Mark A. Ziesemer: Java: Iterating over XML DOM Nodes

Mark A. Ziesemer: Java: Iterating over XML DOM Nodes

(XCode) How to setup a bracket / brace macro in XCode

Before i used XCode and learned Objective-C, i never thought the bracket is a horrible symbol, there is a solution of creating text macro to insert bracket / brace:

1. Open ObjectiveC.xctxtmacro with an text editor, you can find this file with this path:

/Developer/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/PlugIns/TextMacros.xctxtmacro/Contents/Resources/ObjectiveC.xctxtmacro 

2.Add follow code in the file:

{
Identifier = objc.bracket;
BasedOn = objc;
IsMenuItem = YES;
Name = "Bracket Expression";
TextString = "[<#!expression!#>]";
CompletionPrefix = bra;
},

This scope create a text macro "bra" to insert "[<#!expression!#>]", you need to type bra in your code and presse "esc" button, there is a window shows "Bracket Expression", press enter "[<#!expression!#>]" will be inserted.

You can create a similar macro for Brace, here is an example:

{
Identifier = objc.brace;
BasedOn = objc;
IsMenuItem = YES;
Name = "Brace Expression";
TextString = "{<#!expression!#>}";
CompletionPrefix = bra;
},

Here you have a same text macro "bra" to choose bracket or brace.

Update: In the XCode 3.2 which is released for Snow Leopard, the above lines wouldn't work until add this line in each section:

OnlyAtBOL = YES;

(Android) First application released

I just released my first application on the Android Market. It is Voice Dictionary which is a very useful tool for translating words or phrases between 17 different languages (Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish etc), the Voice Dictionary also supports Text-To-Speech to give you a full experience of pronunciation.

It uses Google Translate service API and eyes-free TTS engine for Android.

Here is a web version Android Market which contains this app's information.

(Android) How to write your code with a good style

I saw an excellent article in Android Code Source site, it is a Code Style Guide, which is Google Android team asks their developer to respect. Writing code with a good style helps others to read your code, and developer should have a good habit of writing code too.

Code Style Guide

(Objective-C) How to sort an array

Here is an example to sort an array:

- (NSArray *) sortArray:(NSArray *)array :(BOOL)inAscending {
  if (inAscending) {
      return [array sortedArrayUsingSelector:@selector(compare:)];
  }
  else {
      NSArray *ascendArray = [array sortedArrayUsingSelector:@selector(compare:)];
      return [[ascendArray reverseObjectEnumerator] allObjects];
  }
}

(Android) How to use horizontal scrolling in a ListView

ListView is a widget which shows items in a vertically scrolling list. I figure out a solution to add horizontal scrolling in a ListView. Here is my new object called MyListView, i used OnGestureListener's onScroll methods to manage the horizontal scrolling.

public class MyListView extends LinearLayout implements OnGestureListener {
 private GestureDetector mGestureDetector;
 private ListView mListView;

 public MyListView(Context context) {
     super(context);
     mGestureDetector = new GestureDetector(this);
     mGestureDetector.setIsLongpressEnabled(false);
     mListView = new ListView(context);
     mListView.setItemsCanFocus(true);
     String[] items = createStrins();
     mListView.setAdapter(new ArrayAdapter(context, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_single_choice, items));
     this.addView(mListView, new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(350, LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT));
 }

 @Override
 public boolean onDown(MotionEvent arg0) {
     return false;
 }

 @Override
 public boolean onFling(MotionEvent e1, MotionEvent e2, float velocityX, float velocityY) {
     return true;
 }

 @Override
 public void onLongPress(MotionEvent e) {
     //empty
 }

 @Override
 public boolean onScroll(MotionEvent e1, MotionEvent e2, float distanceX, float distanceY) {
     int scrollWidth = mListView.getWidth() - this.getWidth();
     if ((this.getScrollX() >= 0) && (this.getScrollX() <= scrollWidth) && (scrollWidth > 0)) {
         int moveX = (int)distanceX;
         if (((moveX + this.getScrollX()) >= 0) && ((Math.abs(moveX) + Math.abs(this.getScrollX())) <= scrollWidth)) {
             this.scrollBy(moveX, 0);
          }
         else {
             if (distanceX >= 0) {
                 this.scrollBy(scrollWidth - Math.max(Math.abs(moveX), Math.abs(this.getScrollX())), 0);
             }
             else {
                 this.scrollBy(-Math.min(Math.abs(moveX), Math.abs(this.getScrollX())), 0);
             }
         }
     }
     return true;
 }

 @Override
 public void onShowPress(MotionEvent e) {
     //empty
 }

 @Override
 public boolean onSingleTapUp(MotionEvent e) {
     return false;
 }

 @Override
 public boolean dispatchTouchEvent(MotionEvent ev){
     mGestureDetector.onTouchEvent(ev);
     return true;
 }

 private String[] createStrins() {
     return new String[] {
             "Abbaye de Belloc", "Abbaye du Mont des Cats", "Abertam", "Abondance"};
 }
}

(iPhone) How to localize your application

iPhone 3G embeds several language setting, it is pretty cool to write an application which has multi language support. Here are 2 solutions we could use to set an UIButton bt's title:

First:
- Find the device default language

  NSUserDefaults* defs = [NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults];
  NSArray* languages = [defs objectForKey:@"AppleLanguages"];
  NSString* preferredLang = [languages objectAtIndex:0];

preferredLang returns the default language, it looks like: "en" for English, "fr" for French, "zh-Hans" for Chinese Simp, "zh-Hant" for Chinese Trad etc.

- Set up the text by different language

if ([preferredLang isEqualToString:@"en"]) {
  [bt setTitle:@"Hello" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
  }
else if ([preferredLang isEqualToString:@"fr"]) {
  [bt setTitle:@"Bonjour" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
}
.......
else if ([preferredLang isEqualToString:@"zh-Hans"]) {
  [bt setTitle:@"你好" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
}

Second:
- Create a strings file for your project (Add-New File-Strings File), Localizable.strings is a default strings file name, of course you can use the other names

- Make File Localizable: "Get Info" your strings file and click "Make File Localizable" on the left-bottom. You will see "English" shows on the Localizations list, and you can add the other languages by clicking "Add Localization". There are only 4 languages on the default list "English; French, Japnese and German". For the chinese, you should enter "zh_CN" for Chinese Simp and "zh_TW" for Chinese Trad, be careful it is different compare the first solution. After you have done this, there are several files under your strings file.

- Add the keys and values in the languages files. The format is:
in English
"hello" = "Hello !";

in French
"hello" = "Bonjour !";
etc.

Use the same keys for every language and just change the values. The iPhone will detect its language setting to load the right language file.

- Get the right text. If your strings file's name is Localizable, use NSLocalizedString(@"hello", nil) to get the value of "hello", if you use the other name, you should use NSLocalizedStringFromTable(@"hello", @"File name', nil) to return the text.

So the set bt's title, there is only one line of code:

[bt setTitle:NSLocalizedString(@"hello", nil) forState:UIControlStateNormal];