First time building a user interface, had a few general questions
1) Does it really matter if you drag and drop view objects into view controller.. or if you programmatically add subviews and specify frames and fonts? What’s the better approach to take?
2) In the programmatic approach, I end up guessing frame values, (x,y) points, and then checking in simulator if I like it. Is this the right approach, or are there faster, better ways to build out the UI? Maybe methods I’m not aware of?
3) Any useful tutorials/pointers in the right direction on how to get started?
Thanks!
1) Both approaches are fine, but the Interface Builder is usually better if you have a more static UI. In a more dynamic app (where views appear and disappear, or if you use UIViewController containment), you need to add/show/hide some of the views in the code. Even in that case you can design individual views in the IB, to make sure they look good, and then instantiate and display them in the code.
2) If you design your views in the IB, then the problem of guessing the sizes largely disappears. In some cases it can be useful to have an empty view added in the IB, which acts as a placeholder for your dynamic content. Then, when you add a view to it in the code, you just use the superview’s dimensions so your view fills the placeholder.