November 91 - IcePick v1.0b1 Reviewed
IcePick v1.0b1 Reviewed
Jeffrey J. Barbose
What lurks behind the familiar application icon can be accurately described as a
collection of tightly-coupled resources. Even all those lines of C++ get bundled into
resources of type 'CODE'. It's not surprising then that a significant portion of
Macintosh application development time is spent on putting all those resources
together: code, menus, icons, strings and views, to name a few.
There are several developer tools specifically designed to chip away at the time
required to generate needed application resources. Granted, just about any of these
resources can be generated from textual descriptions using Apple's resource compiler
Rez-but for even the simplest resource types, that can be a cumbersome approach.
The situation becomes most intractable when working with compound resource types,
such as MacApp's 'view' resources. ViewEdit, which is supplied with MacApp, made
great strides in development of view hierarchies. It allows the developer to sketch the
views in MacDraw fashion, generating the appropriate 'view' resources from theses
sketches.
But with ViewEdit, since only static 'view' resources are generated, the testing of
views must still be done from within the application under development. If the code
that supports a particular view is not yet in place, the developer is forced to
construct temporary support for testing the views.
Enter KPMG•ExIS' IcePick, which can be described as a "studly" ViewEdit. It's a view
resource editor, an other-resource picker, and a run time environment for view
testing, all in one.
Configuration
First, some details. I used IcePick 1.0b1 when writing this article. I ran it on a IIci,
with 20MB RAM and 32-bit addressing on, and found it quite stable. According to the
developers, it also runs with virtual memory. At press time, the current beta version
is 1.0b3; 1.0 final is imminent.
The big picture
IcePick does its thing through five windows:
• View viewer (or meta-viewer, if you will!)
• Worksheet window
• Hierarchy window
• DotR window
• Attributes window
The windows all share a common feature. Each contains a tool bar akin to the one found
in Microsoft Excel 3. And like Excel 3's tool bar buttons, the IcePick buttons are
non-standard in appearance. Unlike Excel, the tool bars are within the windows, not
independent of them.
Usually, I'm a serious advocate of standard Macintosh-like controls and whatnot.
However, in this case, the non-standard appearance of the IcePick buttons actually
makes for an easier-to- use application-with all the views, subviews, superviews,
meta-views and view viewers cluttering up the screen, it's good that IcePick windows
are easy to differentiate from the user-constructed views.
Divergence from Apple's interface guidelines is confined to the IcePick buttons, and the
application as a whole presents a well thought-out and entirely familiar functionality.
So much so, in fact, that the best way to describe most features is by comparison to
other well-known applications.
View to a view
Upon launching IcePick, you are presented with an empty and untitled View Viewer
window (Figure 1). In this window, you can conveniently create 'view' resources by
clicking on the "new view" button in the View Viewer's tool bar. Compiled 'view'
resources from other sources (like ViewEdit resources, or Rez-compiled .rsrc files)
can be pasted in via the Clipboard.
Like ResEdit's primary window, the View Viewer provides a general
resource-browsing facility. The "new name" button provides for changing the
resource name or id of the selected view. In addition to browsing, alternate views
(Worksheet, Hierarchy and DotR) of the selected resource can be opened via the
buttons.
Work, work, work
Most view creation and editing is done in the Worksheet window (Figure 2). It
improves on the functionality of ViewEdit's view window and has a slightly different
interface. Like all other IcePick windows, several buttons appear at the top of the
window: Print This View, Hierarchy, DotR, Attribute, Is Window, and TWindow
Attributes.
Two windoids (floating windows) are available (Figure 3, next page) when the
Worksheet is active: the Standard Object palette and the Measurement window. The
Standard Object palette is much like a typical Macintosh Paint or Draw palette,
providing for selection among the MacApp built-in view types (TGridView, TRadio,
TCheckBox, ), as well as choice of sub-view selection methods-Arrow tool for
single selection, Marquee tool for multiple selections, and the Text tool for direct text
editing of views that contain text fields (TStaticText, TCheckBox, TPopup, ).
Double-clicking on any view type icon makes it "sticky," allowing you to consecutively
create views of that type. This is great for clustered items. If you just single-click on
the view type icon, IcePick returns to the Arrow tool after creating a single view of
the selected type.
Hierarchy View window
If IcePick weren't a Macintosh application that aids in Macintosh application
development, there just might be a look-and-feel lawsuit against IcePick for its
Hierarchy View window (just kidding, Apple). This view borrows unabashedly from
the System 7 Finder's hierarchical views windows, right down to the right and
down-pointing triangles.
