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Big Picture
There are a ton of great opportunities to move forward with in terms of developing C4. The following list is just a few of the main ideas that have been floating around over the couple of months.
I'll work hard on keeping this dialog going with everyone.
In the last months we have started to change the core API for C4, with components that now use blocks and eliminate touches (in favour of gestures) from the original API. Alejandro has done tons of great work on this, including fixing the implementation of "styles" by basically tossing out the UIAppearance-based approach in favour of using NSInvocations.
It would be great to start outlining a future plan for the core API, including things like:
- coding style guide < DONE see: https://github.com/C4Labs/C4iOS/wiki/Coding-Standards
- how to design "plug-ins"
- adding C4 to CocoaPods < DONE
- scoping new features
- cross device compatibility
- ...? (Please add some here if you think of any)
There should be a badass app for C4 that showcases the project, it's potential, and gives people the opportunity to see and play with all the examples listed online.
Check out the C4 App project page.
DONE! See: http://c4ios.com/cosmos/
We didn't do an examples-in-app approach because the examples are often too simple/boring to justify 100 different views. We'd need a better-designed approach and more flexible and interactive examples to justify an "example app"
At the Resonate Festival, in Belgrade, I talked a bit with Dominikus about the possibility of designing a data visualization framework specific for iOS. Afterwards, we took some of the ideas we came up with and did a pretty decent brainstorm on what that framework might look like. Then, in May, I met with an IRAP advisor who was very interested in the subject of the project. IRAP is a funding agency for industrial research in Canada. The advisor's main contributions were:
- He really likes the idea
- He suggests we try to move forward with client work to identify the main technological risks / hurdles to overcome
- He will have funding later this year
This is a very promising opportunity. I have more info on our Basecamp brainstorm session, so if you're interested email me.
In April, I had a lot of conversations with Karl about C4 and we got onto the subject of looking at various solutions for building a physics component for C4. He's been doing some research into various kits including Box2D, UIDynamics and SpriteKit to see he can come up with a good way to move forward. There is no basecamp / brainstorm session yet about solutions and directions.
NOTE: I've easily connected scene kit and C4 in the past.
Over the course of the last couple years I've been talking to Kyle about the direction of C4. Recently, Steven mentioned his interest in working on integrating Social frameworks like Twitter, Facebook, etc. to C4; this is an idea that Kyle has also mentioned would be great if we got it right.
For a long while I have been collaborating with Adam Tindale a prof who now works at OCADU in Toronto. He is a strong advocate and was one of the original supporters of C4; he has also taught courses at OCADU that use C4 as the main programming language. We have talked about the idea of writing a book together. This summer he is getting back into learning C4 and will come up with some ideas for structuring a new course whose content could provide the basis for an book.
It would be great to also discuss things like marketing, advancement, mission, etc. Currently, C4 has officially released for almost 2 years and despite not doing much in terms of promotion, there has been a ton of activity all over the world with C4.
From now on it would be great to have some discussions about:
- who the biggest audience is
- how to reach that audience
- what to say about C4 (i.e. mission statements, tag lines, etc.)
I think this will make it easier for people to get into the project.
For reaching audiences, a couple ideas I have are:
- get into conference circuits, like CocoaConf
- start a weekly tutorial / publication, like NSHipster
- promote on Tech Crunch (w/ new features + examples app when its ready)
The current site is getting outdated. For instance, the setup to build new content is complex, cumbersome and probably isn't the best platform for whatever next generation of the site will be. We should think about an appropriate design/integration/platform that will be forward-thinking and provide a strong foundation for building the C4 community in the future.
Some things to think about:
- should it be integrated with the C4 App
- what is the best way to share small sketches
- how can we more seamlessly integrate Github / S.O / Twitter
- what do people need from the site that isn't already there?
PS By "site" I mean "whatever's next", not specifically a single website that people can browse, but something more like an integrated platform for managing content, connecting with users, and administering the project.
DONE! www.c4ios.com except: still haven't figured out a good way to showcase and share sketches (although we did integrate a ScreenRecorder class that makes it easier to create recordings of your sketches).
This is the development wiki for the C4 project.