1_GettingStarted

1
Getting started with Joy

This short section explains how to get started using Joy inside InterfaceBuilder.

Joy with InterfaceBuilder

The ideal place for getting to know the Mac OS X API is InterfaceBuilder. In InterfaceBuilder you can see the various user interface elements in the different palettes. You can build your own interface consisting of these objects, and you can test your interface without the need to compile your application. You can also connect an object with another object's action or outlet, which allows your interface elements perform some basic interactions - still without any coding or compiling. However, if you want to test some more complex interactions, without Joy you have to create your own controller class and define its actions and outlets, connect it with the interface elements, code the actions, compile and link the application to see if it really works. Though InterfaceBuilder and ProjectManager simplify this work considerably, it is still a little tiresome, especially for someone who is new to the API and does a lot of experimenting.

With Joy, you can interactively explore the Mac OS X API right inside InterfaceBuilder without compiling. You can even write full applications with Joy.

The Joy palette

The easiest way to load the Joy palette into InterfaceBuilder is to simply double click the Joy.palette file which can be found in /Local/Library/Joy. This will automatically launch InterfaceBuilder (or switch to it if already launched) and load the palette (if not already loaded). If you have not licensed Joy, an alert panel will come up. Click on Continue. The Joy License window comes up. If you have a valid Joy Explorer or Joy Developer license number or if you have already received a key click on Enter key to enter your license number or key. If you want to receive an evaluation key, click on Request free key. If you do not enter a key, you can use Joy Explorer in demo mode - it is fully functional but the alert panel will reappear periodically.

From now on it is sufficient if you directly start InterfaceBuilder.app because it remembers which palettes were previously loaded. (You can open and close individual palettes with the Palettes command in InterfaceBuilder's Tools menu.)

Figure 1: InterfaceBuilder's new Joy palette

Figure 2: InterfaceBuilder's new menu entry after the Joy palette has been loaded.

The next section explains how you can use the Joy palette to explore the Mac OS X API.