Question

I am using Open Source toolchain to compile my iPhone apps. So I have no Interface Builder or XCode. How would I setup the layout of widgets like UIButton, UITextView, etc. Also, how would I add an event handler to those UI widgets? Please remember that I don’t have Interface Builder or XCode.

Answer 1

I suspect you’re going to run into trouble eventually if you’re not using Xcode. However, it is definitely possible to do everything iPhone without using Interface Builder. You just end up defining a lot of rectangles and pixel constants in your code, and calling (e.g.) addTarget to hook actions up to methods.

UIButton *myButton = [[UIButton alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(MYBUTTON_X, MYBUTTON_Y, MYBUTTON_WIDTH, MYBUTTON_HEIGHT)];
[myButton addTarget:self action:@selector(foo) forControlEvents:UIControlEventTouchUpInside];
[self.view addSubview:myButton];
[myButton release];

That creates a button and has it call your “foo” method when pushed. Anything that can be done in IB can be done in plain code (though it’s often more tedious to do it that way.)