If you've used the System 7 Finder's hierarchical view, you already know (for the
most part) how to use this IcePick view. If you haven't used System 7 yet, like most
things Macintosh, it's intuitive and straightforward. A single view entry in this
window contains the resource name and type, shows whether the view is shown or
enabled, and the view type's IcePick icon representation. (See Figure 4, which is the
hierarchical representation of Figure 2.) In the left column of the window, if a
triangle appears, it means that this view contains subviews. Some highlights of this
window:
• Clicking on a view's right-oriented triangle graphically expands it to
show the first level of contained subviews (which may have subviews that
have subviews).
• Clicking on a view's down-oriented triangle collapses the graphical
display and hides all of its subviews.
• Single and multiple selections can be made in this view.
• View hierarchies can be changed by dragging a selection on top of its new
superview.
As in all other IcePick windows, there is a button tool bar, with convenient access to
view printing and to other IcePick windows.
Rez (.r) source generation
For those times when a text-based resource description is needed, IcePick provides the
"DotR" window. By selecting a view (in the Worksheet, Hierarchy or View Viewer)
and clicking the DotR button in that window (or by selecting the "RezWindow
Windows menu item), IcePick shows you the corresponding Rez-able text resource
description (Figure 5).
Formatting style can be changed from the "Preferences" item in the Options menu-a
nice touch. The text can be copied out of this window and pasted right into an MPW ".r
file, obviating the need to Derez an IcePick document. Note that this is a one-way
operation: text editing (including pasting into the view) is not available. Through the
buttons of this window, the text can be saved to a new ".r" file, or appended to an
existing one.
Attributes window
The Attributes window enables fine-tuning of view parameters. It is nearly identical
in appearance to ViewEdit's "edit view parameters" window. Class-specific and
inherited editable parameters are displayed according to the hierarchy, starting with
the current class, down to TView parameters (Figure 6 next page).
Multiple kinds of selection
Working with IcePick involves two basic concepts: the "View Being Created" (or VBC)
and the "Special View," depending on the task.
All IcePick windows described above center around the VBC. The contents of each
window are updated according to changes made to the VBC (the 'view' instance selected
or the entire 'view' resource being generated) in the active window (moving a view in
the worksheet automatically changes the numbers in the View Measurement window in
real-time, and changes the numbers in an open Attributes window when the mouse is
released).
The idea of a "Special View" applies when more than one view is selected. To visually
differentiate the Special View from other currently selected views, IcePick adds
solid-line corner markings to the Special View (Figure 7 next page).
The good stuff
At this point, you may be thinking, "So why switch from ViewEdit? It does most of this
already." What makes IcePick the hands-down winner of the two view editors is its
"run- time" view testing mode, its automagical TView layout features, and its
other-resource picker facility.
Test drive a MacApp view
The most powerful feature of IcePick is its Run Mode for testing the behavior of your
views. Run Mode is available when exactly one IcePick document is open. This
limitation may present some inconvenience, but the workaround is not all that
cumbersome: saving and closing all but the document containing the views to be tested.
For those views that aren't contained in a TWindow, IcePick provides a Window
Placeholder architecture for use in Run Mode, displaying the notice "Run Mode: This
view has no window" under the title bar of those TWindow-less views. Though the beta
version I tested had some run mode anomalies, they are largely cosmetic. The bugs are
acknowledged in the 1.0b1 release notes, and should be corrected in the final release.
As the 1.0b1 Draft User's Manual states: views that you create are actually
instances of the corresponding MacApp classes. They look and behave just like the real
thing because they are the real thing." This is a fine example of OOP code re-use and a
wise design choice. It allows for serious future enhancement.
One extension that I'd like to see is the ability to include user-derived view classes (as
IcePick plug-ins) to be tested as active views, much in the same way that the canned
MacApp views are handled now. As it stands, user-derived TViews can are only
represented in the Worksheet (and in ViewEdit) as simple rectangles, and specified as
a derived type by changing the class name in the Attributes window.
Automatic view layout
Another great feature of IcePick is its automatic view layout capability, which is
accessed via the Arrange Menu (Figure 8 next page). The two Set items at the bottom
of the menu are for convenience. They allow the text style and view adornments to be
set for all selected views (in ViewEdit 1.0.1, you'd have to double-click on each of
these views and change those attributes in each view, one by one).
