[Drawkit] Introductory demo ??

[Graham Cox]

On 19 Jun 2008, at 4:11 pm, Eric Jarvies wrote:

> if you are willing to repeat a couple more times what you did this  
> morning, when putting together the light version, then i will take  
> care of all editing of the video, voice over, etc., as well as make  
> a html and pdf version of the same tutorial.  i'll do a first-rate  
> job on it i assure you.

I'm willing, but I think we need to be clear about what the purpose is.

Is it to demonstrate certain IB/Xcode techniques, coding techniques,  
or hooking up to DrawKit? For example, one of the more time-consuming  
parts was setting up the project with the various dependencies, sub- 
projects, copying the framework to the app bundle and so on. This is  
all documented in Xcode's docs pretty well, and will probably be  
slightly different for each user as everyone will probably have  
different ways that they organise themselves. So is there a clear  
benefit in tutorialing that part, or can that be taken as read? If so  
it will tighten it substantially.

In a similar way, much of the actual UI work in Interface Builder is  
standard, no tricky stuff.

In terms of writing the code in the controller, that's going to be  
pretty boring to watch also - though of course it'll help if the  
narration is explaining the "why" rather than the "what".
>
> a few things we will have to address have to do with other apps/ 
> windows you will need to open/access during the session.  the  
> tutorial screen will be the xcode application/canvas, and so when  
> there are seg-ways, i would prefer to cut out your realtime/video  
> access of these, and cut in 1/4 screen insets of the same things  
> being, but i'll record/make those here on my desktop.

OK, sounds fine. Naturally the other "main" app will be IB, and these  
days that means quite a few windows.

>
> what screen resolution do you have on your computer?  1024x768  i'd  
> like to record it in that res, and then bump it down for the final/ 
> master.  this will make all the elements smaller on the video, but  
> it'll reduce the video file size, whilst allowing more elements to  
> be on-screen during the tutorial.

I use a laptop with an additional external screen. Lappy is 1280 x  
800, external is 1680 x 1050. Certainly using Xcode at 1024 x 768 is  
doable, if a little cramped (it'll remind me of coding on my first  
iBook ;-)

> in xcode, when editing code, use the lower tri-pane, instead of  
> opening a new window.

Sure - I work this way usually anyway.

> []


>
> well, i hope you have the time to do this... i'll look forward to it  
> if you do.  if not, no stress.  but you really are the best man for  
> the job(all logical things considered) as it relates to the dk  
> tutorial and performing the the process in xcode/interface builder/ 
> etc.
>

I'd probably expect to do it in several "chunks".

1. Setting up the project (if we feel this is necessary - I'm sort of  
hoping not as I feel this is the least DK-useful aspect).
2. Initial view and controller creation.
3. UI for Tools and supporting code.
4. UI for Grid and -"-.
5. UI for Layers and _"_.
6. UI for Styles and _"_.

I'd do the styles last as it's the most complex and by then it should  
be possible to gloss over a few of the more basic steps. However it's  
probably best if each one can, as far as possible, stand alone - at  
least for 3, 4, 5 and 6 (i.e. as long as you've done 1 + 2, you can do  
the rest in any order).

Also, if each stage is published as a separate downloadable project, a  
person could use any of those as a starting point and jump in with  
whichever they wanted to do (which is also a good way to avoid the  
need for 1.)

I'm downloading iShowU now to try it out.

cheers, Graham