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Vector based UI design tool that generates ObjC

paintcodeapp.com

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Vector based UI design tool that generates ObjC

#1
PaintCode is a simple vector drawing app that instantly generates resolution-independent Objective-C drawing code for both Mac OS X and iOS.

You no longer have to tweak and recompile your drawing code over and over again to achieve the desired result.

Vector based UI design tool that generates ObjC
paintcodeapp.com

Re: Vector based UI design tool that generates ObjC

#2
Really cool. This reminds me of Bret Victor's talk where he stresses the importance of seeing the effect of your code immediately (http://vimeo.com/36579366).

It's not clear from the description but it would be great if it could immediately render whatever Core Graphics code I was writing, as I was writing it, much like this in-development tool (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JupqhcT4ONY) which popped up in my Twitter stream a couple days ago.

Re: Vector based UI design tool that generates ObjC

#4
post #3

Other than dynamically-related colors, is this much different from designing in Illustrator and exporting to PDF, which I understand is well-supported in iOS and OS X?

Code generation seems to be the selling point. I've never seen wel executed GUI code generation however on any platform. Windows Forms was especially awful...

Re: Vector based UI design tool that generates ObjC

#5
post #2

Really cool. This reminds me of Bret Victor's talk where he stresses the importance of seeing the effect of your code immediately ( http://vimeo.com/36579366 ). It's not clear from the description but it would be great if it could immediately render whatever Core Graphics code I was writing, as I was writing it, much like this in-development tool ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JupqhcT4ONY ) which popped up in my Tw…

What Bret Victor showed in his talk was quite amazing. It really opens up one's mind to what all is possible and what can be changed.

The Core Graphics video is interesting. Live rendering like that can help developers see what they are actually coding. The whole compile and test cycle just breaks the chain of thought which goes on while coding.

Re: Vector based UI design tool that generates ObjC

#6
You no longer have to tweak and recompile the drawing code...

Edit

PaintCode is a simple vector drawing app that instantly generates resolution-independent Objective-C drawing code for both Mac OS X and iOS.

You no longer have to tweak and recompile your drawing code over and over again to achieve the desired result.

Re: Vector based UI design tool that generates ObjC

#9
I love the execution of this app, but I disagree with the underlying idea for most cases.

Drawing your UI is never ever going to be as cheap as loading a converted PNG (which Apple's modified pngcrush converts for you). I think a lot of devs have the draw/vector vs. precomposed bitmap tradeoff the wrong way round. Drawing all of your gradated UIButtons with CoreGraphics methods is a false economy compared to just loading a stretchable PNG. Almost all of Apple's UI system imagery is bitmap based, and for a good reason.

Re: Vector based UI design tool that generates ObjC

#10
post #9

I love the execution of this app, but I disagree with the underlying idea for most cases. Drawing your UI is never ever going to be as cheap as loading a converted PNG (which Apple's modified pngcrush converts for you). I think a lot of devs have the draw/vector vs. precomposed bitmap tradeoff the wrong way round. Drawing all of your gradated UIButtons with CoreGraphics methods is a false economy compared to just loa…

This isn't about performance: it is about resolution independence.
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