As someone who has transitioned from Real Studio (RS) aka REALbasic (Rb) to Xcode, as a self taught hobbyist programmer, I feel I have a nice perspective on this transition.

First of all, I find the Xcode IDE a very difficult and often times buggy development environment overall compared to Real Studio. RS is of course not without its’ issues, but by and large it’s a far more stable IDE. The RS Event driven paradigm has been far easier to comprehend than Xcode. In some defense of Xcode, it does have more abilities to build for more Targets within the Mac platform than RS. And, I’m guessing here, that Xcode when it was being written before the days of Code Warrior was never intended to see the light of day outside Apple’s walls. As Xcode has progressed over the last few versions, it has become far more non-Apple engineer developer friendly. And, interestingly enough, the Interface Builder, Storyboard transition has become more and more very much like the RS way of visually developing your user interface. Although hooking things up from StoryBoard to Code is akin to black magic, blah.

My main point in this little blog posting is to state that starting off learning RS and its’ Real Basic language is a perfect way to move on up to Xcode and the Objective-C (Obj-C) language. It’s not a perfect transition, but it is very solid path if you have intentions of being a Mac developer. In fact, although I only dabble in HTML, Java, C, C++ and other languages, I consider RS to be a solid foundation for learning programming even if you are not targeting Xcode as your next step. Again, RS is a solid foundation learning tool for programming. Xcode is not.

Yes, RS is that solid and good a product to invest your time in. Why? Mostly because it is a powerful programming application. Some reasons;

* The REALbasic language has its’ roots in BASIC. Which to me, BASIC is understandable code instructions. Defining variables that are strongly typed, like understanding why and integer can not just be shown as a string in a label, is a fundamental learning experience. Rb is a strongly type language and this is great. Obj-C is not.

* Rb hides users from the use of pointers. They are there of course, but you don’t need to worry about what a pointer is or what it is doing. Frustration comes from not understanding pointers, you can leave them behind in RS. Obj-C is all about using pointers.

* Rb makes it fairly easy to grasp the concept of using classes and instantiating them in code. These classes introduce you to Methods and the use of Properties within a Class and from other Classes. Obj-C uses the same items but it’s just not presented in a very cogent manner like in RS. In fact, Xcode can make using these items darn right obfuscated and onerous.

* RS is an event driven program. It takes a little time to figure this out as a new user, but I think it gives the new programmer a sense of answering the question, “OK I have this code, where the heck do I put it?”. The events break down the loop cycle of any computer program. When a particular code sequence is executed is confusing. And it’s darn important to know what order things happen if your code is to be logical. Objects need to be created before they are used. While the event paradigm in RS doesn’t eliminate this issue all together, it does vastly simplify and shield it from users. Obj-C on the other hand, is not like this. It introduces allocation and initialization sequences, protocols and a host of other concepts regarding code execution sequences.

* RS does a lot for you behind the scenes – a lot. But this does’t mean you can’t get down and dirty as a more experienced programmer and get near C performance, you certainly can, not easily, but the language can be extended via declares to libraries and plugins (via Xcode). The newest version of Xcode is starting to do more and more for you behind the scenes too. Xcode just introduced, Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) – Mahalo Apple! This is a management scheme that Rb has basically already had for a decade or so. It takes away a lot of the drudgery associated with memory management, Memory management is a major pain and Rb is golden in this regard.

* Cross Platform Development. RS compiles for Mac, PC and Linux. The fee to accomplish this has always been too steep for me and cross platform is not important to me, so it was never a selling point personally – I prefer my Mac. I’d say “most” users of RS buy it for this feature. Xcode only compiles for an Apple product.

* Object Oriented Programming (OOP). The catch phrase of all catch phrases in the programming world. OOP introduces the use of classes and its’ associated objects aka instantiation. It’s a very fundamental lesson in modern programming and RS easily supports and help you to understand this concept. But, it also allows you to NOT use it if you perhaps have an old BASIC program that you want to re-write. OOP is cool, but it takes awhile to grasp it. RS can help. Xcode and more specifically, Apple and Obj-C language, have embraced a concept called Model-View-Object (MVC) as their preferred paradigm or design pattern. And it takes classes to a whole new level. It really doesn’t force you to use it in your own code, but it does force you in a way due to the way the iOS frameworks are used together. For the most part the Rb language doesn’t adapt to the MVC design pattern very well. Interesting enough, Obj-C doesn’t allow for multiple inheritance in classes just like Rb. Obj-C uses protocols and delegates as an alternative to using subclasses.

