I will extend this list when I get more tools and experiences with them. If you have any tools I NEED to have, just post a comment!

So for that purpose I made a method a long time ago, which I use on most UIViewControllers, except when they allow different interface orientations then default. I use this method as a static on some class I have, which helps me do pretty default stuff.

+ (BOOL) shouldAllowRotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation) interfaceOrientation
{
	NSString* currentOrientation = @"";
	switch (interfaceOrientation)
	{
		case UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeLeft:
			currentOrientation = @"UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeLeft";
			break;
		case UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight:
			currentOrientation = @"UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight";
			break;
		case UIInterfaceOrientationPortrait:
			currentOrientation = @"UIInterfaceOrientationPortrait";
			break;
		case UIInterfaceOrientationPortraitUpsideDown:
			currentOrientation = @"UIInterfaceOrientationPortraitUpsideDown";
			break;
	}

	NSString* supportedOrientationsKey = @"UISupportedInterfaceOrientations";
	if([UIDevice currentDevice].userInterfaceIdiom == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPad)
		supportedOrientationsKey = @"UISupportedInterfaceOrientations~ipad";

	NSArray* allowedOrientations = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] infoDictionary] objectForKey:supportedOrientationsKey];
	for (NSString* allowedOrientation in allowedOrientations)
	{
		if ([allowedOrientation isEqualToString:currentOrientation])
			return YES;
	}

	return NO;
}

And you can just use it like this:

- (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation
{
	return [WHUtilities shouldAllowRotateToInterfaceOrientation:interfaceOrientation];
}

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

First of all, its all about performance. I noticed that when you use NSLog a lot it decreases performance significantly. Ofcourse you can solve this in more ways, but I found this the easiest one.

Setting the Preprocessor Macro

First you need to set a Preprocessor macro for your debug build. You can do this by double clicking on your target application. The Target Info window will popup and you need to make sure that you choose the Debug configuration.

The just perform a search in that window for Preprocessor Macros. Once you found that, make sure you add the value DEBUG=1.

Adding some code

Now we are going to add some code to your applications prefix file. Just look through your applications’ sources for a file called something like YourApplication_Prefix.pch. Once you find that, open up that file and use the following code:

#ifdef DEBUG
    #define NSLog(format, ...) NSLog(format, ## __VA_ARGS__)
#else
    #define NSLog(format, ...)
#endif

This code overrides the normal NSLog functionality. And as you can see it will only execute a real NSLog when DEBUG is not set (so, your release build).

So, I made an array of NSString objects that I wanted to lay out, around that circle.

NSArray* sections = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:@"text1", @"text2", @"text3", @"text4", nil];

- (UIImage*) createMenuRingWithFrame:(CGRect)frame
{
    // First fix the frame to make sure it uses the right scaling (iPhone 4 / iPad compatibility).
	frame = CGRectMake(frame.origin.x, frame.origin.y, frame.size.width * scale, frame.size.height * scale);

    // Same for the text radius
	float scaledTextRadius = textRadius * scale;
	float scaledRingWidth = ringWidth;

    // Define the centerpoint of the circle.
	CGPoint centerPoint = CGPointMake(frame.size.width / 2, frame.size.height / 2);

    // self.menuItemsFont is of the type UIFont, which I use to get the font for displaying the text on the circle.
	char* fontName = (char*)[self.menuItemsFont.fontName cStringUsingEncoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];

    // 2 UIColor's, which I need for the color of the circle and for the text
	ringColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:1 green:1 blue:1 alpha:0.7];
	textColor = [UIColor colorWithRed:0 green:0 blue:0 alpha:1];

	CGFloat* ringColorComponents = (float*)CGColorGetComponents(ringColor.CGColor);
	CGFloat* textColorComponents = (float*)CGColorGetComponents(textColor.CGColor);

	CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
    CGContextRef context = CGBitmapContextCreate(NULL, frame.size.width, frame.size.height, 8, 4 * frame.size.width, colorSpace, kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedFirst);

	CGContextSetTextMatrix(context, CGAffineTransformIdentity);

	CGContextSelectFont(context, fontName, 18 * scale, kCGEncodingMacRoman);
	CGContextSetRGBStrokeColor(context, ringColorComponents[0], ringColorComponents[1], ringColorComponents[2], ringAlpha);
	CGContextSetLineWidth(context, scaledRingWidth);

	CGContextStrokeEllipseInRect(context, CGRectMake(scaledRingWidth, scaledRingWidth, frame.size.width - (scaledRingWidth * 2), frame.size.height - (scaledRingWidth * 2)));
	CGContextSetRGBFillColor(context, textColorComponents[0], textColorComponents[1], textColorComponents[2], textAlpha);

	CGContextSaveGState(context);
	CGContextTranslateCTM(context, centerPoint.x, centerPoint.y);

    // define the angles of the texts to divide them evenly on the circle.
	float angleStep = 2 * M_PI / [sections count];

    // I set the starting-angle on 90 degrees, to make sure the first text was ON TOP of the circle.
	float angle = degreesToRadians(90);

