Cocoa

I would have preferred a Cocoa introduction screen to be something more like:

Link 1: Cocoa Quick Start: Hello World!

Link 2: History: C functions vs. Cocoa Objects (Hello World! as Cocoa C document)

Link 3: Frameworks, Objects, Methods and Messaging

Link 4: Foundation Framework Reference Page

Link 5: Application Kit Framework Reference Page

Link 6: Hello World! as Document-based Cocoa application

Link 7: AppendixA: Common Resources for Developers

Link 8: AppendixB: Naming Conventions

Link 9: AppendixC: Distributing New Classes

Link 10: AppendixD: Distributing New Applications

Cocoa is radically different to me than what my limited experience with introductory programming was or is with the old Apple IIe BASIC, assembly, or C. With those languages and environments, you start out as an individual thinking about how to set out the framework for what you want to do in terms of variables, operations, input and output.

With this, you have to accept that everything is already in place, and the planning is about moving the parts around and finding out what they already 'know', maybe changing what they 'think', but not at all like imposing your own thought and planning process on the design.

I'm sure many of the apps out there are written by teens who haven't graduated high school yet. I think there is still enormous potential for Cocoa to advance on the original Apple dream of making the most advanced computer technology available to everyman's fingertips.

I'm still in awe about FCS and Motion/Color, etc, but the access to the Cocoa frameworks is beginning to overwhelm that in terms of admiration for the Apple legacy.

The situation is remarkably like media production. The education, expertise, expense and time for professional quality production has dropped phenomenally. It still takes a highly organized, multi-faceted team for a large production involving great writing, many special effects, on site filming and lighting, etc. But a full-scale production is well within the reach of an average group of teenagers. A short production with complete and total professional capabilit (like a commercial, web-format media, or mini-internet episode) is well within the reach of the average individual.

The same is true with this, it's just more technical and therefore slower to develop. For both sets of technologies, Apple has been the leader. They also have in common the slower rate of change in the technological decvelopment, which means growth not as much through technological development, but more through expanding the use of what's already available.

On the other hand, my specific reason for getting involved with this is to develop a somewhat extensive platform that will actually unleash a new form of interacting with the technological capabilities that we now have available. So I hope I can learn enough quickly enough to get the vision off the ground.

I say 'Apple is the Leader' in the present-tense, and with respect to reaching a mass market with tools and capabilities that would otherwise be out of reach for most people. It doesn't mean much to be the leader that was.

Of all the people who have successfully made motion-type media content, or a scene-based home movie, or a small NSwindow application or script that does something useful for someone, I expect most owe the Apple sense of user interface and user experience to the otherwise unattainable success.

I'm already comfortable doing scripting and making small NSView/Data applications after only a few days.

That at least gives me some hope for making bigger dreams a reality, where there would have been none before (even though I still can't seem to figure out how to launch a window without using a nib file, etc).

This is an adjustment to the Apple MVC graphic. Additions like these would have helped me understand Cocoa

much easier, much sooner (especially if the additions were links to the actual files from a good example, like the Money Changer tutorial).

Here are the MVC files for the 'Currency Converter' Cocoa tutorial for beginners.