Things Macintosh (Developer’s Corner)

A software developer’s Guide to
“Things Macintosh” on the Net...

This page was last updated on 28-February-2009

Developer’s Corner
Apple Developer Connection Apple Developer Documentation Apple Developer Technotes Apple Software Developer Kits A Checklist for Building Applications and Extensions Register your creator type with Apple Apple Developer Connection website Apple Developer Technical Q&A Apple Developer Connection newsletter Reporting Bugs to Apple All The Quickies – Everything from Unix shortcuts to Cocoa Register your product in the Macintosh Products Guide Mac Developer Search Engine – Covers various Mac OS X development related web sites; from Marc Liyanage
AppleScript
do shell script in AppleScript (aka TN2065) – How to call BSD sub-system (shell); a “must read” Script Web AppleScript This Week AppleScript Documentation – (from Apple) Bill Cheeseman’s AppleScript Sourcebook MacScripter Forums – Excellent resource for scripters AppleScript Studio Wiki – A place for AppleScript Studio users to share tips, tricks, and methods AppleScript Resources – Links (from Apple) to various AppleScript resources Essential Sub-routines – Useful AppleScript subroutines (from Apple) Embedding AppleScripts in your app – Classic / Carbon Drop Script Backgrounder – Turn a stay-open AppleScript application into a background-only app Albert – Launch Applescripts remotely via eMail; intriguing possibilities (but potential security risk too) Automator – Examples, downloads, resources, etc. Automator Actions – MacScripter Automator World – “Better living through Macintosh scripting” Script Editor 2.0
Scripting
Introduction to Open Source Scripting on Mac OS X – Overview by Apple Platypus – Create app wrappers around shell, Perl, Python, PHP, Ruby, Expect, Tcl and AppleScript scripts
Ruby
RubyCocoa – A Ruby/Objective-C Bridge for Cocoa Introduction to RubyCocoa – O’Reilly primer Replacing AppleScript with Ruby – An alternative Apple Event syntax
Perl
CamelBones – A Cocoa framework for programs written entirely in Perl. Also provides a high-level object-oriented wrapper around an embedded Perl interpreter, so that Cocoa programs written in Objective-C can easily make use of code and libraries written in Perl
Python
PyObjC project – Fully bidirectional bridge between Python and Objective-C; Cocoa GUI applications in pure Python are possible AppScripting – Manipulate AppleScriptable applications using ordinary Python code
Dashboard Widgets
Developing Dashboard Widgets – High Level Overview Dashboard Tutorial – Write a widget Dashboard Reference Dashboard Sample Code
Developer Widgets
Word Services Apple Event Suite Apple Events simplified – For Classic / Carbon apps; uses embedded AppleScript Mac OS X Developer Widgets – Apple’s collection of third-party freeware and demos MacZoop – C++ app framework for small, quick–turn development projects X-Builder – Authoring tool for creating multimedia projects and royalty-free standalone applications
Regarding Resources
ResFool – Essentially ResEdit Plus for Mac OS X ResCompare – Create an Updater for your software Mercutio MDEF – Menu DEFinition resource to easily extend your app menus HexEdit – Open Source hexadecimal resource and data fork file editor see also: Nick Shanks’ HexEdit site
InterNet for Programmers
SubWoofer – API to make your app Internet–enabled with just a few calls Lots of NCSA source code (Telnet, Mosaic etc.) Eudora 1.3 source code
Database and BLOG
QuickLite – A Cocoa wrapper for an embeddable SQL database engine (SQLite); Obsolete as of Tiger: see Core Data
Source Code Archives
Apple Developer SDK’s – Straight from the horse’s mouth Nic Switch – Perhaps the most comprehensive source code archive for the Mac Mac OS Forge – Open source components specific to Mac OS X Source Forge – Clearinghouse for Open Source projects

