs. Some developers prefer doing that. It can be a perfectly reasonable approach. It actually comes in handy to be able to know more about how views are actually created and positioned. There are times when you are going to want to go in and manipulate things with code even if the whole view was created with XIBs.

There are some cases where using XIBs is handy. Be that as it may, more developers should at least have some basic experience creating things manually.
 
I've made apps with and without XIBs. The app I'm working on now is Storyboard based.

I think the XIBs and Storyboard are definitely helpful at writing neater code... a half dozen lines of code for just setting up one button becomes a drag and a drop with a few checkmark checks.

If you haven't learned XIBs or Storyboards yet, it might be better to just dive into Storyboards, I like this two part tutorial on them: http://www.raywenderlich.com/5138/beginning-storyboards-in-ios-5-part-1
 
There is so much support for storyboards and xibs that it's hard to justify not using them. You are better off going with the Apple way of doing things than going against it.

What about them is tripping you up? Have you checked out the iPhone courses on iTunes U or the WWDC videos? Once you "get" them it can really speed up UI layout.
 
Hi, i just can't seem to get a 'foot hold' in writing simple Apps . The problem is i'm not a complete beginner and am fairly proficient in objective c, but would like to do something more challenging than 'hello world' , but not something so difficult i become completely swamped.

However , i struggling with Xcode

First I start with Xcode 3 , start to learn it.. , don't fully understand XIB's but persevere anyway , then as i start to get to grips with that , then Xcode 4 comes along and the interface changes subtly and confuses me , then 4.2 and storyboarding....??


sometimes i think should just forget all 'aids to programming' and do everything programatically .


am i fool hardy ?,

No, it is possible to create apps without xibs. Most of what I write is xib-less. It's my preference and as long as the apps work and pass the Apple controls I see no point in changing my ways.
 
Just a warning about Storyboards: if you are writing apps that still need to run under iOS 4.x, you can't use Storyboards. They are an iOS-5-only feature.
 
Just a warning about Storyboards: if you are writing apps that still need to run under iOS 4.x, you can't use Storyboards. They are an iOS-5-only feature.

They have told me it should work iOS 4.3+
But I think I have been informed wrong, and a 100% correct answer would be awesome (so i can tell it to clients too..)
 
If you want to start with basic programatic software, try writing some plain C code, and run it from the Terminal command-line.

Or even simpler, get a cheap $30 Arduino kit, where even the input and output are simple 1-bit buttons and LEDs.

Those will show you the Basics of pure programming, stripped of all the GUIs, and sophisticated objects, and big hand-holding frameworks.

Used to be that one would learn this stuff using assembly language, but books with stuff such as beginning 6502 Asm for the Apple II are long out-of-print.
 
There is so much support for storyboards and xibs that it's hard to justify not using them. You are better off going with the Apple way of doing things than going against it.

What about them is tripping you up? Have you checked out the iPhone courses on iTunes U or the WWDC videos? Once you "get" them it can really speed up UI layout.

The biggest problem I have seen that XIBs cannot handle well (at all?) is when you have a view controller that needs to support two different layouts for portrait and landscape. You might have a portrait view that has one large view. The view shoots over to one side and a new view slides in when the user rotates to landscape. That sort of thing needs to be done with code. Laying out one orientation with code is usually easier when the opposite orientation is also laid out with code. That has been my experience. I thought it was easier.
 
The biggest problem I have seen that XIBs cannot handle well (at all?) is when you have a view controller that needs to support two different layouts for portrait and landscape. You might have a portrait view that has one large view. The view shoots over to one side and a new view slides in when the user rotates to landscape. That sort of thing needs to be done with code. Laying out one orientation with code is usually easier when the opposite orientation is also laid out with code. That has been my experience. I thought it was easier.

How does what you want to do differ from a UISplitView controller?
 
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