One of the difficulties that I've had with XCode is that the SDE is not as slick as I'm used to. When combined with some of the peculiarities of the language, it is more painful to code in this than in Eclipse for Java or Visual Studio for C# (especially with the Resharper plugin).
I've found that JetBrains, the creators of IntellJ and Resharper have created a SDE called AppCode for Objective C. I've tried it and it is far easier to use for most things than XCode (either 3 or 4). Right now the Beta is free, and you can sign up for a 50% discount on the final product.
I highly recommend it. The smart code completion is far better, it can automatically make properties for you, it has far better refactoring, and navigation.
The only downsides are that it doesn't support interface builder, or modifying a SQL-Lite database. Also if you want to modify your project settings you still need to boot up XCode.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
XCode 4 static libraries in a project.
I'm actually trying to get back into IOS development. I was attempting to get my static library to work properly in XCode 4. Apple does not make it easy to do this.
I found a really good blog article that helps with this. Using Open Source Static Libraries in XCode 4. While written for open source libraries, it works great with my personal static library as well.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Best eBook Lending Service
With the recent establishment of the ability to lend ebooks with the Kindle and the Nook, several 'swap clubs' have sprung up around the net where you can make your ebooks available for lending and borrow ebooks from others. I've tried three of the services and have found that they all work, although the last one I've tried has been FAR more successful.
Booklending.com (formly Kindlelending.com until Amazon complained about their trademark). This is a pretty good service. It operations on a 'push' principle. When you log in you register what books you are interested in, and then wait for someone to send them to you. When you make your books available it will show if anyone is waiting for those books and offer up to 3 people that you can send to.
It has a limited ability to see which books are available for lending, but no real strong search capabilities. I've received several books from here and it works OK.
I've also lent books from this site. When you lend a book it opens Amazon in a frame and you can then use the Amazon lending capabilities to send your book out. When you list the books you have available you have to manually enter them.
http://www.lendink.com/ Lendink is another site, it has an advantage in that you can see what books are available and search by genre. It operates on a 'pull' principle. When you see a book you are interested in you can click it and the site will send an email to the owner of the book that you are interested in lending it.
I've also lent books through this service. It operates very similarly to the booklending.com site. When you list the books you have available you have to manually enter them.
This site supports both Nook and kindle books.
Finally the last and best site is:
lendle.me
This is the latest site I've tried. Unlike the other sites you have to enter your books before you can borrow from it. It provides a bookmark that runs a script on your Amazon page to parse out which books you have available. It then saves all of those and figures out which ones are lendable.
It gives you two credits (loans) to start, and then as you register books it gives you more. I had 10 credits after I parsed out my books.
For the previous sites you want to request many books, you don't have a good hit ratio. However for lendle.me I had a 7 out of 10 books lent to me in less than 48 hours, I had requested several because based on the other sites I expected to only get 2-3 hits with 10 requests. Lendle.me seems to have a wider selection of books (probably because it parses them from Amazon). I can generally read a book in 2 days, so I'm going to have to stop requesting just to keep up.
If you are borrowing Kindle books, I recommend lendle.me, if you are borrowing Nook books then lendink is your choice. However it doesn't hurt to be on all 3 sites to maximize your borrowing and lending chances.
I've been using the lending services to borrow books that I would check out of a library. I've added some new authors to my 'buy list' after doing so. It stretches my dollars and makes me more likely to take a chance, you can borrow the first book in a series and see if you want to be spending your money on the rest.
Booklending.com (formly Kindlelending.com until Amazon complained about their trademark). This is a pretty good service. It operations on a 'push' principle. When you log in you register what books you are interested in, and then wait for someone to send them to you. When you make your books available it will show if anyone is waiting for those books and offer up to 3 people that you can send to.
It has a limited ability to see which books are available for lending, but no real strong search capabilities. I've received several books from here and it works OK.
I've also lent books from this site. When you lend a book it opens Amazon in a frame and you can then use the Amazon lending capabilities to send your book out. When you list the books you have available you have to manually enter them.
http://www.lendink.com/ Lendink is another site, it has an advantage in that you can see what books are available and search by genre. It operates on a 'pull' principle. When you see a book you are interested in you can click it and the site will send an email to the owner of the book that you are interested in lending it.
I've also lent books through this service. It operates very similarly to the booklending.com site. When you list the books you have available you have to manually enter them.
This site supports both Nook and kindle books.
Finally the last and best site is:
lendle.me
This is the latest site I've tried. Unlike the other sites you have to enter your books before you can borrow from it. It provides a bookmark that runs a script on your Amazon page to parse out which books you have available. It then saves all of those and figures out which ones are lendable.