Essential Developer Information
Mac OS X Technology Overview – Start here for Mac OS X info Reference Library Developer RSS Feeds – Table of topic-specific RSS feeds Apple Developer Documentation Apple Human Interface Guidelines MacTech – Online developer’s magazine Mac DevCenter – O’Reilly Net Mac OS X development articles Mac OS X Mac OS X Server Carbon Tips & Tricks – From Apple Google Groups – Search programming newsgroup archives Hardware Information
TechNotes
Technotes – Table of Contents Technotes – Alphabetical listing HFS Plus Volume Format – TN1150
System Startup
System Startup Programming Topics – The boot process, daemons, creating startup items, etc. Running items at login – Somewhat dated; an eclectic assortment of info
Newsgroups for Programmers
Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.programmer.codewarrior Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.programmer.help Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.programmer.misc Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.programmer.tools
Cocoa & Xcode
What Is Cocoa? – From Apple Getting Started with Cocoa – From Apple Programming with Cocoa – Several articles on Mac OS X CocoaLab – Free “Become An Xcoder” PDF book and examples Cocoa Dev Central – Tips, tricks, and tutorials (and more) for “newbie” Cocoa developers Programming with Cocoa – Mike Beam’s articles on Cocoa development CocoaDev – A WikiWikiWeb site for the Mac OS X developer community Introduction to Xcode – Apple’s free IDE MySQL–Cocoa (Project Page) – Objective-C API for MySQL
Core Data
Developing with Core Data – High Level Overview Building a Sample Core Data Application – Video Tutorial Build a Core Data App – Core Data Tutorial
Objective-C
Introduction to The Objective-C Programming Language – Apple’s primer Objective-C – An overview Objective-C Beginner’s Guide – For the C programmer Objective-C FAQ’s – From comp.lang.objective-c Cocoa Style for Objective-C – Readable Cocoa code Objective-C is Fun – An introduction A First Look at Objective-C – An introduction Objective-C in the Wikipedia – History, summary, etc. objective-c – Features, history, links, references, books, comparisons, docs, samplecode A 10-Minute Introduction to Objective-C Objective-C – Very brief overview Beginners Guide to Objective-C Programming – A primer PyObjC – Bridge between Python and Objective-C Using C++ With Objective-C
C++
Nano – C++ framework for developing Mac OS X apps with Xcode. Can be used for porting existing apps. Open Source. The C++ Programming Language – Bjarne Stroustrup’s Overview C++ Annotations – Intended for knowledgeable users of C who would like to make the transition to C++ Understanding C++: An Accelerated Introduction – A quick and painless way to understand the fundamental concepts driving C++ Introduction to Object–Oriented Programming Using C++ – Object-orientation as a programming concept online C++ tutorial – Comprehensive Tutorial Learn C/C++ Today – Guide to resources and tutorials C Programmer's Paradise – C++ Tutorial The C++ Virtual Library – Guide to resources and tutorials Free Online C, C++ Courses and Tutorials – A useful portal with valid links C++ Tutorial 2 – The C++ Stuff – C++ enhancements to C C++ Made Easy – Tutorial (a tad DOS–centric) An Introduction to C++ Programming – Tutorial (OS/2 slant, but general purpose) Bjarne Stroustrup’s FAQ – Straight from the horse’s mouth! C++ Tutorials – Poor web design, but useful tutorials C++ as a Better C – A little sparse, but useful C++ Tutorial Links – Windoze-centric, but there are some useful (platform independent) links C++ tutorial for C users – A little rough, but useful P.J. Plauger’s Standard C Reference – An online C language reference

Other pages in the “Things” series are:

Things Mac OS X – for Mac OS X GUI related, data security and encryption, etc.
Things UNIX – for Mac OS X CLI related, UNIX tools, Terminal.app, general UNIX, etc.
Things eMail – Mac OS X eMail clients, server info, and SPAM countermeasures
Things Webmastering – for Webmasters, Server Admin’s, HTML, CGI, etc.
Things Macintosh (misc) – hardware, shopping, news, vintage (including OS 8-9), etc.

This page was last updated on 28-February-2009