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Sure, Xcode today isn't a substitute. But Xcode is a large step back from what NeXTstep had, at least when it comes to this kind of capability. The standalone

Sure, Xcode today isn't a substitute. But Xcode is a large step back from what NeXTstep had, at least when it comes to this kind of capability. The standalone Interface Builder had palettes, which you could fill with custom objects. There were third party palettes that allowed non-programmers to click together and configure custom applications for specific domains. There were palettes that extended the whole shebang with scripting languages so that you could also add custom logic in Interface Builder.

debo_ 6y ago
I hope that "extended the whole shebang with scripting languages..." was an intentional pun.
spacedcowboy 6y ago
That's no different to Xcode. You just need to decorate properties for simple things, and maybe write a setup method or two if you want live-updates (eg to pull a weather map from a server)... Google @IBInspectable and @IBDesignable. Unless you're saying that the most recent versions of Xcode don't do that, which would be news to me. I agree that it's not well-used, but that's not the fault of Xcode. As far as I can tell it provides everything you'd need.
- mpweiher 6y ago
  I am familiar with IBInspectable and IBDesignable, and have, for example, put my own Smalltalk and Postscript implementations in IB that way. Not the same thing. At all. Not even close. Palettes were final-packaged components that were at the same level as pre-built ones. IBDesignable is a way for adding some interactivity to the views you are creating for an app while you're building said app. Like SwiftUI Previews. And it works about as well, that is not really at all. With IBDesignable, Xcode was continually trying to build the entire dependency tree, meaning for example the entire Postscript interpreter. And failing >50% of the time, which then kills your view. I hear the same happens with SwiftUI previews once your project gets bigger. It certainly happened to me almost immediately when I was trying it out. Again, they're not even close.

debo_ 6y ago

I hope that "extended the whole shebang with scripting languages..." was an intentional pun.

spacedcowboy 6y ago

That's no different to Xcode. You just need to decorate properties for simple things, and maybe write a setup method or two if you want live-updates (eg to pull a weather map from a server)... Google @IBInspectable and @IBDesignable. Unless you're saying that the most recent versions of Xcode don't do that, which would be news to me. I agree that it's not well-used, but that's not the fault of Xcode. As far as I can tell it provides everything you'd need.

mpweiher 6y ago
I am familiar with IBInspectable and IBDesignable, and have, for example, put my own Smalltalk and Postscript implementations in IB that way. Not the same thing. At all. Not even close. Palettes were final-packaged components that were at the same level as pre-built ones. IBDesignable is a way for adding some interactivity to the views you are creating for an app while you're building said app. Like SwiftUI Previews. And it works about as well, that is not really at all. With IBDesignable, Xcode was continually trying to build the entire dependency tree, meaning for example the entire Postscript interpreter. And failing >50% of the time, which then kills your view. I hear the same happens with SwiftUI previews once your project gets bigger. It certainly happened to me almost immediately when I was trying it out. Again, they're not even close.