New to mac development - where should I begin?

Question

Hi

I am new to mac development (I've been into iPhone dev so have a good idea of Objective-C). I want to create a simple application which gets/shows data to the user and uses SQL to save the data.

Any sample apps that I came across are either Core Data apps or Document-based apps. Document based apps are definitely not what I want. But I am not sure I understand the way Core Data apps are created and how they'll go into my application.

Are there any good tuts around which explain how a Core Data app is designed and in what cases to create one? Also are there any tutorials which explain the "old-fashioned" way of creating mac apps (I don't want to get uber-confused with the Core Data stuff and don't mind writing code for it)?

Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

When you create a Cocoa Application you get the choice of creating a 'Cocoa Application' or a 'Cocoa Document-Based Application' The Cocoa application is not document based sostored data in one location for a user. Examples of this are iPhoto and iTunes - there is no concept of documents in these applications but there is differnt data for differnt users.

Core Data would still be a good choice for non document based applications - it's just that the Core Data DB would be used every time for a given user.

Aaron Hillegass Cocoa Programming is a great Cocoa book.

Answer 2

Apple provides enormous amounts of sample code. It used to be easier to find, but since a recent redesign of developer.apple.com, it's no longer very easy to browse. Look here for a flat list of 3179 sample projects:

http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/navigation/index.html#section=Resource%20Types&topic=Sample%20Code

Filter on "application kit" to find some basic projects that should get you started.

Ignore Core Data for now. That's for database driven apps.

Welcome to Mac Development!