About Theocacao

Theocacao is written by me, Scott Stevenson. I was born in the San Francisco Bay Area, though I lived the first three years of my life in London. I now live in Sunnyvale, California.

I run Cocoa Dev Central and Cocoa Blogs, which help programmers learn how to write software for the Mac.

I own a tiny company called Tree House Ideas, which published the DataCrux framework. DataCrux provided a high-level interface to SQLite, and was used to create several Mac apps, including MemoryMiner, LogTen, and Mindburn.

I created the MacNN logo and basic corporate identity, which features the yellow and white text on blue, the zoom tool icon, and the tagline "Read Me First."

I co-founded a web development company called Maxify in 1996. We did work for a bunch of Bay Area companies, and created AltaVista's first company-wide intranet. I was interviewed in 1999 for my work at Maxify during an hour-long CNN special on Silicon Valley.

For better or worse, I don't have formal training for any of this.

Follow your bliss.

Email/iChat: sstevenson at mac com
Design Element
About Theocacao
Posted Sep 1, 2006 — 24 comments below




 

Peter Eliasson — Sep 03, 06 1695

Finally, an about page. It's... eh... 'about' time, too.

Pat Garner — Sep 04, 06 1723

Strangely, I appreciate the programming wisdom you've shared via Theocacao and Cocoadevcentral.com even more now that I know a little more about you. Perhaps putting a face and little background to the name has proven you are in fact human! :) You're an inspiration to us all. Thanks tons!

Neetij — Sep 04, 06 1731

Chanced upon your site via del.icio.us, coincidently just after visiting Cocoa Dev Central - I've recently switched!
I was suprised to find no direct link to the About Page except through a post. Did I miss it somewhere on the main page?

PS: I'm going to take up your recommendation for WriteRoom, and I have added you to my blogroll.

randy — Dec 15, 06 2715

what software you use to create this site?

Scott Stevenson — Dec 15, 06 2716 Scotty the Leopard

what software you use to create this site?

It's a custom framework, based on DataCrux.

Joe — Dec 19, 06 2751

For better or worse, I don't have formal training for any of this.

Wow. I'm curious though, did you receive any formal training for any speciality then? Any college degree?

Chris Humphries — Jan 11, 07 3205

Wow, amazing site. I found this site via Digg.com. I'm planning on moving towards Apple technologies, at least from the programming standpoint. Interesting that I can find more information relating to that subject on here.

I really like the non-cookie-cutter look and feel of your site. It seems to be original (at least to me) and a pleasure to browse and read.

Like you, yet probably not as successful, I have had no formal training yet doing pretty well for myself. I started from the other side of the coin; moving from programming to more design and general ui stuff.

Thanks!

Matt — Feb 26, 07 3656

I am astounded by the quality of your web page design, both here and on the 'Other Cocoa Blogs' page.

I am reminded of why (the lucky stiff).
For inarticulate reasons.
Grfurbl. Nfth.

Please write a Poignant Guide to Cocoa.

Sam Stigler — May 10, 07 4089

Amazing site; amazing design... always a pleasure to read! I do have one suggestion: Have you considered adding another spam deterrent? It seems that a lot of spammers have made Theocacao home recently...

Sherlock — Jun 20, 07 4426

I run Cocoa Dev Central and Cocoa Blogs, which help programmers learn how to write software for the Mac.


The link "Cocoa Blogs" is actually pointed to Cocoa Dev Central.

You might want to correct this.

Alexandre Badez — Dec 08, 07 5183

Hye,

I've just heard you on "late night Cocoa", that's why I'm coming here: to answer your doubt about your blog name witch have quiet a sens in French (witch is my mother tong).
In Fact, if you read it alloud, it could be translated has: "Thea with cocoa flavour" or maybe "Cocoa tea"; but in french you should have writen: "Thé au cacao" to be exact.
However, thanks for your work everywhere ;)

Manon — Feb 17, 08 5519

Love love love your site design. I'm more of a right brainer (hence the graphic design thing), but suddenly I want to be a programmer...

