UI Prototyping tool

I think drawing the UI of the application we want to build is a good idea. It helps have a better understanding of the final product and how the user will interact with it.

Interface Builder is often mentioned as a UI prototyping tool but so far, I don't think so. I remember in my old days of Macintosh programming, I was using a tool called "Prototyper" which allowed me to draw my UI and make link between interface elements to build the interactive behavior the UI. Interface Builder, as far as I know, won't allow that.

I decided to create a very simple UI prototyping tool. This is a Keynote document with most of the iPhone UI elements (widgets) each as single objects. Simply copy those base objects to build a specific screen or page of the application UI. You can even create complete screens and have interaction by building hyperlinks within the Keynote document to simulate the behavior of the UI. Tell me what you think.

You can download this document here: http://files.me.com/jfmartin67/8krn3g.key.zip

Stay tuned, I will be uploading new versions of this file in the future.

Xcode compared to emacs editor

Oh my god ! OMG!

Last time I wrote intensively computer programs, I was studying at the university writing C++ code on a SUN box under an X windows system. We used to write code in emacs or even plain text editors. What a painful process. 

Boy, what 15 years brings to the IDE environments evolution. 

The more I see Xcode in action, particularly the source editor, the more I cannot believe how much time we could have saved back in those days to finish our assignment late at night because of syntax errors during compile time... 

Today, I know that I will stay up late at night but this will be for more useful reasons.. I guess... 

Establishing a web presence

I need to have a web site, a blog beside my email addresses. What tools are available ? Which one should I use ?

I'm a MobileMe subscriber. I know about iWeb too. I love MobileBe and the iWeb application from Apple... but I need a computer with the software to do my updates... which is not always the case. There is a better way. What if I could just use the web to build my presence on the web! Here comes Google.

In 24 hours (part time!), I started my blog with blogspot, created a web site (still empty but working) with google sites, set up Google Analytics to know how popular I am on the web (I'm still pretty much invisible to the web world, for now). Finally, I'm using FeedBurner to known who will be reading my RSS feeds...

Pretty cool. Very happy. Cost me nothin!

Blog as a tool

I think that blogspot will be an important tool in talking about becoming an iphone develeper.