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2011 | Book

Starting to Build a Graphing Calculator Read chapter Read first chapter

Beginning OS X Lion Apps Development

Authors: Michael Privat, Robert Warner

Publisher: Apress

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

With the Mac App Store launch in early 2011, a new age in Mac development began. Look for many of the cool apps for iPhone and iPad coming to an iMac or MacBook Pro near you!

Beginning OS X Lion Apps Development explains how to develop OS X Lion-based apps and publish them in the Mac App Store. It begins with the basics of Objective-C and Cocoa, and then moves through all the topics necessary to build and publish your first successful Mac apps!

Get started with Objective-C and Xcode Build your first complete apps that integrate well with Mac OS X Publish your apps on the Mac App Store

If you're new to Mac or new to iPhone or iPad apps development, and looking to develop apps for the Macbook Pro or Mac desktop, this book is for you!

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Starting to Build a Graphing Calculator
Abstract
When Apple announced Mac OS X 10.7, also known as Lion, it did so under the banner “Back to the Mac.” Mac OS X Lion incorporates lessons Apple has learned from the wildly successful iOS platform, available on iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch devices, and the excitement it has garnered presents lucrative opportunities for you, as a software developer, to create and distribute applications for this platform. Mac users consistently demonstrate passion for their computing platform, a willingness to pay for software, and a demand for quality and innovation. If your motivations don’t issue from financial fountains, developing Mac software provides you with a way to return the passion for computing, quality, and innovation to the Mac user community. This book gives you all the information you need to develop and distribute apps that tap into that passion.
Michael Privat, Robert Warner
Chapter 2. Laying Out the User Interface
Abstract
The appearance of an application often conveys an indelible first impression on users’ minds, whether positive or negative, that strongly influences whether the application becomes a hit or simply moves to the virtual trash. Providing an attractive and usable interface remains one of the hallmarks of top applications.
Michael Privat, Robert Warner
Chapter 3. Handling User Input
Abstract
In the movie The Sound of Music, the governess Maria (played by Julie Andrews) teaches the Von Trapp children how to sing. In one scene, as she’s introducing notes to the children, she teaches them a melody with note names that, while sounding good, has lyrics composed only of the names of notes: “Sol Do La Fa Mi Do Re....” One of the children, Brigitta, responds, “But it doesn’t mean anything.” Maria responds, “So we put in words.” Right now, Graphique doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a user interface. In this chapter, we put in words. We put in the functionality that makes Graphique mean something. By the end of this chapter, Graphique will look like Figure 3-1. It will allow users to enter equations and graph them textually. It will be a functional application.
Michael Privat, Robert Warner
Chapter 4. Pimp My UI
Abstract
At this point in its evolution, Graphique indeed means something. It does something. It’s serviceable. It accepts an equation, evaluates it, and lists x, y values. It’s also a little embarrassing: it’s a graphing calculator that doesn’t graph. That flaw is difficult to hide or gloss over. We can’t really be proud of Graphique until it graphs equations.
Michael Privat, Robert Warner
Chapter 5. User Preferences and the File System
Abstract
Every time you launch Graphique, it starts over. Any equations you’ve entered disappear. Any graphs you’ve created, however clever or stunning, vanish. Graphique has no permanence. This might be fine for utility or one-shot applications, but users expect more out of applications like Graphique. They expect to be able to recall recent work or preserve output. They also expect to be able to set some preferences to customize behavior. In this chapter, we add some permanence to Graphique.
Michael Privat, Robert Warner
Chapter 6. Using Core Data
Abstract
Picking up where we left off in Chapter 5, we now get a glimpse of Cocoa’s powerful object storage framework, Core Data, which we use to store recently entered equations so that users can retrieve and redisplay them.
Michael Privat, Robert Warner
Chapter 7. Integrating Graphique into the Mac OS X Desktop
Abstract
Right now, Graphique is an application island in the sea of the Mac OS X desktop. You can launch it, run it, use it fruitfully, and close it, and it’s all self-contained. There’s nothing wrong with that, but Mac users have grown to expect more from an application: they want it to work with the rest of the Mac OS X ecosystem. In this chapter, you integrate Graphique into that ecosystem, expanding its borders beyond the current shoreline into Finder and the menu bar. At the end of this chapter, you’ll be able to save your equations to files, and then double-click them in Finder to launch Graphique and display their graphs. You’ll also be able to use Quick Look to see your graphs from within Finder. Finally, you’ll be able to display an icon in the menu bar and launch the most recent ten equations from it.
Michael Privat, Robert Warner
Chapter 8. Creating Help
Abstract
You’ve made your application as easy to use as possible. You’ve thought through the various workflows in your application and tweaked the user interface to make those flows intuitive and simple to understand. You’ve considered novices and experts and everyone in between, and you’ve crafted a UI masterpiece that should be eminently straightforward, discoverable, and useful.
Michael Privat, Robert Warner
Chapter 9. Printing
Abstract
Although we live in the digital age, most applications that produce data offer support for printing that data. Word processors obviously allow users to print their documents, but even the Mac OS X Calculator has an option for printing its virtual paper tape. Users expect to preserve the words they type, the numbers they enter, and the graphics they create onto paper and ink. In this chapter, we explore some of the printing capabilities of Mac OS X and how to add printing support to Graphique. We start with a naïve printing implementation of the graph view that would use enough ink to put Hewlett-Packard back in the black. Next, we optimize the graph view for printing so that we can feel good about actually printing it. Finally, we build a print view that spans three pages and includes both the graph view and the table view.
Michael Privat, Robert Warner
Chapter 10. Submitting to the Mac App Store
Abstract
With the hard work of development, debugging, and a little more debugging complete, you’re ready to apply the final polish to Graphique and submit it to the Mac App Store. This moment is both exhilarating and terrifying. It’s exhilarating to be done, to distribute your work, and to perhaps earn some money from your labors. It’s terrifying because your work now comes under the scrutiny of millions of Mac users. Will they like it? Will they pan it? How will the reviews turn out? Will they even notice your app amidst the thousands of other apps available on the Mac App Store?
Michael Privat, Robert Warner
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Beginning OS X Lion Apps Development
Authors
Michael Privat
Robert Warner
Copyright Year
2011
Publisher
Apress
Electronic ISBN
978-1-4302-3721-1
Print ISBN
978-1-4302-3720-4
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4302-3721-1

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