Plugged-in Cocoa

Making other people's software work for you

Abstract: The Objective-C run-time model is notably suited for dynamically loading and executing third-party code. However, few Cocoa applications take advantage of this capability to extend their own functionality through third-party plug-ins. We'll show one of the ways of doing so.

This paper is also available on-line at Cocoa Dev Central. It tied for first place in the MacHack 2002 papers competition, with Lisa Lippincott's "The Nitrogen Manifesto".

For a slightly different take on this subject, check out Mike Beam's article at the O'Reilly Network.

The PalmOSnomicon

Or "The Virtual Call of Cthulhu", or "Up Palm Crick Without a Stylus", or "12 Easy Steps to the Forms of Madness", or "Programming for the Palm OS With One Cerebral Hemisphere Tied Behind Your Back". Pick your favorite title!

Abstract: A shadowy client hires Our Hero to write a Palm Application; the mad scribblings of a deranged programmer surface; Our Hero goes "by the docs" into the nether regions and narrowly avoids doom; the eldritch denizens of the Palm OS appear menacingly; St. Bjarne appears in a fever dream and mutters "pure virtual functions"; the ultimate doom is beaten back in the last moments by the power of Object-Oriented Programming and Our Hero survives to write another paper.

User Interface Metaphors

Abstract: Cognitive science is taking a revolutionary turn, away from abstract theories of the mind and towards a recognition of the essentially embodied nature of human thought, processing concepts in terms of conceptual metaphors. Computer user interfaces, as complex metaphors in their own right, can now be discussed in terms of their relationship to our basic cognitive processes. As a rule, user interface metaphors that are solidly grounded in physical concepts and experiences may be considered more "intuitive".

Hacking The Frozen WASTE For Cool Objects

Doing Things In, With And To The WASTE Text Engine

Abstract: Marco Piovanelli's WASTE Text Engine is a popular way to get around the Text Manager's 32K limit; it's used in dozen of great applications, including Netscape, Internet Explorer and many shareware programs. However, very few applications have explored WASTE's embedded object feature properly, hampered by some limitations in its current implementation (1.3). This paper will show you how to mine WASTE for cool objects, and doing some unexpected things.
<FANFARE>
SEE hitherto forbidden lore explained!
SEE the daring explorer battling eldritch bugs!
SEE amazing objects grow, shrink, pulsate and mutate before your very eyes!
SEE multiple QuickTime objects playing WHILE U TYPE!
SEE mad Dr. Brockerhoff hacking away at helpless C code!
SEE Marco Piovanelli's hurried disclaimer of all responsibility!!
ONLY here, only at MacHack '99!!!
</FANFARE>

Hacking Procrastination (to be published Real Soon Now)

An attempt at some prefatory remarks towards a tentative analysis of partial data regarding a preliminary survey of procrastination symptoms in MacHack paper writing

Abstract: to be submitted

Note: this paper should have been co-authored with Chris Russ (MacHack's paper chair[?]), but for some reason he hasn't sent me his part .

On Having Two (or More) Heads

Real-Time Programming in Spite of the Mac OS

Abstract: Using the Mac OS for acquiring and displaying real-time data is a problem with not-too-well documented solutions. Recent advances like the Thread Manager and (for Internet applications) OpenTransport, as well as asynchronous I/O, are of course helpful and indeed indispensable for whoever tries to do real-time programming but it is not always clear how to deploy these facilities to the greatest advantage. The MacOS, because of its single-user, single-application origins, still places some restrictions on what can be done in this regard. Some of those restrictions can be overcome; this is what this paper is about. Reasonable familiarity with Macintosh programming and PowerPlant is assumed.

Note: this is a runnable program which displays the paper's text. My e-mail and web addresses in the text are no longer valid. The program amazingly still runs mostly OK on Mac OS 9.x (and in Classic on Mac OS X!), but stops when you use "sticky" menus, which didn't exist at the time I wrote this.