* Why Xcode? So if I love using RS, why Xcode? Good question Several reasons really. First of all, for me, programming is a challenge. You go to the gym or wherever to keep your body in shape. I use programming to keep my mind lean, toned and sharp. Xcode really is tough for me, and so is Obj-C. I’ve been using Rb since 1999, so it is second nature to me. I’ve learned to use declares in Rb side by side as I’ve been learning Obj-C. That has been a challenge and fun applying this to Rb. But my main goal in learning to use Xcode and Obj-C has been to get a native iOS App on the App Store, which I have done! Easy? Oh no, not for me, Xcode trips you up on about every step it can. A future version of RS is supposed to have the iPhone as a target, but in my opinion, this is going to be very tough for them to accomplish – I sincerely hope they do, but …. The other reason is Xcode uses all native controls for the Mac and will always support what ever product is new and groovy on from Apple. Xcode is what Apple engineers use. RS has never been able to keep up in a timely manner with Apple products. Even Cocoa is still a beta product. That’s not being critical of RS, just a statement of fact indicating my goal of being able to write up to date Apple apps.

* Show Me The Path. If you are wanting to know what Xcode is all about even if you’re completely new to programming, have decades of programming experience or anything in between, watch the iPhone and iPad series from Stanford University via iTunes. You should also go to Amazon and buy a few two, three, or a dozen books too, but this classroom video series is your avenue to what developing on a Mac using Xcode is all about – it’s fabulous and well produced. And it’s timely! The new semester for 2013 is already being posted. Taught by Paul Hegarty, awesome teacher who keeps things moving at a fast pace. Here are some links for you,

–> Stanford Page that shows the courses since 2010. The earlier video’s are worth your time too, some things will be dated, but the concepts are all there and solid.
Stanford Home Page

–> iTunes Page. This will link you to the Stanford video page.
iTunes Page

* Internet Sources. Just Google for Xcode iOS or OS X tutorials and a gabillion links pop up. Here are a few I like,

–> Not a tutorial site, but your go to site when you get errors in Xcode or need just some advice.
StackOverFlow

–> iOS Tutorials
App Coda

–> From Obj-C To The Kitchen Sink in Tutorials – Great Site
Ray Wenderlich

* Summary. Want to learn to program? I mean really learn not just pretend. Get Real Studio and stop watching those brain draining TV reality shows and commit to a few hours a night. It’s a great product that is worth your time and money. As a note, Real Studio is about to change the way they offer their subscription programs i.e. $$ to use it. Soon, no one knows when, but hopefully (fingers crossed) in 2013, The IDE will be available for FREE. You can learn and use it for nothing and only pay a fee when and if you want to deploy (build) an executable.

Real Studio Home Page

Xcode is free from the Mac App Store – It’s a huge download and comes with a precipitous learning curve.

Xcode

Download This Project Here …

Update 11.5.2012
Just completed one of the Apple project example ports. The example shows how to load a scene created with Collada.

That dude is bobbing and moving a little – very cool. And it only takes a few lines of code to do this, amazing.

Me.InitializeView
Me.AllowsCameraControl = True
Me.JitteringEnabled = True
Me.Playing = True
Me.AutoEnablesDefaultLighting = True
Me.BackgroundColor = &c00000000
//
Dim aNSBundle As NSBundleTJC
aNSBundle = New NSBundleTJC(NSBundleTJC.MainBundle)
Dim bundlePtr As Ptr
bundlePtr = aNSBundle.URLForResource("scene", "dae")
Dim aNSURL As New NSURLTJC(bundlePtr)
//
Me.LoadSceneAtURL aNSURL.Pointer

The download is the compiled OS X binary.
Download The Project App Here …..

11.4.2012 Original Post
I’ve been coding up a few Cocoa only projects using declares to the Objective-C runtime calls. This is my most recent foray in to a relatively new framework, called Scene Kit. Conceptually, SceneKit sits above OpenGL, but below the higher level frameworks like AppKit. SceneKit is primarily what’s known as a scene graph management library. It manages one or more 3D objects plus lights and camera. These items together, comprise a “scene” that can be manipulated and displayed on screen. This blog from Jeff LaMarche will give you an idea of what the Scene Kit is capable of doing. Scene Kit Blog
If you peruse the Apple Developer site and have Xcode, you will find three nifty example code projects. In this posting I’m including the compiled Mac project of my most recent version.

The framework provides quite a few routines to draw primitives. These include a floor, box, capsule sphere, cone, torus, pyramid, tube and text. This screenshot is a test project using the 3D text features with a reflective floor. As you can see, you can attach textures (images) to the primitives and assign diffuse and ambient properties to these textures. Again, just like in OpenGL.

One of the cool features is you get “for free” mouse control of the scene view class, you can use your mouse to rotate around the objects. For now, I’m just releasing this compiled app. I hope you enjoy it.