    // Some custom text-radius fixing (and scaling for iPhone 4 & iPad). To make sure my text centered nicely.
	scaledTextRadius = scaledTextRadius - 12 * scale;

    // Loop through texts and draw them at the appropriate angle.
	for (NSString* text in sections)
	{
        // call a method that actually draws the text at an angle
		[self drawStringAtContext:context string:text atAngle:angle withRadius:scaledTextRadius];
		angle -= angleStep;
	}

	CGContextRestoreGState(context);

	CGImageRef contextImage = CGBitmapContextCreateImage(context);

    // Release the stuff to avoid memory leaks.
	CGContextRelease(context);
	CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);

    return [UIImage imageWithCGImage:contextImage];

}

// This method draws the text at an angle, while the location is based on the radius + angle.
- (void) drawStringAtContext:(CGContextRef) context string:(NSString*) text atAngle:(float) angle withRadius:(float) radius
{
	// Scale the fontsize to match UIScreen scaling
	UIFont* scaledMenuItemsFont = [menuItemsFont fontWithSize:18 * scale];

	// Get the size of the string when it would be drawn with the selected font
	CGSize textSize = [text sizeWithFont:scaledMenuItemsFont];

	float perimeter = 2 * M_PI * radius;

	// determine the angle of the text.
	float textAngle = (textSize.width) / perimeter * 2 * M_PI;
	angle += textAngle / 2;

	// We loop through each letter in the string, so we can set the angle for each letter right
	for (int index = 0; index < [text length]; index++)
	{
	    // Get the correct letter by the index
		NSRange range = {index, 1};
		NSString* letter = [text substringWithRange:range];
		char* c = (char*)[letter cStringUsingEncoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding];
		CGSize charSize = [letter sizeWithFont:scaledMenuItemsFont];

	    // Determin the X and Y position of the letter based on the angle and the radius
		float x = radius * cos(angle);
		float y = radius * sin(angle);

		float letterAngle = (charSize.width / perimeter * -2 * M_PI);

	    // Save the state of the context, because rotations are based on the original origin
		CGContextSaveGState(context);
		CGContextTranslateCTM(context, x, y);
	    // Rotate the canvas so we can just draw our text horizontally
		CGContextRotateCTM(context, (angle - 0.5 * M_PI));
		CGContextShowTextAtPoint(context, 0, 0, c, strlen(c));
	    // Restore the context again.
		CGContextRestoreGState(context);

		angle += letterAngle;
	}
}

I came to this solution after I asked a question on StackOverflow, which was helpfully demonstrated by Dribbel on how to do it. Credits for that to him.

Step 1: Adding the right delegates
Make sure your current class (probably a ViewController) uses the following delegates:

• UIActionSheetDelegate
• UINavigationControllerDelegate
• UIPickerViewDelegate
• UIPickerViewDataSource

Step 2: Trigger the UIActionSheet
Go to the method where you want to make the UIPickerView appear. In my case it is when I select a row from a table, but of course it could also be when you push a button or anything you want.

/* first create a UIActionSheet, where you define a title, delegate and a button to close the sheet again */
UIActionSheet *actionSheet = [[UIActionSheet alloc] initWithTitle:@"Select position" delegate:self cancelButtonTitle:@"Done" destructiveButtonTitle:nil otherButtonTitles:nil];
/* I always give my controls a tag, to make sure I can work with multiple actionsheets in one View (to identify them when an event triggers */
actionSheet.tag = POSITION_ROW;
actionSheet.actionSheetStyle = UIActionSheetStyleDefault;

/* Initialize a UIPickerView with 100px space above it, for the button of the UIActionSheet. */
UIPickerView* positionPicker = [[UIPickerView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0,100, 320, 216)];
positionPicker.dataSource = self;
positionPicker.delegate = self;

/* another unique tag for this UIPicker */
positionPicker.tag = POSITION_ROW;

/* Add the UIPickerView to the UIActionSheet */
[actionSheet addSubview:positionPicker];

/* Select the previous selected value, which for me is stored in 'currentPosition' */
[positionPicker selectRow:currentPosition inComponent:0 animated:NO];

/* clean up */
[positionPicker release];

/* Add the UIActionSheet to the view */
[actionSheet showInView:self.view];

/* Make sure the UIActionSheet is big enough to fit your UIPickerView and it's buttons */
[actionSheet setBounds:CGRectMake(0,0, 320, 411)];

/* clean up */
[actionSheet release];

Step 3: Implementing the datasource and delegates for the UIPickerView
Now, the triggering of the UIActionSheet is now working, but you would also like to have some items in your UIPickerView. Well, take a look at the following code and read the comments.

