On 15 aug 2011, at 19:20, Richard Somers wrote: >> I wonder what the FinalCutPro and the rest of those apps guys do with all >> their custom UI. > > I have often wondered about that question myself. If you look inside the > Xcode bundle you will find a single nib file (MainMenu.nib). So it would > appear that the entire Xcode UI, except for the main menu, is > programmatically constructed. I have taken that to mean that despite what the > IB evangelists say, there is nothing wrong with doing a UI in code, custom or > otherwise. Am I missing something?
You are missing something - Xcode, like most Cocoa apps, uses nib files for the majority of its UI. You just haven't found where they're located yet... :-) That aside, here are my 2 cents on this topic: I don't think that there's a lot of value to adding IB plugins for your own custom controls (not that you can right now, but even if you could). It makes sense for framework developers to provide support for their controls in IB (since they provide things that will be used by a lot of other developers), but I don't think that the investment pays off for regular app developers (where custom UI will typically only be used in one / a few nib files). In addition, I don't think that anyone would claim that there's anything wrong with providing UI programmatically. For the most part though, and for the vast majority of your UI, it's typically a waste of time to do so - Not only for right now, but also in the months and years to come where you (hopefully) have to maintain your UI through additional revisions to your app. That said, you should consider your options and do what's best for the thing that you happen to be working on. Most apps end up being a mix between UI provided via nib files and UI that's generated dynamically at runtime. That's expected, and perfectly fine. j o a r _______________________________________________ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com
