The spread of mobile devices worldwide is booming, more and more people use these devices during their work to fulfill numerous tasks. Many competitors are on this market and it is therefore important to analyze which tools are available to developers to create mobile applications that facilitate the professional work while away from a computer. Apple is one of the most prominent competitors in the mobile market with its mobile operating system iOS4 for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The main goal of the current thesis is the analysis of the development environment called Xcode, and of other related tools made available to the developer. To assess the development environment, a sample application has been made: a dwg file viewer for Apple iPad devices. The application allows the user to view and navigate even complex technical drawings, on different levels. This allowed to explore all the features provided by the environment, but also to assess the gaps and consider the support provided to the developer. The resulting application meets the guidelines for IOS and enables the user to view dwg files sizing less than 10 MB; beyond that size, memory demand exceeds the available real memory (around 120 MB in the device used for testing your application) causing the application to crash. There is thus a kind of trade-off between the limited resources of mobile devices and the large size of dwg files. The development of the application has been facilitated by the presence of a complete documentation, with several practical examples; using Interface Builder, building the graphical aspect is made less complicated with a reduction of code to write. In the debugging phase the IOS Simulator, despite having s SDK different from the SDK of the real device, proves to be a valuable tool to simulate the execution and to discover errors in the code. Subscription to the development program to test the application on real devices and then to distribute it, requires a high initial investment.
La diffusione dei dispositivi mobili in tutto il mondo è in grande espansione, sempre più utenti utilizzano tali dispositivi anche durante il proprio lavoro per assolvere numerosi compiti. Numerosi sono i concorrenti in questo mercato ed è quindi importante analizzare quali strumenti abbiano a disposizione gli sviluppatori per creare applicazioni mobili professionali che facilitino il lavoro anche lontano da un computer. Apple è uno dei concorrenti più in vista nel mercato dei dispositivi mobili con il suo sistema operativo mobile iOS4 per iPhone, iPad e iPod Touch; lo scopo del presente lavoro è l’analisi dell’ambiente di sviluppo chiamato Xcode, e di altri tools collegati messi a disposizione dello sviluppatore. Per valutare l’ambiente di sviluppo è stata realizzata un’applicazione d’esempio: un visualizzatore di file .dwg per dispositivi Apple iPad. L’applicazione permette di visualizzare e navigare disegni tecnici anche complessi, disposti su diversi livelli. Ciò ha permesso di toccare con mano tutte le funzionalità fornite dall’ambiente di sviluppo, ma anche di valutarne le lacune e considerare il supporto fornito allo sviluppatore. L’applicazione risultante è conforme alle linee guida per iOS e permette di visualizzare file .dwg di dimensione inferiore ai 10 MB; oltre tale dimensione, la memoria reale richiesta supera quella disponibile (attorno ai 120 MB nel dispositivo usato per il testing dell’applicazione) causando la chiusura dell’applicazione stessa. Esiste dunque una sorta di trade-off tra le risorse limitate dei dispositivi mobili e le dimensioni elevate dei file .dwg. Lo sviluppo dell’applicazione è stato facilitato dalla presenza di una documentazione completa e ricca di esempi pratici; attraverso Interface Builder la costruzione della veste grafica dell’applicazione è resa meno complessa con una riduzione di codice da scrivere. Nella fase di debug l’iOS Simulator, pur non avendo la stessa SDK del dispositivo reale, si dimostra un valido strumento per simulare l’esecuzione e scoprire errori nel codice. La sottoscrizione al programma di sviluppo per testare l’applicazione su dispositivi reali per poi distribuirla prevede un elevato investimento iniziale.
Experimentation and evaluation of the Apple Xcode development environment on a case study : displaying AutoCAD/DWG files
CICERI, CRISTIANO
2010/2011
Abstract
The spread of mobile devices worldwide is booming, more and more people use these devices during their work to fulfill numerous tasks. Many competitors are on this market and it is therefore important to analyze which tools are available to developers to create mobile applications that facilitate the professional work while away from a computer. Apple is one of the most prominent competitors in the mobile market with its mobile operating system iOS4 for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The main goal of the current thesis is the analysis of the development environment called Xcode, and of other related tools made available to the developer. To assess the development environment, a sample application has been made: a dwg file viewer for Apple iPad devices. The application allows the user to view and navigate even complex technical drawings, on different levels. This allowed to explore all the features provided by the environment, but also to assess the gaps and consider the support provided to the developer. The resulting application meets the guidelines for IOS and enables the user to view dwg files sizing less than 10 MB; beyond that size, memory demand exceeds the available real memory (around 120 MB in the device used for testing your application) causing the application to crash. There is thus a kind of trade-off between the limited resources of mobile devices and the large size of dwg files. The development of the application has been facilitated by the presence of a complete documentation, with several practical examples; using Interface Builder, building the graphical aspect is made less complicated with a reduction of code to write. In the debugging phase the IOS Simulator, despite having s SDK different from the SDK of the real device, proves to be a valuable tool to simulate the execution and to discover errors in the code. Subscription to the development program to test the application on real devices and then to distribute it, requires a high initial investment.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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2011_10_CICERI.pdf
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Descrizione: Testo della tesi
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/26561