Stevia: Human-readable auto-layout in code

#1

Post by sachadso » Mon, Mar 07, 2016, 11:21 PM UTC

Stevia: Human-readable auto-layout in code
github.com

Re: Stevia: Human-readable auto-layout in code

#2

Post by bphogan » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 12:11 AM UTC

I am not an iOS developer with much experience. I have taken one class and built two very simple apps. So I can't weigh in on how good of an idea this is from an iOS developer standpoint.

But I can say from a beginner to iOS standpoint that this looks amazing and I will put it to use in an app I am building immediately, as soon as I can figure out how.

To the author of this library, thank you.

Re: Stevia: Human-readable auto-layout in code

#3

Post by tomyws » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 12:18 AM UTC

I find it strange that something akin to markdown-style syntax sugar is more user-friendly than a visual designer. Do the tools for developing a UI for iOS this way not include a WYSIWYG editor to set things such as contraints?

Re: Stevia: Human-readable auto-layout in code

#4

Post by gravypod » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 12:23 AM UTC

I wonder if something similar would work in Java using annotations.

I experimented with this a little in a game I was working on. You just need a standard way of displaying everything, then automatically generate the UIs.

Re: Stevia: Human-readable auto-layout in code

#5

Post by seanalltogether » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 12:29 AM UTC

I feel like the app developers who don't simply bite the bullet and use the technologies that Apple promotes inevitably dig themselves into a corner.

Programmatic layouts/constraints just crumble underneath you when Apple decides to make changes in each new version of iOS or introduces a new formfactor.

Re: Stevia: Human-readable auto-layout in code

#6

Post by nashequilibrium » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 12:30 AM UTC

I hate storyboards and I decided that I will start using them after my current project is done. I just had so much code dealing with autolayout and constraints and weird little bugs. This looks really cool and will try it out. Thanks for the lib.

Re: Stevia: Human-readable auto-layout in code

#7

Post by msoad » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 12:35 AM UTC

There is also SnapKit which I really like:

https://github.com/SnapKit/SnapKit

        box.snp_makeConstraints { (make) -> Void in
           make.width.height.equalTo(50)
           make.center.equalTo(self.view)
        }

Re: Stevia: Human-readable auto-layout in code

#8

Post by euyyn » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 12:39 AM UTC

tomyws wrote: post #3

I find it strange that something akin to markdown-style syntax sugar is more user-friendly than a visual designer. Do the tools for developing a UI for iOS this way not include a WYSIWYG editor to set things such as contraints?

I find XCode's UI editor pretty good!

Re: Stevia: Human-readable auto-layout in code

#9

Post by pducks32 » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 12:41 AM UTC

tomyws wrote: post #3

I find it strange that something akin to markdown-style syntax sugar is more user-friendly than a visual designer. Do the tools for developing a UI for iOS this way not include a WYSIWYG editor to set things such as contraints?

They do in the interface builder however if you just wanted to use programmatically created views then not really no.

Re: Stevia: Human-readable auto-layout in code

#10

Post by Someone » Tue, Mar 08, 2016, 12:44 AM UTC

tomyws wrote: post #3

I find it strange that something akin to markdown-style syntax sugar is more user-friendly than a visual designer. Do the tools for developing a UI for iOS this way not include a WYSIWYG editor to set things such as contraints?

They do, but search and replace, diffing, and copy-paste of multiple elements and their constraints likely (I haven't used Xcode's editor much, certainly not recently) do not work as well as their equivalent in text.

And of course, some people find markdown more user-friendly than a visual GUI for more or less the same reasons, so it should not be that surprising to find some people experiment with this.

And of course, autolayout has a text-based language of its own (https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserEx...)