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Issue 7.6

FEATURE

REALWord: Working with Multiple Documents

A look at the document-centric design and the EditField widget

Issue: 7.6 (September/October 2009)
Author: JC Cruz
Author Bio: JC is a freelance technical writer living in British Columbia. He writes for various publications, pokes around with Cocoa, Python, and REALbasic, and spends time with his nephew. He can be reached at anarakisware-at-gmail-dot-com.
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 76,156
Starting Page Number: 22
Article Number: 7610
Resource File(s):

Download Icon 7610.zip Updated: 2009-09-01 11:35:26

Related Web Link(s):

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/Documents/Documents.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_view_controller

Excerpt of article text...

Most word processors have the ability to display and manage several documents at a time. So today, we will learn the basics behind a document-centric application. We then examine the EditField widget and adapt it to handle multiple documents. We will use our widget to build a simple text editor. So get yourself a mug of hot brew and read on.

A Quick Primer on Interface Design

Most modern software products interact with their users via a graphical interface. The interface is usually a window frame with one or more widgets. Some widgets serve as controls, allowing users to change certain aspects of the application or to run specific tasks. Some serve as views, accepting from users or displaying data in return (Figure 1).

The design of each window interface often depends on the underlying data. For instance, a utility-oriented design uses a separate window for each unique data set. Each window has a unique set of widgets, and each one handles its data differently. Examples of products that follow this design include calculators, installers, and disk tools.

...End of Excerpt. Please purchase the magazine to read the full article.