ObjCBrowser-A variation on SmallTalk’s Browser application, meant to ease the writing and browsing of ObjC code.
ObjCBrowser is a project of JoeOsborn.
ObjCBrowser provides a handy, NSBrowser-based way to look at projects. It looks something like this:
Image link (doesn’t work in OmniWeb): http://homepage.mac.com/being/NormalUsage.jpg
And clicking on anything in any of those columns will provide in the text view either a template or the current value of the selected item– for instance, a selection path like:
My Project–>Classes–>Useless Classes–>A Useless Class–>Instance Methods–>Some Method Category–>-eatFood
Will provide, in an NSTextView at the bottom of the window, the implementation of -[AUselessClass eatFood]. It can there be modified, and then cmd-s can be hit and the changes will save. Class definitions can also be modified in such a way.
Methods and classes can be categorized by means of a handy interface brought up via a contextual menu.
ObjCBrowser may also eventually feature a preprocessor for a special dialect of ObjectiveCee. This will allow for such shortcuts as:
@{…} for CodeBlocks @42 for NSNumbers @(item, item, …) for NSArrays @[receiver message] for NSInvocations 0@1 for NSPoints 0@1<>1@2 for NSRects @<key=value, …> for NSDictionaries And any others that seem useful…
After the preprocessor, I’ll also implement a Workspace window in which one can enter arbitrary objective-c code and see the result(either in that window or in a Transcript somewhere). Most coding can be done in a Workspace, and once it works, it can be committed to a proper method.
Unit testing will be integrated. Compiling the project and running tests will be the matter of a simple keystroke.
ObjCBrowser will eventually gain RefactoringBrowser features.
A working version of ObjCBrowser is available at http://homepage.mac.com/being, but I make no guarantee as to the extent of its working. Its serious use is also not wholly recommended, as a new version of OCB is in the works that is a medium-scale rewrite.
The iDisk link no longer contains ObjCBrowser as of March 2, 2005. A pity, as I would have liked to try this tool.
“I would also have liked to have tried this tool. I can’t find Joe Osborn anywhere on the web either…*
– JoeOsborn
The .mac link above is now 404. Is there a new home for ObjCBrowser?
– MichaelNygard