<blockquote>There are many opportunties for customizing, tweaking and subclassing along the way. For example, you can use Core Data for change tracking and do your own persistence layer.</blockquote>
My experience with Core Data are your articles on CocoaDevCentral.com and with some of the basic stuff from Apple is very simple. These guides don't get down into the nitty-gritty that you only find after 4-months of dev or a version 1.01.
Like I mentioned, coming from a Windows dev. world, it's hard to believe that the OS would offer stuff like Core Data.
I understand your "Ivory Tower" post the more I think about it. I spend all my working day trying to convert an old DAO application to ADO and it's draining hours and hours and hours. This is just the fundamental stuff connecting the Windows App to the Backend. It's insanity, we've had to have a sit down with the CEO and break the bad news that the previous developer worked off an anti-pattern called "Big Ball of Mud" (look it up in wiki, it's there, that's a real term) and the dev. time is looking longer than expected. He's devastated to say the least...
Excuse me while I rant a little more, and flog MS for the worthless beast that it's become. Windows XP introduced themes "Luna" as it's known by, at the same time they release the 2002 .net development environment/runtime. This is a dual release between OS and IDE. You would assume that the new theming of the OS would be built into the IDE, you know like that tickbox in XCode to use Brushed Metal? Nope, it's not there.
Time passes and Visual Studio .net 2003 is released, is theme support in there out-of-the-box? Nope.
More time passes, and it's taken to Visual Studio 2005 to have theme support built in (BTW there's no tick-box for Visturd theme support in there either.)
This is the shi... crap that as a Windows developer I have to put up with. An OS that doesn't even support it's developers to make it even look half-good. Without extra API calls etc. And to be honest, I am not even aware of MS using their .net development tools for any of their system(s) (apart from the CRM extention module for Outlook). What's that MS have an IDE that massive and costly? And I am not even aware of software that they develop that uses the .net runtimes. That's because the .net runtimes are poop (if you ask me that is)
Now, I think you see why I can't believe that Apple not only give you their Dev. environment for FREE, they have a whole, working, framework that they use too (as you prove with Apature)! Sorry for my rant, I got a little out of control didn't I? I am typing this with a smile, part in jest and part in frustration.
<blockquote>The point is that you can get basic prototype functionality before writing code...</blockquote>
Interesting, I like the idea. And indeed it's amazing. I wrote a little app in 1.5 hours using Core Data and using your tutorial as a reference (only when I couldn't remember a step) and had a basic working app, that also persisted the data. I like where it's going. it's fast, it's beautiful and I am not dealing with the silly bits of glue/refresh code.
<blockquote>Model versioning is more difficult than any of us would like, but it is possible and Apple does provide sample code.</blockquote>
That's the jist that I got too. I will look into versioning further, and remove all my doubts
When taking my original line of questioning and blockquoting it, I felt that perhaps I sounded to negative to what Apple has created and how I felt towards Core Data. I didn't want that, but that's the skeptic in me creeping in.
Scott, for me this has started to remove the doubts of not-knowing Apples system. I just needed a lauching-pad, and I will now endevour to spend more time with [Obj-C] and XCode and I think I WILL begin to prototype my little .app in Core Data and see where it takes me. I am extemely enthusiastic with Apple and their OS and their Developer Tools, I only wish I could make it to a WWDC. The problems of distance, *sigh*.
Could you recommend any books or material to further my journey? Especially interested in XCode and Core Data.
by Ben — Feb 17
My experience with Core Data are your articles on CocoaDevCentral.com and with some of the basic stuff from Apple is very simple. These guides don't get down into the nitty-gritty that you only find after 4-months of dev or a version 1.01.
Like I mentioned, coming from a Windows dev. world, it's hard to believe that the OS would offer stuff like Core Data.
I understand your "Ivory Tower" post the more I think about it. I spend all my working day trying to convert an old DAO application to ADO and it's draining hours and hours and hours. This is just the fundamental stuff connecting the Windows App to the Backend. It's insanity, we've had to have a sit down with the CEO and break the bad news that the previous developer worked off an anti-pattern called "Big Ball of Mud" (look it up in wiki, it's there, that's a real term) and the dev. time is looking longer than expected. He's devastated to say the least...
Excuse me while I rant a little more, and flog MS for the worthless beast that it's become. Windows XP introduced themes "Luna" as it's known by, at the same time they release the 2002 .net development environment/runtime. This is a dual release between OS and IDE. You would assume that the new theming of the OS would be built into the IDE, you know like that tickbox in XCode to use Brushed Metal? Nope, it's not there.
Time passes and Visual Studio .net 2003 is released, is theme support in there out-of-the-box? Nope.
More time passes, and it's taken to Visual Studio 2005 to have theme support built in (BTW there's no tick-box for Visturd theme support in there either.)
This is the shi... crap that as a Windows developer I have to put up with. An OS that doesn't even support it's developers to make it even look half-good. Without extra API calls etc. And to be honest, I am not even aware of MS using their .net development tools for any of their system(s) (apart from the CRM extention module for Outlook). What's that MS have an IDE that massive and costly? And I am not even aware of software that they develop that uses the .net runtimes. That's because the .net runtimes are poop (if you ask me that is)
Now, I think you see why I can't believe that Apple not only give you their Dev. environment for FREE, they have a whole, working, framework that they use too (as you prove with Apature)! Sorry for my rant, I got a little out of control didn't I? I am typing this with a smile, part in jest and part in frustration.
<blockquote>The point is that you can get basic prototype functionality before writing code...</blockquote>
Interesting, I like the idea. And indeed it's amazing. I wrote a little app in 1.5 hours using Core Data and using your tutorial as a reference (only when I couldn't remember a step) and had a basic working app, that also persisted the data. I like where it's going. it's fast, it's beautiful and I am not dealing with the silly bits of glue/refresh code.
<blockquote>Model versioning is more difficult than any of us would like, but it is possible and Apple does provide sample code.</blockquote>
That's the jist that I got too. I will look into versioning further, and remove all my doubts
When taking my original line of questioning and blockquoting it, I felt that perhaps I sounded to negative to what Apple has created and how I felt towards Core Data. I didn't want that, but that's the skeptic in me creeping in.
Scott, for me this has started to remove the doubts of not-knowing Apples system. I just needed a lauching-pad, and I will now endevour to spend more time with [Obj-C] and XCode and I think I WILL begin to prototype my little .app in Core Data and see where it takes me. I am extemely enthusiastic with Apple and their OS and their Developer Tools, I only wish I could make it to a WWDC. The problems of distance, *sigh*.
Could you recommend any books or material to further my journey? Especially interested in XCode and Core Data.
Kind Regards,