All remaining menu items have to do with positioning of selected views within the main
view; here the "Special View" concept comes into play. The items in the first section
of the Arrange menu have to do with alignment of views. In the second menu section,
selected views can be set to the same size as the Special View, all set to the default size
for that TView subclass, or the entire selection of views snapped to the origin of their
common Superview. The third section of this menu deals with the view spreading, or
the space between selected views. Views can be spread horizontally or vertically, by
default or custom spread gap.
Manipulation of selected views is done with respect to the Special View. In Figure 9,
notice that in the left cluster, the topmost checkbox view is the Special View, and the
other two checkboxes are included in the selection. In the Arrange Menu, choosing Left
Edge, Same Size, and Custom Spread with 4-pixel gap, in any order, yields the
right-hand cluster.
These features have special importance when writing applications for the
international market. Apple Human Interface Guidelines-see Inside Macintosh Volume
6, Chapter 2, pp. 8–9-dictate that views support both left and right symmetrical
alignment of visual elements, so that items appear symmetrical regardless of the
Script Manager in use. Apple Human Interface Notes strongly suggest default pixel
counts between dialog items, distances of items from edges, even the width and
distance of the default button RoundedRect. By using IcePick in general, and its
ArrangeMenu facilities in particular, you can almost guarantee compliance with the
appearance aspects of the Guidelines.
Pick a resource, any resource
For view types requiring additional resources to round out their
functionality-namely, TPopup, TPicture, TIcon and TPattern-IcePick provides a
means of including the necessary non-view resources. Needed resources are attached
via a Pick button in the Attribute window.
Good citizenry
IcePick recognizes file access permissions and is MPW Projector Aware. If the file is
part of a project and is checked out as read only, or if the file is already open in
another application, IcePick will still open the file, but will not allow it to be saved
back to the same name. In that case, Save As and Save A Copy can be used instead,
since neither writes to the original file.
IcePick deals with file accesses conveniently. While the Standard File dialog normally
filters for IcePick, ViewEdit, and ResEdit document types only, holding down the
option key when Open File is chosen will display all files. Any file (including
applications) containing 'view' resources can be read by IcePick.
MacApp 3.0b2 and beyond
IcePick 1.0b1 generates MacApp 2 and ViewEdit-compatible 'view' resources. MacApp
3.0b2 and later use a newer 'View' format, which is incompatible with 'view'. ETO#5
versions of MacApp 3 still support the 'view' resource type, and documentation is
included with those versions that describes use of ViewPromoter, a tool for updating
to MacApp 3.0 'View' resources.
Minor complaints
I found very few serious problems with IcePick-only one, actually. Most of the ones I
did find were largely cosmetic; however, there is one major difficulty in the Standard
Object Palette windoid.
The icons representing the canned MacApp view types are too obscure for positive
identification. The functionality of this windoid is too intrinsic to IcePick to force the
user to figure out (or worse, memorize) the icons, which are much too small.
At the very least, dragging over the palette should highlight the icons in real time-and
the text field should display the currently highlighted view type in real time. Perhaps
this point will be addressed in the final release version of IcePick. In the meantime,
see Figure 10 for identification of Standard Object Palette items.
As I stated earlier, the non-standard appearance of the buttons in IcePick's tool bars
actually enhances the usability of IcePick. However, the Print View button, where it
exists, should have a consistent location. In the Worksheet & Hierarchy windows it's
leftmost; in the DotR window, it's rightmost. Perhaps it should be placed at the right
edge of the tool bar-or even eliminated altogether, since most seasoned Macintosh
users would print from the File menu or command-P anyway. Again, I'm using
IcePick 1.0b1, and this may change by final release.
Pickin' and grinnin'
IcePick is a major leap in functionality over ViewEdit, because it can test the behavior
of the views independently within IcePick. It's a strong testimonial to object
programming that this is done by creating actual instances of the view classes, and it
hints that powerful extensions to an already superb development tool may be possible
in future.
References
• Inside Macintosh, Volume 6, Addison-Wesley, 1991. pp. 2.8–2.9.
• IcePick v1.0b1 Draft User's Manual, KPMG•ExIS, 1991
• ReadMe for ViewPromoter 3.0b2PQR, ETO#5, Apple Computer, Inc.
1991.
• MacApp 3.0b1 Class & Method Reference Stack, AppleComputer, Inc.
1991.
• IcePick v1.0b1 Release Notes, KPMG•ExIS, 1991.