macOS Need help with some Xcoding

[Hallivand]

Hey all, I'm in the process of making an application for a school project but have run into a few stumbling blocks. First, heres what I'm trying to create:
View attachment 292442

I'm relatively new to Xcode (massive Keynote fanatic though) and I'm struggling to find ways to implement that design into a functioning application. I have "Cocoa Programming for OS X" and "Programming in Objective-C 2.0" and been reading them for a the past few weeks, to no avail. I understand some of the concepts, namely the interface, implementation and program sections of the main code but am lost in other aspects, such as positioning of specifics portion of code and such (as I see in other peoples coding).

Apparently I could start with the Quicktime Framework (I think...) and work a UI around that (I would also like to implement a slide out drawer so I can order a playlist in alphabetical order, etc to cover the requirement for an array/index search system) but thats as far as I've gone. (aside from piecing together the UI and doing some examples out of the textbooks)

So if anyone has any tips on how I could implement the app features I would appreciate it very very VERY much. Namely getting the song artists and playing bar/slide out drawers.

I have around three - four weeks to finish it, but with a wall of exams approaching pretty quickly I'd love to finish this asap so I can move to other things.

Much thanks in advance

EDIT: Nearly forgot about the video tab, the idea for that is to be just a Quicktime front end with the same controls at the bottom and top.

 

[jiminaus]

In don't want to discourage you. To the contrary, I want to encourage to persist with those two books and ask questions here as you need to.

But honestly, I don't think your going to be able to from start to finish in such a short time.

While the Objective-C language is easy enough, the Cocoa library is whole other story. The underlying principles like MVC and delegation will take time to sink in.

If I was your manager, I would allocate at least 2 months to this project, and actually plan for it taking more. That would be you working on it full-time and assuming you know how to program (but not in Objective-C and Cocoa).

 

[Hallivand]

Thanks for the honest response well I'm trying my best to push through, but I'm also looking at other options that would let me implement an array with a binary search or such. As long as that criteria is met, teacher is happy.

Any recommendation on what I could do in the limited space of time I got?

EDIT: Plus it doesn't help that no one else uses xcode around here >_>

 

[jiminaus]

Any recommendation on what I could do in the limited space of time I got?

What programming experience do you have?

 

[Hallivand]

Not too much, I can write simple command line apps calculating things that use the interface - implementation - program structure (i.e fractions, etc)

I admit I may have bit off more than I could chew, but what's done is done and just trying to see my options.

EDIT: This is for my HSC too >_<

 

[robbieduncan]

EDIT: Plus it doesn't help that no one else uses xcode around here >_>

You keep referring to XCode and "XCoding". XCode is just the IDE. It is not the programming language (or even linked in any way to the programming language) or API/Framework in use. You don't need to use XCode at all to write Mac software: you can use a text editor and command line compiler for example.

You are seeking help with Objective-C and Cocoa (language and framework). If you know C and an object oriented programming language (and are profficient in these rather than you've taken a class but never really used the knowledge) you can probably learn Objective-C in a couple of days then struggle through enough of Cocoa to get the job done in a couple of weeks to a month. If you can't already program it'll take you the entire time to learn that.

 

[jiminaus]

This is for my HSC too >_<

Forget about it. It's too much to risk your HSC (for others, HSC is the last year of high-school, whose results will determine University placement). Save the project for first-year Uni. Do the data structure project and do it well. Data-structures are fundamental skill and that project will let you cut your teeth on them and gain more experience with programming.

 

[Hallivand]

Forget about it. It's too much to risk your HSC (for others, HSC is the last year of high-school, whose results will determine University placement). Save the project for first-year Uni. Do the data structure project and do it well. Data-structures are fundamental skill and that project will let you cut your teeth on them and gain more experience with programming.

Thats the problem, the data structure has to be integrated into an application of ones own making. Considering we never learnt any programming in class (awesome education here...) we all pretty much got to fend for ourselves.

Though I admit I have left it a bit late, not sure what I can do now

 

[robbieduncan]

Considering we never learnt any programming in class (awesome education here...) we all pretty much got to fend for ourselves.

Then this is actually good preparation for University (or at least should be if you go on a real, non-watered down course). On my CS degree we were tough the overall theory and expected to learn languages on our own to actually complete the assignments.

Edit: the data structure one sounds simpler. Binary search is described here. Wrapping an array of data in an application to demonstrate this can be very simple: a window with a search field and a "display" for the data. User types in a search criteria and the application uses your binary search to find the item. The data could be anything. A simple example would be a library catalogue (list of books with authors etc attached)

 

[Hallivand]

Then this is actually good preparation for University (or at least should be if you go on a real, non-watered down course). On my CS degree we were tough the overall theory and expected to learn languages on our own to actually complete the assignments.

Thing is, I have no intentions of doing computers in University (political science or histories), so this is more of a subject filling anyway to have my 10 units for the HSC.

Always kicked myself for choosing it, but now we got this project and yeah. So due in three or four weeks (really got to check that) with not too much experience in Objective C / Cocoa.

I've spent the past few days (we're on school holidays now) just going over the books trying to see what I could suss out but haven't been able to piece together any ideas to take me through quickly.

 

[jiminaus]

Thing is, I have no intentions of doing computers in University (political science or histories), so this is more of a subject filling anyway to have my 10 units for the HSC.

Always kicked myself for choosing it, but now we got this project and yeah. So due in three or four weeks (really got to check that) with not too much experience in Objective C / Cocoa.

I've spent the past few days (we're on school holidays now) just going over the books trying to see what I could suss out but haven't been able to piece together any ideas to take me through quickly.

Get NetBeans, switch to Java, and to the library catalogue thing.

Netbeans: http://netbeans.org/
The Java Tutorials: http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/ (skip over What's new, start at Trails Covering the Basics)
Extensive Java Documentation: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/documentation/index.html

There's heaps of information out there on there on Java and including heaps of other online tutorials and videos.

(BTW If something/someone lets you to installed Java or the JDK, you don't have to with Mac OS X, both will be installed already).

 

[robbieduncan]

I've spent the past few days (we're on school holidays now) just going over the books trying to see what I could suss out but haven't been able to piece together any ideas to take me through quickly.

Unfortunately programming is not something you can rush into or skip the basics on. You have said you can do command-line stuff. Write an app that is command-line only that uses a binary search algorithm you implement to search a dataset.

 

[Hallivand]

Ah awesome cheers jiminaus, I'll see what I can hit up with this then.
As long as this all works on a G5 it should be good

Unfortunately programming is not something you can rush into or skip the basics on. You have said you can do command-line stuff. Write an app that is command-line only that uses a binary search algorithm you implement to search a dataset.

That's not a bad idea actually. I'll investigate Java and the command line options to see what I can do.