[iphone sdk] use view controllers in IB, or forget they exist?

I use the view controllers to better structure my IB stuff. I put the views inside their controllers that are of the correct user-defined classes. This way I can easily view in IB all the different links with outlets and actions, properly self-contained within a controller+view(s) group.

Similarly, I add an object in IB for every class that interacts with UI stuff so that I can link sources, outlets and actions on them properly (for example, a data source class for a table view).

Also let's say you want to build a navigation controller-based app. In IB it's very easy to set up the basic framework. Then you go in xcode and build up the functionality without having to generate all these things procedurally.

That said, doing everything procedurally is fine too.

You're getting there..

Things you put your nib (xib) file are real objects (a UITableView, a UIButton, etc). All objects which get archived (or serialized/saved) to a binary format for your app.

In your code, such as a ViewController, you have IBOutlet objects, which represent the elements in your nib. These are pointers to the objects in the nib file. So in your controller class, if you send a message to myTableView (which you defined in your ViewController .h file), then you really are sending the message to the UITableView in the nib.

Of course, in order for these to talk to each other, you must first link them up in IB. But that's the gist of it.