Learn Cocoa Touch for iOS

Chapter    ³

Managing On-Screen Content with View Controllers

By and large, iOS apps deal with their content one screen at a time. The Contacts app, for instance, has a list of contacts on one screen. It has one function: to display a list of contacts. When you tap a contact, another screen of content is displayed, this time detailing the contact you selected. Safari displays one web page at a time, the Settings app displays one group of settings at a time, and Mail displays a folder at a time and then displays one message when you select it. This trend of displaying content one screenful at a time is necessary when dealing with screens as small as the iPhone’s; with a resolution of only 320×480, there simply isn’t much room for multiple groups ...