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Archive for the ‘Xcode’ Category
WWDC, the Keynote, the iPhone 4 and the iOS 4
Today, the WWDC 2010 has begun. As every year, the first day of the conference is mainly dedicated to the keynote. In reality, after the keynote there are three important sessions where Apple engineers show what they are going to demonstrate during the rest of the week.
The keynote started as usual at 10am PST, but people were in line already at 2am to be as close as possible to the stage.
Meet iNVASIVECODE at the WWDC 2010
The World Wide Developer Conference 2010 has been announced today. Official dates are June 7-11 in San Francisco (CA). And, we will be there.
XCode documentation alternative
When I started using XCode, one thing that catch my attention was the way the documentation is included in the tool. Do not get me wrong, the documentation provided is fantastic, but I do not like very much the way is provided. As you know it comes with a specially designed browser linked to XCode. This means that when XCode closes or hides, the doc closes or hides as well.
Another issue I found that this mentioned browser is very well designed to use with the mouse but (here I go again) not so much with the keyboard.
I have been for some times looking for an alternative to browse the documentation and here I suggest another way that works for me.
Omniweb as a documentation browsing tool
The first thing to notice is that the documentation comes in html (or pdf), so probably a browser can be the best shot. I read on some blogs about the simplicity and great navigability of OmniWeb from the Omni Group. I tried it and I found it was perfect for my purpose.
OmniWeb has lots of goodies to work with the keyboard from which I can highlight the fast search for links. Other browsers also have this feature where you can just start typing to search for some link and once the link is selected return to go there.
Another great feature of Omniweb is the capability to hide everything and looks like a simple window frame with just your favorites. This makes it far less distracting.
If you set up your favorites as the links to the local and remote documentation, then you can go directly with alt + 1..2..3..4 (the number of the favorite). That way if I want to go to the NSString reference page I do the following:
- “alt + 2″ to go to the Core Reference page.
- “NSSt” + return.
As you can see this is ultra fast. In fact I only have three local favorites:
- iPhone OS Reference library
- Core Reference library
- Developer Reference library
That way, the only thing I need to do is to type “alt” + 1 or 2 or 3 and start typing what I’m looking for. Once inside the page I can not use the same technique to find the area or exact think I’m looking for. The fast search only search links but not plain text. This means that I shall go with Cmd + F as usual.
The success of this approach to the developer documentation relays on the level of knowledge you get with your browsing tool (if you are a keyboard junkie you will understand this).
Getting the links to the local documentation.
One of the issues you will find is how to get the links to the local documentation. I can give you the whole path but there is a simple way to get the path of the local documentation you access all the time.
In the documentation browser that comes with XCode, search for the page you want and once there right click on the page will suggest you to open in another browser. Select it and there you have the address of that page.
Get the address and create a “Favorite” on OmniWeb.
So, this solution may not solve your daily live, but if you are geek enough to make everything with the keyboard this may make you happier.
