Web setup

Working on learning iPhone programming (Cocoa), Google App Engine (scalable backend web apps), Python (goes with App and traditional server), html, css, jquery. Mastering all of these technologies should give a full toolkit for developing all of the web apps one needs. Dashcode can also be useful for quick webpage production.

The idea is that most functionality is in the browser, achieving cross platform, computer independent living with a separate, but correlated development for mobile web browsers and iphone apps. This should pretty much be what one needs to reach everyone. While I may develop on MacOS programs for fun, I think there is little profit in desktop publishing.

Learning parsing techniques on all the platforms is probably a must as well as data storage and interface issues.

Cocoa Objects

Objective-C is a fairly straightforward language (main thing is to be aware of memory leaks for inline creation;usage;discard idioms that should be avoided or mitigated with autorelease pools).

But there is a little of learning to do with the built in object types. For example NSArray (and mutable version) has to everything be an object. So one can use NSNumber to store numbers, NSValue for other types, NSNull for nil. Another facet is using NSEnumeration to go over objects or better to use NSFastEnumeration protocol to do a for (Buttons* b in buttons) { or one can do [buttons reverseObjectEnumerator] to traverse backwards.

It is a lot to take in. I guess one should just embrace the documentation, maybe trying to get pattern matching.

Webserver and Mac

Well, I got a fully functional web environment going. I figured out how to get Apache and Python to work with each other on ScarMac. So now, I can develop as if I am on my webserver, but just locally. Then I upload to my website.

One thing is that the python scripts have to be made executable and as far as I can tell, that is command line.

I have also just started looking at Google App Engine, which works with Python. It sounds interesting.