Mojomonkey Coding

How many times have you set out to build a Prototype, prove a particular high-risk component of an application only to receive pressure from high management to continue forward with the Prototype through production? If the company does not buy into the idea of prototypes or, worse, fully understand that that means. That is, they don’t understand that you truly write code as fast, sloppy and duct-taped as possible to just prove a concept, then throw it out completely at the end. If you find yourself in this situation, how can you convince them that prototyping is the correct way?

There is a very simple solution to this problem. Never, ever, prototype in this environment. If someone above you does not understand the concept, they never will. Therefore, just don’t do it. Instead, iterate on that risky feature, using Tracer Bullets or similar.

Wil Shipley has an interesting tip regarding semi-colons and implementation of methods.

End the definition lines on your method implementations with a semicolon, so you can copy-n-paste them to or from your header (or the “Private” category at the top of your file) as needed when they change. Semicolons are required in the “interface” section, but don’t hurt anything in the “implementation” section.

Quick tip on locating the physical location of a file on disk while working on it in Xcode. Simply right-click (or command-click) the title bar. This will give a list of the directory structure. Clicking on any directory will open Finder at that location.

↑⌘E – Zooms the Editor In/Out. (Removes the files list above the Editor).

⌥↑⌘T – Shows the current file in the Editor in the Class group tree.

You’ll notice that Xcode has built in Autocomplete (as most IDEs do). As you start typing, the IDE does its best to anticipate what you are trying to do and puts suggested code in for you. See below:

In the above screenshot my cursor is after the ‘t’ in ’string’. All text to the right is suggested.

One cool feature of Xcode is using CTRL+/ you can immediately jump the the first parameter. The parameter is highlighted to allow for immediately typing and replacing. This saves a bit of time, as I was originally hitting RETURN mousing over and replacing the parameter. This saves a couple key strokes.