Sorry, due to my upload file size restrictions, you’ll have to download the App and the images separately. Uncompress the images and place in the same directory/folder as the app.
Scene Kit Release App
Project App Images
To run the app in 10.8.x, press your Control button, select app, and select “open” from the dialog.

Download The Project Here ….

I’ve come to a point where I am unable to make any progress on this project, despite giving it a lot of time and hours! So, if you have any interest in this project, here it is. The project should be self explanatory. You’ll need to read up on Box2d. Erin Catto and others have a few resources floating around on the internet. Unfortunately, most of it has to do with the full version of the physics engine, not the lite version which this is trying to port. I’ve posted questions to the forum, but never got any responses. If you make any progress or if you have any questions after looking things over, please drop me an email. Thank you.

Download Project Here …..

It seems to run fine under Cocoa and Real Studio 2012 R1
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Recently, with my interest in iPhone programming and the Cocos2D sprite, OpenGl, Physics, framework, I’ve been trying to learn a little bit about game physics. Box2D by Erin Catto is the framework of choice for many programmers. It’s an open source framework, and while it’s not complex, it’s not terribly easy either. And when I started to port the code over to REALbasic, there’s some C++ coding styles that just won’t work, which means I really have to understand what the code is trying to do. In addition, you need to understand the procedural methods that physics concepts bring to programming. I’m decent at understanding the physics and the need for Euler type integration steps of the simulation.

That’s a screen shot. Black background, a simple box, and a line that represents the ground. Gravity is applied and the box drops, using physics calculations, contact points are shown. This version is using OpenGL to do the drawing. Later, I’ll make that an option so you can draw using any drawing techniques or frameworks your comfortable with, the Box2D framework uses OpenGL, but it is basically intended to be rendering agnostic.

After plowing through the current version, I came across Erin’s download of a “lite” version. It’s a bit simpler than the full blown version, so I thought I would back up, port the lite version then (hopefully) go back and finish up the full version.

I’m making some progress and while I’m not ready to release any code yet, I thought I would show you this brief quicktime video of a sample project, specifically, demo1.

Box2DLite_RB

Pretty cool huh? I’m not sure if anyone has a Real Studio port of this framework, but even if there is one, it’s a great learning exercise for me. There’s still some gremlins in the code I need to squash, hopefully I can find them! Stay tuned …

Like the other projects here, I am doing my drawing using the DrawLine routine of the Graphics class on my Mac.

Download Project Here …..

Amazon Link

Well written, excellent explanations, a very approachable book to a fairly daunting subject. It was released quite a few number of years ago, but Amazon is indicating that an updated version is due out soon. In the beginnings of the book he gives a few examples that have to do with a canon firing a canon ball. It’s a 3D Particle Kinetics demonstration and I’ve ported it to Real Studio. It’s pretty simple, but it is using real world physics calculations relating to mass, gravity, etc. I would imagine the developers who wrote the “Crazy Birds” iPhone app had a copy of this book on their shelf. This type of physics “engine” code can be used in a remarkably broad set of circumstances limited only by your imagination to apply it in a game or simulation project.

The demo shows a top view and a side view of a canon (on left) shooting a projectile that hits a target (red rectangle). The path of the ball is traced out as the timer based animation plays. Again, nothing real fancy, but I think it’s pretty cool way to wrap your head around the physics of particle kinetics.

The project also includes a “bonus” folder of a Rb 3D Vector Library. This library includes a port from the C++ vector library presented in “iPhone 3D Programming” by Philip Rideout from O’Reilly Publishers. Vectors, Matrices, Quaternion and Parametric classes, nifty stuff.

Amazon Link

Download Project Here …..

I’m using a call to Drawline with the same x and y locations, essentially like calling a plot pixel call. This technique doesn’t seem to work on my tests with Vista. I think you need to make sure GDI is enabled, might be a bug, again, not sure. Works like butter on a Mac.

Download Project Here …

Added a feature request to be able to set the calendar to a particular date.

The API is to set the calendar to a specific date, Pass Year, Month, Day, Hour, Minute, Second. This is for GMT time.

Me.SetDateFromComponents 1985, 7, 5, 12, 20, 10

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Cocoa comes with a nifty calendar and clock option. If you want to add a simple display of this information in your Mac Cocoa App, you might want to give this module and class a try. It’s very easy to use with only a few lines of code required. This project wraps this functionality up for you. It is encrypted and free to use.

The above screen shot of the included project is using five custom canvas classes. I added the ability to have the clock animate if you want.

Download Project Here …..

The brown sphere represents a planet, the blue, smaller planet spins around the other one.  I added depth testing so the blue planet is not drawn as it goes behind the brown one. I’m on a Mac, you’ll have to see if it runs on your PC. If you click on the window, the animation will toggle.
Download Project Here …