Aqua-Soft ForumsI want to start developing apps for the Mac- mostly small apps to do file manipulation, automatic back-ups, etc. What language would be best for me to use? Preferably one that's not too hard to pick up quickly. Thanks for any help.
-godpunk
What Programming Language?
Well, I know you can use C/C++ and Java without problems. IMO, Java is pretty easy and intuitive but it runs much slower than C/C++.
referably one that's not too hard to pick up quickly.
Do you already know any language? because if you know a language (so, you know how to program) it won't be hard to learn another one.
In programming the hardest part is not the language, it is the programming knowledge (algorithms, technics, etc, etc).
I don't know any languages. I just downloaded a demo of realbasic and am messing with that....got a basic GUI set up, but I have no idea how to make it work! Oh well, I'll pick it up.
-godpunk
Cocoa? Thats native OS X. The prettiest and the fastest as well.
I donno if its a language or just an implementation of a language, though.. 
well, then you should get a tutorial for the language you finally choose and start from zero. You know, the Hello World!! application...
I think that's not a language, a framework? an API? can someone tell?Cocoa? Thats native OS X. The prettiest and the fastest as well.
I'm gonna check out Cocoa...the O'Reilly Network has quite a few resources. Wish me luck!
-godpunk
from apple's site:
"The Cocoa application environment is designed specifically for Mac OS X-only native applications. It is comprised of a set of object-oriented frameworks that support rapid development and high productivity. The Cocoa frameworks include a full featured set of classes designed to create robust and powerful Mac OS X applications. The object-oriented design simplifies application development and debugging.
Cocoa provides developers starting new Mac OS X-only projects the fastest way to full-featured implementations. Applications from UNIX and other OS platforms can also be brought to Mac OS X quickly by using Cocoa to build state of the art Aqua user interfaces while retaining most existing core code.
Cocoa's History
Cocoa is the descendant of NeXTStep and has a rich design history reaching back to 1987. Cocoa is implemented in Objective-C, an ANSI C compatible language with dynamic object-oriented extensions modeled on Smalltalk. It has been tailored for efficient development and runtime performance. Cocoa applications can make use of core functionality contained in traditional C and C++ libraries brought forward from legacy application environments. It also provides Java interfaces to permit a high performance, full featured Java development environment tailored to Mac OS X specifically."
http://developer.apple.com/cocoa/
So, you can use several languages to use the Cocoa application environment, check this:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/C...ocoa/Cocoa.html
Cocoa is an API, like GDI+ for Windows.
You need to know a programming language to use it.
I suggest you pick a language and grab a good book and start reading.
EDIT:\\ Floyd and I had a brain sync. 
Well, I downloaded the Developer Tools from Apple, and low and behold, there is an app called AppleScript Studio. It's a "power user" version of AppleScript, letting you attach interfaces and everything. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to cue the interface elements once I create them lol. So we'll see how I do with this....
-godpunk
P.S- If any fellow Mac users wanna get together and see if we can fanagle an app, lemme know. The app I'm trying to make an app that will back up a user's iTunes Library info to a location specified by the user.
EDIT: I made the following icon for the app. I'll start work on the interface for now. If there are any talented AppleScripters out there (Taha? Mike273?) I could sure use your help!
that sounds more like a scripting thing to me. You're just copying files.
Originally posted by contrasutra@Aug 8 2003, 06:38 PMthat sounds more like a scripting thing to me
Well that's because it is....
The point of doing it this way is so that others can use the app rather than custom tailoring it to your own system.
-godpunk
oh, you mean its like you prompt the user: "enter file location", "enter destination", etc?
Yeah, sounds cool to me.
I wish I had a mac. :cry:
Honestly, this programming stuff is not as easy as Apple Script (nothing is ). So you may have to put more work in this than just some scripts.
Yeah, I know. 
I'm working on the interface now....basically, you will have a window where you configure the destination for your files, and once the selection is made, that info will be dumped into a script that will run at a user-specified time (every hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, every startup, etc.) Slightly more complicated than the script I postsed the other day! 
We'll see how it goes...
-godpunk
sorry man, the only programming language I know is Visual Basic 5. And I can only make a GUI in it, no actual code.
I wish Apple script was as wasy as Batch code. There is a book at my local library about apple script...
I think I may be able to help you, if not i'll sure find you some good tutorials.
I just created what you described and it took me around 10 mins in Windows, so it shouldn't be too hard to find a simple example somewhere.
If you do find tutorials could you post them here please? I'd like to have a go at learning to code anything other than HTML or PHP!
yes, some good tutorials on C++ would be great, something related to desktop apps, how to skin them, etc, etc