Cocoa

With the lifting of the Nondisclosure Agreement on the iPhone SDK, I'm pleased to finally make available the source code to Molecules. If you go to the main page for the application, you should now find a link to download the latest source tarball (for version 1.2) on the right-hand side. You can also download the source code here. I am working on migrating my personal Subversion setup so that you can check out the latest code and so that I can authorize contributors to commit fixes and additions.

Read on for a description of the internal structure of Molecules.

I had a great time at the satellite iPhoneDevCamp in Chicago, where I was surprised with the number of well-known (to me, at least) developers who are located in the area. Although the San Francisco outpost may have had more attendees, I'd argue that we had as good a technical and business discussion going. We certainly had better shirts (courtesy of Stand Alone).

Anyway, I was allowed to give a talk on some of the lessons that I'd learned in implementing the 3-D graphics in Molecules using OpenGL ES. It was well-received, so I figured that I should create a written guide based on my talk.

Read on for my lengthy writeup about OpenGL-based 3-D graphics on the iPhone.

I am now back home in Wisconsin after attending the 2008 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. As a first-time attendee, I wasn't sure what to expect, but this ended up being a great experience. From the things I learned, to the people I met, I consider it well worth the price of admission.

Read on for my full impressions of the conference.

I am about to head out to Apple's annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. This is my first trip out there and I look forward to filling in the holes in my Cocoa understanding with the sessions, as well as working with Apple engineers to resolve some nagging issues with programs I'm maintaining.

On top of the developer training and interaction, I will have a chance to show off some of the hardware and software design behind SonoPlot's Microplotter robotic fluid handlers (what I do during the day). The control elements of these systems are designed around Apple computers, specifically the Mac Mini and iMac, they use Firewire for video capture from attached CCD cameras that track the dispensing head on the robot, and all control software is written in Cocoa (Leopard-only, due to some specific features used in the implementation). For those in attendance who read this before then, the session is from 6:30 PM - 10:30 PM on Wednesday, June 11. Please do stop on by to chat if you are interested.

I have been doing software development, mainly custom in-house industrial or scientific projects, for a little while now and have worked in many languages: BASIC, Pascal, C, C++, Java, Scheme, PHP, etc. I now do almost all of my coding, for this company or for my day job, in the Objective-C language using the Cocoa frameworks. Aside from the GNUStep project, Objective C and Cocoa are only used on Apple's products: the Macintosh computers and (soon) the iPhone and iPod Touch. Why would I limit myself to such a small subset of all computing hardware?