/* Defines the total number of Components (like groups in a UITableView) in a UIPickerView */
- (NSInteger)numberOfComponentsInPickerView:(UIPickerView *)pickerView;
{
    return 1;
}

/* What to do when a row from a UIPickerView is selected. This will trigger each time you scroll the UIPickerView, so only lightweight stuff. */
- (void)pickerView:(UIPickerView *)pickerView didSelectRow:(NSInteger)row inComponent:(NSInteger)component
{
	overlayPosition = row;
	[tableSettings reloadData];
}

/* For me the number of items in the UIPickerView is known on compile time. So here I just return 3 */
- (NSInteger)pickerView:(UIPickerView *)pickerView numberOfRowsInComponent:(NSInteger)component;
{
    return 3;
}

/* Because the UIPickerView expects a UIView for every row you insert in the UIPickerView, you need to make one. What I do here is really simple. I create a UILabel* and with each row it requests I just change the text in the UILabel. */
- (UIView *)pickerView:(UIPickerView *)pickerView viewForRow:(NSInteger)row forComponent:(NSInteger)component reusingView:(UIView *)view
{
/* Create a UILabel and set it 40 pixels to the right, to make sure it is put nicely in the UIPickerView */
	UILabel *label = [[[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(40, 0, 280, 25)] autorelease];
	label.textColor = [UIColor blackColor];
	label.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];

	switch (row)
	{
		default:
		case kUnderClock:
			label.text = @"Under clock";
			break;
		case kAboveSlider:
			label.text = @"Above lock slider";
			break;
		case kCenter:
			label.text = @"Vertically centered";
			break;
	}

	return label;
}

Step 4: Do stuff when buttons on the UIActionSheet are clicked
Now, the final thing you have to do is make sure you listen to the events of the UIActionSheet also. So here is the code:

- (void)actionSheet:(UIActionSheet *)actionSheet clickedButtonAtIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex
{
	if (actionSheet.tag == POSITION_ROW)
	{
/* Do stuff here, only intended for the right UIActionSheet. This only applies for when you use multiple UIActionSheets on the same ViewController. Closing it is unnecessary, because you already specified a destructive button. */
	}
}

Well there are examples enough about this, most of them are all the same, but there is one annoying thing. It saves the view in the good ol’ resolution. Because I am making all my apps “retina-aware”, I wanted to change this.

So here is my code snippet of how I save an UIView to an UIImage:

UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions(myView.bounds.size, NO, [[UIScreen mainScreen] scale]);
[myView.layer renderInContext:UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext()];
UIImage *viewImage = UIGraphicsGetImageFromCurrentImageContext();
UIGraphicsEndImageContext();

It automaticly takes care of any scaling, if there will be higher resolution iPhones/iPads in the future.

So I made my Mac automaticly mount a drive on the NAS on boot, and I also put SABNZBd+ in my login items. But that gave me a problem, sometimes SABNZBd started before my network drive was mounted. SABNZBd then created a directory called /Volumes/Media. After that, when my NAS was mounted, it mounted to /Volumes/Media-1. So that sucked. I could not find a way to change the order at which startup programs ran, so I decided to create an AppleScript application which first mounted a network drive and then runned SABNZBd.

Here it is:

set Media to "smb://myUsername:myPassword@192.168.1.1/Media"
tell application "Finder"
	activate
	mount volume Media
end tell
tell application "SABnzbd"
	activate
end tell

I am replacing my HDX 1000 with a Mac Mini (2.26GHz with 4GB of RAM), which will be connected to my TV with a mini-DVI to DVI to HDMI cable. The Mac Mini has an optical audio out, which will be connected to my Sony receiver, for optimal DTS/DD5.1 audio.

The Mac Mini will stream it’s movies from a multi TB NAS, which will be connected to a gigabit router. For software, I am currently expirimenting with XBMC, with the Aeon skin. The Mac Mini will also be connected to my 26″ IIyama monitor, so that it can be used as a desktop PC too, which gives my MacBook Pro a bit more breathing room. Also the switch to a Mac Mini will give me the ability to playback those anoying DVD’s the kids bring home sometimes.

I already ordered my Mac Mini and it will be delivered between the 8th and 11th of May.

So, what problems am I going to encounter?

• I needed to find a mini-TOS to TOS cable, which wasn’t available in the Apple store somehow. Found one on eBay for under $5.
• The remote control didn’t work at once with XBMC somehow. I installed a piece of software called “Sofa Control” which fixed this, but this software isn’t free.
• I use usenet a lot, with my file server gone, I will no longer be able to use Newsleecher. What alternatives are there for Newsleecher for OSX?

As soon as my Mac Mini arrives, I will post a report about my progress, maybe with some pics.

I googled on this a lot lately and I couldn’t find any answers, so I finally went looking through the settings of Xcode, just to see what I could tweak. Well I found it!

Well first, you need to close all project windows in your Xcode and then go to the Xcode preferences screen.

In the general tab, set the layout option to “Condensed”. After that you can open up a project and your file tree will be a undocked window. Double click one of the files in your tree, that should open up a code windows and on the code windows’ right-top side should appear 2 icons like this:

Make sure the 2nd icon from the right says “Grouped”. If it says ungrouped just click it once to make it say “Grouped”.

After that, when you double click a file, it will just show you the code in the currently open code window! Hurray!