What, in your opinion, are the best books to learn for an absolute beginner?

Scott Stevenson — Feb 21, 08 5534 Scotty the Leopard

@Manon: What, in your opinion, are the best books to learn for an absolute beginner?

I wrote a two-part tutorial specifically for people at your level of experience and right-brainedness. The only note is that I haven't yet updated the second part for Leopard. For now, though, check out part one. I think you should also read the C Tutorial.

The new Leopard-ready version of Aaron Hillegass's Cocoa book is coming soon, but I think that may be a bit beyond your level of experience right now. You'll definitely want to read it when you get to that point, though.

Adonis — Mar 01, 08 5584

Speaking on the name of the site (look at previous user's comment on the French derivation), another interpretation for the name, if one is conversant in Greek is: "Theo-Cacao", or "God Cocoa", as in Godly Cocoa (?!). I think that's pretty appropriate when it comes to this sort of Cocoa :-) Not that there's anything wrong with that other cocoa...

BTW, fantastic site and content. Also enjoy and appreciate your involvement in Cocoaheads, Scott.

Cheers

Nehemiah — Mar 20, 08 5668

your cocoadevcentral page doesn't isn't working , it gave me this

(EDIT: snipped out the error message -Scott)

Scott Stevenson — Mar 20, 08 5669 Scotty the Leopard

@Nehemiah: your cocoadevcentral page doesn't isn't working , it gave me this

Thanks for letting me know. I'm still moving stuff around on servers, so you might see some stuff like this. If you need to contact me, feel free to use the address on this page.

Brad — Jun 11, 08 6064

your tutorials at cocoa dev are really great. Thanks for writing them!

Francesco — Aug 01, 08 6200

Ciao,
I've a question for you...
I've read this article about textmate, but it's very old!
I'm a Cocoa programmer and i want to buy textmate, my doubt is: textmate is good for cocoa programming or xcode 3 editor is better?
What editor do you use? :)

Scott Stevenson — Aug 03, 08 6219 Scotty the Leopard

@Francesco: I'm a Cocoa programmer and i want to buy textmate, my doubt is: textmate is good for cocoa programming or xcode 3 editor is better?

We obviously exchanged emails, but I'll answer here for the benefit of everyone else. For most people, I think Xcode is the way to go, especially when you're just getting started. In addition to refactoring, it has a lot of integration with the frameworks, tools, and the debugger that TextMate doesn't offer. It also has a more comprehensive completion engine than TextMate, and Xcode 3.1 specifically has new features that improve the editor a lot.

That said, I use TextMate a lot in Cocoa projects when I'm in "code writing" mode. I basically give up some conveniences of Xcode to get some features that are unique to TextMate but really help me out in the particular way I work. But until you're really comfortable with Cocoa in general, I think it's much better to just focus on Xcode.

Also, just to be clear, I use Xcode extensively for everything else: debugging, compiling, project organization, and so on.

Dan — May 13, 09 6733

Hi, I am learning Xcode right now. I know a little bit of object C and i know a lot of javascript + php because I make websites. However I wanted to learn how to make programs for mac that connect to the internet. I have no idea where to start, and how to do that with Xcode, can you please give me some links, or point me out on the right direction...

Scott Stevenson — Nov 14, 09 6997 Scotty the Leopard

Test one two three.

Michael — Nov 24, 09 7003

Your Mindburn link seems slightly less interesting than the others ;)

Paul Tow — Jan 17, 10 7112

Please add a search box if possible. I was just looking for an old post and had to use Google's "site:" search feature. Real search provided by the site is often better in my experience, and some might not be aware of that Google feature.

model ships — Feb 25, 10 7736

I am impressed by your work, Scott Stevenson, you are really hardworking and motivated person and that's why you are now having companies and blogs. Motivation plays an important role in achievement even if you don't have the proper skills. Your interview in Silicon Valley was great honor.

Thank you




 

Comments Temporarily Disabled

I had to temporarily disable comments due to spam. I'll re-enable them soon.





Copyright © Scott Stevenson 2004-2015