It’s never to late to learn a new (programming) language So I’ve been starting to learn Cocoa, Apple’s Objective-C based programming environment for Mac OS X.

My “Cocoa”-trip started with building a little application called “WSPluginSwitcher“, which is a Cocoa based tool for switching Flash plug-ins on OS X (Leopard).

Check it out – it’s open source, including its source code: WSPluginSwitcher on Google Code

Screen shots

Download WSPluginSwitcher including full source

You can download WSPluginSwitcher at its Google Code project.

To get the full source checkout the latest code using WSPluginSwitchers repository at Google Code.

It’s open source!

BTW: I’m very new to Cocoa, so I’m very happy about any feedback

Helpful links for learning Cocoa as an ActionScript Developer

About 10 days of programming a new language is not enough to make a real statement… However, what I’ve have learned so far is: To learn Cocoa as quick as possible you will need a good book! Apple delivers tons of Cocoa guides, but it takes me (too) much time to find basic solutions. I know why I love Adobes Flex and AIR docs

So I highly recommend the book called “Cocoa Programming for Max OS X” by Aaron Hillegass, which helps me a lot!

Further helpful links (not only for ActionScript Developers) are:

• Cocoa Dev Central: Learn Cocoa
• Theocacao: A Quick Objective-C 2.0 Tutorial
• Andy Jacobs: “Cocoa touch for actionscript developers (basics)“, “AS3 to Cocoa Touch: Array’s“, “AS3 to Cocoa touch: XML“, “AS3 to Cocoa touch: JSON (Part 1)”
• Keith Peters: Gravity Tutorials for iPhone Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

P.S.: Happy Flash plug-in switching using WSPluginSwitcher!

Here is a screen of a XTrace window receiving Zerois debug messages:

Instructions

1. Grab the latest source of Zeroi from its Subversion Repository. You will find there the new extension for XTrace, too.
2. Download and install XTrace. For enjoying the latest features (e.g. text highlighting) it’s recommended to use the XTrace SVN Repository.
3. Download the Zeroi example and follow the steps 4 up to 7 described in my previous post called “Debugging with MTASC, Ant and Zeroi”.
4. Add XTracePublisher as Zerois publisher to MTASC -trace flag. For this purpose you have to change only one line in the Ant script located in my example:
   1. <arg value="-trace"/>
   2. <arg value="org.osflash.Zeroi.logging.LoggerClass.log"/>
   3. <arg value="org/osflash/Zeroi/logging/LoggerClass"/>
   4. <!– point this argument to XTracePublisher –>
   5. <arg value="org/osflash/Zeroi/logging/publisher/XTracePublisher"/>
5. If you familiar with Terminal you can also create a small shell script to run MTASC instead using Ant. Open Terminal, change directory
   cd {path/to/downloaded/zeroiExample}
   and create a new file named buildpico ./build

   Type then the following line for running MTASC:

   1.  
   2. {path/to/mtasc} -cp {path/to/your/own/core/classes} -cp {path/to/MM/core/classes} -cp {path/to/zeroi/class/package} -cp ./source/ -swf ./deploy/zeroiExample.swf ./ZeroiExample.as -trace org.osflash.Zeroi.logging.LoggerClass.log org/osflash/Zeroi/logging/LoggerClass org/osflash/Zeroi/logging/publisher/XTracePublisher -frame 1 -version 7 -v -main
   3.  
   For opening the *.swf with the FlashPlayer type additionally:
   1.  
   2. open -a SAFlashPlayer ./deploy/zeroiExample.swf
   3.  

   Save the file, close pico and run the script typing ./build

Wish list

• Adding more log levels, such as “INFO” and “FATAL”. I’ve got in contact with Michael Bianco .

Configure your system as follows:

1. Install and configure the Flash Debug Player as described in my previous article “trace() outside the Flash IDE with tail”. Follow the steps 1 up to 3 from there.
2. Start up a Terminal window and change the directory: cd /Users/
3. Type pico .bash_profile to open Pico and add two aliases named trace and cleartrace inside your .bash_profile located in /Users/[username]/

   # opens "flashlog.txt" in Console
   alias trace='open -a /Applications/Utilities/Console.app/ /Users/[username]]/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash\ Player/Logs/flashlog.txt'
   # clears "flashlog.txt"
   alias cleartrace='cat /dev/null > /Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash\ Player/Logs/flashlog.txt'

4. Save your .bash_profile, close pico and the shell.
5. Open a new shell and type trace. The “flashlog.txt” will be opened in Console and will be logged in run time. For searching log messages type a word or phrase in the Filter field.

   

   For clearing the “flashlog.txt” type cleartrace.

Happy debugging

tail monitors in real time the growth of the logfile named “flashlog.txt” which is being written by the Flash Debug Player.

Instructions

1. Check that you installed the Flash Debug Player on your machine successfully.
   Press CTRL and click on a Flashmovie located in Browser and you’ll have a context menu with the “Debugger” option like the image above. If not, uninstall the current Player and install the latest version of the Flash Debug Player.
2. Add a textfile named “flashlog.txt” in the following folder:
   /Users/{username}/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/Logs/
3. The Flash Debug Player needs a textfile named “mm.cfg”. Typically it’s located in /Library/Application Support/Macromedia/mm.cfg. If not, create it and add the following properties:
   1. ErrorReportingEnable=0
   2. TraceOutputFileEnable=1
   3. MaxWarnings=0
   Note: If you have installed a Flash Debug Player older than version 9.0.28.0 you have to add a path to your “flashlog.txt” as well:
   1.  
   2. TraceOutPutFileName=Macintosh HD:Users:{username}:Library:Preferences:Macromedia:Flash Player:Logs:flashlog.txt
   3.  
4. Open the Terminal and type tail -f /Users/{username}/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/Logs/flashlog.txt

That’s it

P.S. If you have any trouble with your configuration, check Mark Walters’ detailed instructions, too.