On May 18, 2008, at 8:39 PM, Julius Guzy wrote:
Well this is exactly how things seem to pan out. Those who have been
doing this for some time like the documentation they have. No doubt
once I become a bit more adept I will too. But right now......
This is going to sound bitchy, but it's hard for me to have any
sympathy for vague complaints about the docs or the usability of
Cocoa. There have been a few times when I wasn't reading the
documentation thoroughly enough, or have had a question about
implementation that wasn't answered by looking at example code, and
have consulted the Apple listservs. (My bad)
There have been far fewer times when an obscure feature from one of
the more advanced APIs has not worked as it should. (Apple's bad)
But I can't think of a single time when I've been unable to figure out
where to look for guidance on a problem, or have been unable to
interpret that guidance.
For bird's-eye overviews, Apple posts things like this:
http://developer.apple.com/leopard/overview/graphicsandmedia.html
They also have resources broken down by category for hierarchically-
minded folks:
http://developer.apple.com/referencelibrary/
Once you narrow down what it is you want to do, Apple provides
"Getting Started" guides which give you the background you need:
http://developer.apple.com/referencelibrary/GettingStarted/GS_GraphicsImaging/
That will lead you to deep guides like this:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/GraphicsImaging/Conceptual/OpenGL-MacProgGuide/
If you need to see a piece of code in action, Apple provides a wealth
of Example files both on the web and in your /Developer folder.
Even if you need to have a video, step-by-step instructions and
associated sample code, Apple's still (!) got your back:
http://developer.apple.com/mac/codingheadstarts.php
And finally, if you're not hierarchically-minded, there's Google (just
specify site:developer.apple.com after your search terms), and the
fact that the Reference Library is generously hyperlinked. Apple has
put a huge amount of effort into making Cocoa and its related
technologies easy to use and extremely well documented, and in my
opinion, it shows.
The only thing I can think of that would be better than Apple's online
docs would be if an Apple engineer would physically sit down and walk
you through something personally. And of course, Apple does that as
well. It'll cost you a bit more (plane fare & WWDC ticket), but if you
need to have your hand held, they'll do it.
So if you're going to complain about the docs, I would suggest that
you get very very specific, because Apple is truly bending over
backward to make it easy for you.
- ben
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