Beginning, Mac OS® X Snow Leopard™ Programming

Chapter 4. Interface Builder

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS CHAPTER:

• How to build menus and controls

• How to make windows resizable

• How to use Interface Builder's Inspector to configure individual interface elements

• How to test your interface directly in Interface Builder

Interface Builder, as its name implies, is a tool for building graphical user interfaces (GUIs). You design interfaces by dragging windows, controls, and other elements into your interface and arranging them with your mouse. People often refer to this kind of tool as a WYSIWYG editor because What You See Is What You Get. Because you're already familiar with these techniques (moving files, sorting your e-mail, and so on), it's easy to get started designing user interfaces (UIs) in Interface Builder.

All your interface information is stored in a nib file. Nib files can describe an entire interface, or they can describe only a subset of an interface, such as a menu bar or window. As such, nib files are used by plug-ins (such as System Preferences panes) as well as applications.

After your interface has been built, you can test the interface and make sure everything has been laid out correctly. In this chapter, you learn the fundamentals of using Interface Builder — you learn more about Cocoa-specific features in Chapters 8, 9, and 10.

STARTING A NEW INTERFACE

As with Xcode, Interface Builder has templates that help you get started with a new nib file. These templates are grouped by application framework, so you can quickly zero ...