[Drawkit] Introductory demo ??

[Graham Cox]

I think you are right that there is a need for a simpler demo app that  
keeps the UI interfacing to a minimum. With that in mind, I spent a  
bit of time this morning creating one along the lines you suggested -  
just a few basic controls which give you a very minimal interface.

Here's a screenshot:

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Despite the simplicity (this has just one custom controller class,  
with most stuff set up in the nib) this still took a couple of hours  
to put together - not because DK is difficult but because it still  
takes time to write and test the controller "glue code" (not using  
bindings), and certain things, like layers, really require a table to  
drive them sensibly (I couldn't think of an easy way to do it with  
buttons that wasn't clunky).

I'll attach the project file to this message, but I'll also put the  
project and executable up on the website so you can download it. The  
single controller class is: a) the controller between the UI shown  
here and DK, b) the application's delegate (to get a few things set up  
at launch) c) the table's delegate and datasource and d) the window's  
delegate. So it wears a few hats which also add a little to its  
complexity, but overall it's extremely lightweight. You can also get  
to a number of features by right-clicking objects in the drawing  
(that's just default DK behaviour).

Project attached - note not sure how portable it is, depends on  
DrawKit as a subproject and has paths to it that assume this is  
located in the same folder as the top level DrawKit folder. It's also  
assuming Leopard and Xcode 3, though doesn't use any Leopard-only  
features. If this seems like a good way to go, I can fix up any build  
issues that you report and it can be rolled into the official DK  
distribution.


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Tutorial Video.

Regarding doing a tutorial video - I think that is a good idea in  
principle. I'm happy to put time into this. But one thing that this  
morning's exercise has shown is that anything with any sort of UI will  
take a certain amount of time - it's not something that really can be  
done in ten minutes. So we probably need to be clear about what the  
scope of the tutorial would be - either something like this but with a  
lot of steps glossed over, or something a lot simpler with fewer  
features.

Documentation Wiki.

There already is one, here:

http://gcdrawkit.jasonjobe.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

This hasn't been updated for ages and there isn't much there - what  
there is is likely to be out of date. I also plan to rehost it at my  
own site rather than rely on this extra hosting. But feel free to add  
to it if you wish, It'll all get moved over intact at some point.


cheers, Graham



On 19 Jun 2008, at 1:44 am, Troy Rollins wrote:

> After spending some time with DrawKit and the demo app, I feel I'm  
> slowly making a bit of headway with it. However, I feel what is  
> missing is a simpler demo... almost a bare bones one. It would be  
> easier to disassemble and "get your head around" than the current  
> "monster demo", which has all the bells and whistles but is pretty  
> complex, and includes a lot of IB bindings which need to be  
> "untangled" mentally.
>
> I'd love to see a demo which...
> 1) Was not document based
> 2) Had no palettes
> 3) Had only the default menus
>
> Basically a window, with a DKDrawingView, surrounded by a few  
> buttons which demonstrate basic functionality...
> 1) Layer changing
> 2) Selection of a couple of different tools (maybe select/edit and  
> draw box)
> 3) Switching styles between a couple of pre-defined styles
>
> I think having something like this would lower the barrier to entry,  
> and allow newer xcode developers (like myself) to get their heads  
> around the fundamentals of the toolkit more quickly, and then be  
> able to advance into deeper examination afterward, and as their  
> application merits.
>
> From what I've seen, it looks as though this sort of demo could be  
> put together in under an hour, and it would benefit the users and  
> the community a great deal. Unfortunately, I don't know enough to  
> create it myself yet, but I'd be happy to create the basic interface  
> for it, if that would help.
>
> Would any more advanced users be willing to wire up such a project?  
> Does one exist somewhere already?
>
> TIA!
> --
> Troy
> RPSystems, Ltd.
> http://www.rpsystems.net
>
>
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