Hi, my name is Ryan. I want to learn how to write apps for OS X.

[Omphaloskepsis]

I downloaded a bunch of books about Cocoa and xCode. This is the problem. I only can learn something like this when I try to solve a problem. I can't think of any app I need right now that a total nOOb could code.

Any simple application anyone would like to see written for OS X?

It would be open source. I have no intention of selling someones idea. I would put it under the The GNU General Public License (GPL).

Any ideas? I need inspiration.

[alfredo]

1. Take a look at AppleScript. Installed with OSX is

Perl, Ruby, Java, and Python. OSX has gcc and you can do bash scripts until you are blue in the face.


Check out the Widgets in Dashboard.

BTW, I am not a programmer, I can't help you there. I can make AppleScript dialogs and launchers and simple bash scripts. What I know is from learning enough to know what code snippets I can "borrow" to use here at home. I learned HTML by reading page sources. I'd rather play in Photoshop than some IDE.

Games, we love games.

http://www.idevgames.com/






BTW, AppleScript is in /Applications/AppleScript.

Take this script and open up the Script Editor in the Applescript folder. Paste it in.

Hit run.

If you like, go to file/save as. You have choices, you can save as text, script, or application. (I think that is the choices)

repeat
set todaydate to current date
set todayday to day of todaydate
set todaytime to time of todaydate
set todayyear to year of todaydate

set launchdate to date "Tuesday, January 20, 2009 12:00:00 PM"
set launchday to day of launchdate
set launchtime to time of launchdate
set launchyear to year of launchdate

set yearsleft to launchyear - todayyear
set daysleft to launchday - todayday
set timeleft to 86400 - todaytime

set totaltimeleft to timeleft + {86400 * daysleft}
set totaltotaltimeleft to totaltimeleft + {yearsleft * 31536000}

set unroundedminutesleft to totaltotaltimeleft / 60
set totalminutesleft to {round unroundedminutesleft}
set unroundedhoursleft to totalminutesleft / 60
set totalhoursleft to {round unroundedhoursleft}
set unroundeddaysleft to totalhoursleft / 24
set totaldaysleft to {round unroundeddaysleft}
set unroundedyearsleft to totaldaysleft / 365
set totalyearsleft to {round unroundedyearsleft}


if totaltotaltimeleft is less than or equal to 0 then
display dialog "The wait is finally over!"
exit repeat
else
display dialog "There are...

" & totalyearsleft & " years,

" & totaldaysleft & " days,

" & totalhoursleft & " hours,

" & totalminutesleft & " minutes, or

" & totaltotaltimeleft & " seconds left until the bush nightmare is over.

This dialog will auto-refresh every 10 seconds, or you can manually refresh it by clicking OK." giving up after 10
end if
end repeat

[moggie]

2. Have you worked through Apple's Cocoa tutorial?

Their currency converter tutorial is a fairly nice introduction to Cocoa/Xcode, and once you've completed it you'll probably think of ways to extend it. Obviously you're likely to end up with a toy application rather than one you'll want to give away, but once you've given it a load of bells and whistles you'll no longer be a newbie, and will be equipped to scratch an itch which you have, which is always more motivating.

[Omphaloskepsis]

3. I didn't even think of looking for tutorials on ADC..

I did this one a few days ago: http://cocoadevcentral.com/d/learn_cocoa/
That actually did help with getting around Xcode.

I did talk to my sister and she would like to see some type of cookbook application. I think that would be a good start. My history is with web-based apps. I normally use PHP, MySQL, Ruby, and Python.

[moggie]

4. Sounds like me

Well, substitute Perl for PHP. I should point out that I'm a total Cocoa novice myself: I've worked through tutorials, but haven't yet found time to do anything original.

I've skimmed through the tutorial you mention, and I'm not very impressed. It doesn't really explain what you're doing. Do look for that Currency Converter tutorial, because it's got much more meat to it. Xcode -> Help -> Documentation -> Cocoa -> Getting started. If you prefer books, 'Cocoa Programming for OS X' by Aaron Hillegass is very good.

[emulatorloo]

5. Sign up with Apple Developer site

There are several levels, one of them is free. Gives you access to white papers, code examples, dev tools etc.

http://www.apple.com/developer

Here's the free one:

http://developer.apple.com/membership/online.html

[Ezlivin]

6. We need another rock solid "Hello World" application

:)

And, yes, it was the first application I "developed" on the Mac back in 1985. The Developer's Library was four paperback books.

Oh the days....