Red peanuts - Cocoa

Layer-hosting vs layer-backed views in Core Animation

nospam@example.com (Antoine Baudoux) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:00:38 +0200

I found this important remark in the Core Animation programming guide :

The instance of MenuView is set as the layer-hosting view of rootLayer. The order of these two calls is important. By first setting the layer to rootLayer and then setting setWantsLayer: to YES our layer is used rather than the one that the view would create. This is the key difference between layer-hosting views and layer-backed views.

[self setLayer:rootLayer];
[self setWantsLayer:YES];

Cryptography on your MacOS X program

nospam@example.com (Denis Muquardt) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:26:01 +0200

For this first tip, I just want to help you performing basic operations like generating digests (MD5, SHA1, �) or dealing with asymetric keys in your programs.

On the Mac OS X platform, there are basically two libraries providing these crypto capabilities :

1 - openSSL
2 - Apple CDSA

For the first one, just import the header(s) you need from /usr/include/openssl and then link your product with the /usr/lib/libsecurity.dylib.
With CDSA, you have to add the /System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework to your Xcode project and then link your product with it.

It seems to me that openSSL is easier to use but the choice between these two libraries may be triggered by politics.

For the CDSA documentation, I strongly recommend you to download and read the examples provided by Apple : CryptoSample

Echo is released

nospam@example.com (Antoine Baudoux) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:30:36 +0100

The echo main screen, with some explanations

This is the first beta release of the Echo application.

Echo can be used to do automated program/interface testing.

Echo can record mouse/keyboard activity and play them back. It can also take screen captures when recording (alt + esc keys). Screen captures act like CheckPoints that will determine if your test succeeds or fails.

You can then define one or more zones of interest on the screen captures. When playing back, Echo will check that the zones of interest are strictly equal to the recorded zones. This allows you to check that your program behaves as expected.

For now only absolute zones can be defined. This means that the windows/views must be exactly positioned (even a 1 pixel offset will make the test fail). You could use a debug menu in your tested application (or a hidden key combo) that would position the windows correctly. Future version will include anchor zones that will allow for relative zone comparing.

With Echo you can :

Define tests, which are a group of test cases.
Define and record test cases. This is the unit of testing in Echo. You then record (ctrl + esc) a serie of key/mouse events and screen captures (called checkpoints in Echo) attached to the case.
Run test cases : selecting a case and clicking on �run case� will launch the case playback.
Examine case playback results. Each case playback has its associated case result. There you can see if your case failed or succeeded.

Keyboard shortcuts

Ctrl + esc : start/stop recording of a case. You must have a case selected.
Ctrl + Alt + esc : start/stop playback of a case. You must have a case selected.
Alt + esc : Create a checkpoint (For now only a screen capture).

Known limitations/bugs

- Once recorded you can't modify a case, you can only delete it
- Only Absolute zone positioning/checking for now
- The only actions available are those recorded, i.e. Mouse/Keyboard events. Future versions should include Shell script actions (setUp/TearDown, etc...) and other action types.
- The only Check point available is a screen capture check. Future checks should include shell scripts, password typing, and other checkPoint types.

Info/Remarks

Please send any info/remark to ab@taktik.be

Echo0.1.dmg