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LinkedIn open sources its exposé code for iOS

83 points| iag | 14 years ago |engineering.linkedin.com | reply

11 comments

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[+] sgarg|14 years ago|reply
I think this is really great. I started iOS development a few months ago and I find one of the hardest parts about making applications is differentiating the design. While I like the standard iOS design elements, to make a professional looking application you have to spend a lot of time tweaking the design. For me specifically it has been UITableView and the corresponding cells. I am glad that this gives me another option to explore and obviously I would have to customize this as well. But its a step in the right direction and hopefully other companies follow suit.

Maybe its just me but what would really make my day is some sort of equivalent of Bootstrap for iOS applications. A set of Objective-C classes that standardize and make it easy to quickly reach a certain level of quality design.

[+] avree|14 years ago|reply
What you describe is contradictory. The default iOS design elements are there precisely to serve as a sort of "Bootstrap" for iOS applications.

Everything 'looks the same' because so many people use the (good) defaults, just like how most Bootstrap pages look similar (or the same), depending on how much work has been put into making them unique.

[+] k-mcgrady|14 years ago|reply
You should take a look at three20 and Tapku. They might be what you are looking for. three20 was built by the original Facebook iOS developer and is used to do things like photo galleries in many apps (I haven't used it in a while so I'm not sure how well maintained it is).
[+] k-mcgrady|14 years ago|reply
This looks nice (and it's great the LI is open sourcing it) but it doesn't seem like a great alternative to the tab bar. With the tab bar you select a tab and get instant feedback above it. If you don't like what you see you can select the next tab. Two touches. With this you have to select, dismiss, and then select the next menu item. Not really a great solution for moving through information quickly especially as you have to give a second for the view present/dismiss animations - unlike tab bar.
[+] smashing|14 years ago|reply
"Mobile Software Imagineer"? What is this? Disney-ification?
[+] shadesandcolour|14 years ago|reply
I'm a little lost as to why this needs to be done with the containers in iOS 5. Couldn't you achieve the same thing using a regular UIView and some UIButtons with fancy images? Or I'm I missing what's going on here?
[+] nanijoe|14 years ago|reply
So does this design limit me to 4 menu options like the LinkedIn app?
[+] syegnash|14 years ago|reply
Nope, you can add as many screens as you'd like. Check out the sample app, which starts with 3 but lets you add/delete screens.