iPhoneDevCamp and MacHack
Christopher Allen
What do I mean by that?
For the 18 years or so of the existence of MacHack, it was a fountain of innovation and creativity for the Macintosh platform. Why it worked so well will always partly be a mystery (and I was on the committee running it for several years and chairman for one) but we have some some clues:
First, although it had some almost barcamp-like sessions, largely they were not the most important part of MacHack and not the reason why you went. The real reason was to code a hack in the same room with other people who were also coding a hack. Way before pair programming or xp you'd see coders helping coders over each others shoulders. You'd hear a cry of "Does anyone know what the function for this is for" and someone else would call it out. You'd hear a "Shit, how do I debug this" and get people teaching you how.
One of the other keys was the "Hack Contest" - which really wasn't a contest, but more of a quick demo of everyone's code during the conference. Mac Hacks were never cracks and rarely security related at all -- instead, they were written to show off a feature, an idea, or just to get bragging rights that you proved that something was possible. There was pride in showing off a hack that you started at the conference and finished there. The goal during content the was not the polish, but to finish something that worked.
A few weeks after MacHack, an CD was distributed to everyone at the conference with all the source code, so that everyone could benefit from the good code, and bad, that was shown at the contest.
There were other factors, the keynote started at midnight, and so did the hack contest. And a number of Apple engineers showed up unofficially, on their dime, and offered up gems of knowledge that they probably shouldn't have. But I don't think iPhoneDevCamp needs to reproduce these.
First we need an environment where a large percentage of people can code at the same time. We need to somehow create a culture of sharing of tips and advice, as well as a "just get it working good enough" feel. We would need to have some type of quick demo showcase near the end of the camp to show off what people have accomplished during the weekend. No "contest" is required, and the demos have to be short and sweet.
And finally, the source code and lessons from the weekend need to be shared -- on the wiki, on this list, on the web.
-- Christopher Allen
adam baker
won't be there, unfortunately) has released a free iPhone web
simulator called iPhoney, at http://www.marketcircle.com/iphoney/
It may be useful in prepping designs to bring to the iPhone camp, and
has a feature for simulating the iPhone user agent.
Cheers,
adam
mth...@gmail.com
to work on some other stuff, instead. I was even going to call it
iPhoney (or possibly iPhone Envy).
One thing you might look into is customizing the scrollbar view on
your WebView. It may not be very difficult to draw them iPhone-
style. You could even only draw them when a scroll-wheel even has
happened recently. It would give a more accurate representation of
what sites would look like on the iPhone.
- Mike
On Jun 21, 8:37 am, "adam baker" <adamiba...@gmail.com> wrote:
> A note for those who are attending, my company (Marketcircle, who
> won't be there, unfortunately) has released a free iPhone web
> simulator called iPhoney, athttp://www.marketcircle.com/iphoney/
>
> It may be useful in prepping designs to bring to the iPhone camp, and
> has a feature for simulating the iPhone user agent.
>
> Cheers,
> adam
>
> On 6/20/07, Christopher Allen <Christoph...@iphonewebdev.com> wrote:
>
> > One thing I'm really hoping for is a "MacHack-like" feel for the upcoming
> > iPhoneDevCamphttp://barcamp.pbwiki.com/iPhoneDevCamp
Raven Zachary
it'll be exactly the way he wants it, I believe! :)
On Jun 20, 7:41 pm, "Christopher Allen"
<Christoph...@iPhoneWebDev.com> wrote:
> One thing I'm really hoping for is a "MacHack-like" feel for the upcoming
> iPhoneDevCamphttp://barcamp.pbwiki.com/iPhoneDevCamp