Learning Carbon

Chapter 4. Interface Builder: Nibs and Windows

Interface Builder is a WYSIWYG tool that lets you lay out user interfaces in a simple, intuitive manner. The interfaces you create are stored in a file called a nib file, which your application can then access to create its windows, menus, and other elements. Interface Builder provides you with:

• Palettes to add interface elements

• Menus that help you align and lay out the interface

• Info windows to set up the behavior of interface elements

You can do so much with Interface Builder that it will take a couple of chapters to explore its features. In this chapter you’ll:

• Look at the components of a nib file

• Check out what you can do with Info windows

• Take a look at the types of windows you can create in Interface Builder

• Use Interface Builder to modify a window

Then, you’ll look at palettes and layout tools in Chapter 5 where you’ll add controls to a window. In Chapter 7 you’ll take a close look at the default menu bar provided by Interface Builder.

A Carbon Nib File

In the last chapter you saw that when Project Builder creates a Carbon (nib based) application, it provides a file named main.nib and puts it in the Resources group of the project. As you recall, the nib file contains the application’s interface-based resources. It’s an Interface Builder file (the “ib” in “nib” stands for Interface Builder) that contains descriptions of the interface elements in your application. These descriptions use Extensible Markup Language (XML).

Note

In ...