The iNexus

I meant to post about this a couple days ago when I originally wrote it, but I’ve had a lot going on so I didn’t get to blogging about it until now.

I recently added a new sample project to the maccode repository (in Snippets -> TableViews) that illustrates Apple’s Technical QA #1503, preventing table column reordering. Apple’s sample is hard-wired for a column named “FirstName” and I felt it was good for illustration, bad for reuse.

The reordering delegate in my sample allows you to specify an array of column identifiers and an array of positions to match. Whenever a column is dragged the anchored column[s] will restore themselves and suppress drags from their column headers. The first place I noticed such behavior was in iTunes, but I can see it being useful in general (for checkbox and icon columns, etc.)

Be sure to head over to the Google Code repository and give it a drag! (BSD-licensed for those who care)

There’s a quick followup I’d like to make that better elucidates what I was vainly saying in my Interviewing for Programming Jobs post.

If you haven’t, you should really read Wolf’s great followup on programmers and coding.

Jerry W. Walker really says it all when he states, “… would suggest that the most successful programmers of that age were those who were good at algorithmic reasoning. The languages (any number of assembler languages, Fortran, COBOL, PL/I, C and such) were generally easy enough to learn within a few days and you could get good with them within a month or two. I believe that the most successful of our programmers today, on the other hand, are those who are good at learning natural languages. I would suggest that the ability to learn, not only the Java language, but the Java packages and method calls therein, is a great deal more like learning French than it is like learning algebra or calculus. The active vocabulary has become huge.”

I too think that modern programmers are better measured for their language breadth and skill, not necessarily the need for logarithmic analysis. A well-balanced programmer hangs many tools from his proverbial belt, but in the end I think it’s how you use the tools and what you can do, not arbitrary challenges, that should be the standard.

In case you haven’t heard of it maccode is the new repository managed by my friend Chris Forsythe (see Adium, Growl, Perian, Saltatory) for contributing BSD-licensed code for other developers on Mac OS X.

I was watching a DVD, cleaning up some open tabs in NetNewsWire, and came across an Apple technical Q&A I had left open for hyperlinking textfields and textviews. I pinged Chris to note that this would be a nifty little snippet for maccode. He replied as I should have expected - here’s a commit bit, get crackin’.

A little while later we have Snippets -> Strings -> Hyperlinks with a demo project encapsulating the spirit of the Q&A. Thanks to Chris for the challenge and Apple for the Q&A inspiration!