It gives you two credits (loans) to start, and then as you register books it gives you more. I had 10 credits after I parsed out my books.
For the previous sites you want to request many books, you don't have a good hit ratio. However for lendle.me I had a 7 out of 10 books lent to me in less than 48 hours, I had requested several because based on the other sites I expected to only get 2-3 hits with 10 requests. Lendle.me seems to have a wider selection of books (probably because it parses them from Amazon). I can generally read a book in 2 days, so I'm going to have to stop requesting just to keep up.
If you are borrowing Kindle books, I recommend lendle.me, if you are borrowing Nook books then lendink is your choice. However it doesn't hurt to be on all 3 sites to maximize your borrowing and lending chances.
I've been using the lending services to borrow books that I would check out of a library. I've added some new authors to my 'buy list' after doing so. It stretches my dollars and makes me more likely to take a chance, you can borrow the first book in a series and see if you want to be spending your money on the rest.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Application not picking up changes in a static library
I recently wasted a lot of time, I was attempting to modify a class in a static library, and no matter what I did, it would NOT work. Eventually I added some log statements and they didn't show up, although old ones did.
I found that when I made modifications to my static library the main application was not relinked.
For my WallPaperEdit application, I found that the main executable was WallPaperEdit in the directory
/Users/myusername/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/WallPaperEDit_randomLetters/Build/Products/Debug-iphonesimulator/WallPaperEdit.app
When I made a change in my static library, it was not being picked up for this, and it was not being relinked. Even doing a clean did not work.
If I modify a file in my main library, then it recompiles and relinks this, and my new change is picked up. I'm going to use that as a workaround for now, and then try and find the build setting that makes this behavior as it properly does.
While XCode4 says it supports automated dependencies between multiple projects, I've found that it can sometimes be painful.
I found that when I made modifications to my static library the main application was not relinked.
For my WallPaperEdit application, I found that the main executable was WallPaperEdit in the directory
/Users/myusername/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/WallPaperEDit_randomLetters/Build/Products/Debug-iphonesimulator/WallPaperEdit.app
When I made a change in my static library, it was not being picked up for this, and it was not being relinked. Even doing a clean did not work.
If I modify a file in my main library, then it recompiles and relinks this, and my new change is picked up. I'm going to use that as a workaround for now, and then try and find the build setting that makes this behavior as it properly does.
While XCode4 says it supports automated dependencies between multiple projects, I've found that it can sometimes be painful.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Apple's new subscription model.
I'm seeing a lot of reports on Apple's new subscription model. Providers that provide content that is purchased outside the app store now has to provide a 'in app purchase' to get that material, costing 30%. This is a killer, move on Apple's part, and if they enforce it you can say goodbye to Kindle, Nook, Netflix, etc... The companies can't afford to take this cut.
With the agency model for ebooks, 5 out of 6 of the big publishers in the US now set their prices for their ebooks. When Amazon sells one of these ebooks, it gets 30% of the list price, and the publisher gets 70% of the list price. By the contract Amazon can NOT change this price.
If they were to make this available as an in-app purchase, then Apple would get 30%, the publisher would get 70%, and Amazon would get nothing. Obviously Amazon will not go for this.
I wonder if Apple is attempting to push all other ebook providers off the App Store, or if it is just rattling cages. If they do push all other ebook providers off, then I might have to reconsider using the Apple Ecosystem. I have NO desire to use iBooks, and will never use it. It ties me to one device, and Apple has just shown how unwise that is.
This seems like a foolish move now that serious iPhone contenders are on the horizon, between Android, and now Windows 7 (with the Nokia deal), IOS could have some troubles. I would rather be using the Windows 7 toolset instead of IOS, however the market is not currently there.
With the agency model for ebooks, 5 out of 6 of the big publishers in the US now set their prices for their ebooks. When Amazon sells one of these ebooks, it gets 30% of the list price, and the publisher gets 70% of the list price. By the contract Amazon can NOT change this price.
If they were to make this available as an in-app purchase, then Apple would get 30%, the publisher would get 70%, and Amazon would get nothing. Obviously Amazon will not go for this.
I wonder if Apple is attempting to push all other ebook providers off the App Store, or if it is just rattling cages. If they do push all other ebook providers off, then I might have to reconsider using the Apple Ecosystem. I have NO desire to use iBooks, and will never use it. It ties me to one device, and Apple has just shown how unwise that is.
This seems like a foolish move now that serious iPhone contenders are on the horizon, between Android, and now Windows 7 (with the Nokia deal), IOS could have some troubles. I would rather be using the Windows 7 toolset instead of IOS, however the market is not currently there.
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