Archive for 2008
Adding Text Message to an ActionSheet
The ActionSheet supports one line of text, the title, which as the name implies, is displayed across the top of the Alert. See the image below for an example.
How to “fix” Subversion in XCode 3
If you don’t take the necessary steps to prepare for subversion, you will run into problems using it in XCode. This is because XCode produces files that “confuse” Subversion because it either thinks they are text files when they are really binary files or the reverse. To overcome these limitations, you need to make some [...]
Class Variables
I previously wrote about the lack of support for private methods when working with Objective-C. As part of that post I presented a few work-arounds. Along the same lines, there are is no support for class variables in Objective-C. This post will explore this a little further and walk through a short example that shows [...]
How to Mask an Image
Masking an image enables a developer to create images with irregular shapes dynamically. Masking is often used to create a user interface that is more compelling and less boring. Take for example the following example …
Objective-C Object as a C Structure
Okay, so figuring out how to unwind an Objective-C object into its base representation goes against all that is object-oriented programming, however, it’s interesting none-the-less. In Objective-C there is a directive, @defs(), that outputs (at compile time) the list of instance variables for a class. We can use this list to create a C structure [...]
Date Formatter Examples – Take 3: Date from String
While working on an iPhone application recently, I needed to convert a date read from an XML stream that was in the following format: 20081122 to a nicely formatted string for display on the device: Saturday November 22, 2008.
Alert with TextFields
Note: Although applications in the App Store have used this approach, Apple has also rejected applications that use this technique as it does access private APIs. In a recent discussion with the UI designers for an upcoming iPhone application, I was asked if it’s possible to create an Alert that would overlay the splash screen, [...]
“Default.png” the secret of the load screen …
Ever wondered how all of the applications on your iPhone seem to show a loading screen or “boilerplate” as soon as the icon is touched and wondered how they get the image to appear quickly? Well the secret is in the presence of a file in your application called Default.png.
Available Fonts on the iPhone
I was recently asked about support for fonts on the iPhone. Surprisingly, the list of fonts is quite comprehensive. To give you an idea of the available fonts, I’ve written a simple application to dump the font information to the console inside Xcode.
