Apple Launches Reference Library

andy55 writes "If you thought Apple's online dev resources were already the best out there, they just got better. Apple has announced the launch of their new ADC Reference Library. Named features are: powerful search options, added navigation, 'Getting Started; docs on key technologies, and a more consistent organization. Impressively, the first search I ran in their search engine on a painful Mach-O dev issue I've been fighting for the last week turned up the key obscure tech info I needed!" Meanwhile, skrysakj writes "Apple has launched a new Reference Library. I always thought their help/references for Developers was spotty (either non-existent or dead on) so this should be a welcome change."

Great stuff

[tiktokfx]

However, in reference to the "spotty references" on developing... there's plenty of reference material for those who look... nice heavy folder full of documentation in the developer tools installation.

Re:Paranoid

[the_proton]

The local offline copy should be part of the next Xcode release. The documentation that comes with Xcode is just a snapshot of what was on the various areas of the ADC site as the software was released.

- proton

Definitely a step in the right direction...

[Chief Typist]

The newly release Reference Library is very well organized and makes finding things much easier. Good job, Apple! It's been a long time coming!

There's still a problem, though. Much of the "state of the art" documentation is actually happening on the Mac OS X and Cocoa mailing lists. It's good to have reference materials, but if you're looking for information on the latest & greatest addition to the OS, go search the archives [mamasam.com].

You'll find that you can get answers directly from the developers before the reference materials are formalized and made public. As an example, in the months following last year's WWDC, there was a ton of information on the lists about the new Cocoa Bindings. As a developer who wants to stay on the leading edge of Mac OS X product development, this is invaluable.

Also, the guy that is running the mailing list archive, is looking for donations. If you are a developer who uses these archives, PLEASE DONATE.

-ch

Re:good for beginners

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, and I don't want to hear anyone try to compare Windows' cmd.exe with a bash shell.

Too bad :P I like cmd.exe and use it every day. Some features it has that give it some respectability:

• Redirection operators < > |
  
• Logical operators && ||
  
• Macros somewhat similar to bash's. Try doskey macro_name=command_line
  
• Ability to redirect stderr to stdout Try 2>1 or 1<&2
  
• User-defined file descriptors (or in Windows-speak, handles). >&3 >&4 and so on up to 9
  
• improved looping. for /l %a in (start,step,end) do for_body for iterative loops.
  
• better text file parsing. Try for /f. You can read in a text file, break it up into tokens and pass the tokens to a command. You can also do that with command output or strings.
  
• Tab completion
  
• /dev/null workalike. Redirect to NUL instead.
  
• directory stacks. pushd and popd
  
• Ability to read in input and store it into a variable. set /p variable=promptString
  
• Advanced arithmetic. set /a can do modulus, bitshifts, bit flipping, compound assignment, xor, bitwise or, bitwise and
  
• improved decision selection. if string operator string body The operator can be equ for equal, gtr for greater than, and so on.
  
• grep replacement, findstr. Has the ability to use regular expressions.
  

Anyway, cmd.exe is not as crippled as command.com. It is much more capable and useful. It can even somewhat hold its own against Unix shells.

AppKiDo

[rixstep]

Don't want to tout someone's product, but seriously: if you're a pro here, you can't make it fast or far without Andy Lee's AppKiDo. It's easy to Google to, and it's free.

What Andy does is parse the actual documentation you already have on disk, but he does a much better job of it than Apple. Searches are better, faster, more flexible, and so are the renderings.

It's one of the truly indispensable programs out there.

Re:AppKiDo

[Juanvaldes]

I can not AOL this enough. AppKiDo is a Cocoa developoers best friend.

Re:Definitely a step in the right direction...

[bar-agent]

Another good source of information is the cocoadev.com wiki. Documentation gaps are filled pretty quickly -- I should know, I'm a regular contributor.

Re:AppKiDo

[XxtraLarGe]

Absolutely. AppKiDo is in my dock right next to Project Builder. A must have for any serious OS X developer.

Re:AppKiDo

[MasonMcD]

The search function on the ADC reference library is now powered by Google, so you should get much better hits now, and moreso as more people use it.

Re:It didn't USED to be spotty...

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately, one of the things that appears to have come in with the NeXT subculture is a more casual attitude toward documentation.

Not hardly. NeXT was noted for excellent documentation, particularly the NeXTSTEP concepts doc.

The long and short of it is, Apple simply has a lot more to document than they ever did before, and they're doing the best they can to get it out the door ASAP.

If you have specific (keyword SPECIFIC) issues with any of apple's docs, file a report at bugreporter.apple.com. Just parroting the old "apple's docs suck" isn't a bug report, it's just an unfounded gripe.