BWToolkit is a library of code for Cocoa development.
Actually, it’s more than just a library of code. It comes with an Interface Builder (version 3) plugin that simplifies development and use of the framework. BWToolkit is open source under the generous BSD license, and you can obtain it as source code or you can obtain it as a nice “drop and play” package.
I’ve stumbled across BWToolkit a few times in my development work, but it wasn’t until recently that I could begin using it (seems to have a requirement of Mac OS X 10.5 as a minimum…. doesn’t state that explicitly, but you can see it in some of what it does plus examining the source code). In my use of it so far, it’s been really well done and a real joy to development. Having been an engineer of the PowerPlant C++ Mac application framework back in the day, I know what it can be like to write reusable code modules like this, and BWToolkit has a lot of spit and polish.
Some things I like about it:
- Drop and play. Just download the distribution, install the IB plugin, ensure the framework is added to your project (link to it, copy it into your resulting bundle) and that’s it. So simple.
- Use is very simple, because there’s no extra work. Just edit merrily away in Interface Builder.
- It’s got a lot of those widgets that you commonly want to use but there’s nothing standard from the OS for you to use. Oh sure you could make the widgets, but BWToolkit makes things like the BWAnchoredButtonBar, BWAnchoredPopUpButton, BWUnanchoredButtonContainer and so on… it just helps round out those commonly used widgets so all you have to do in IB is just drag and drop and get on with your work.
- I love the BWSheetController. I wish I had thought of that class! It’s so common to have a xib with a main window (e.g. document) and then you need to display a sheet on the window. To display the sheet, there’s a lot of infrastructure code you have to write every time, and it’s the same code over and over — perfect candidate for a reusable class to factor that out. With BWSheetController it’s even better because it’s just adding an instance of the controller to the xib, hooking up some outlets, and viola… functional sheet with just a few clicks. Wonderful!
- Most of the classes are based upon Cocoa classes. For instance, BWSplitView is an NSSplitView, the button classes are typically just aggregates of other NSButton’s. It’s good to subclass where it makes sense, instead of fully recreating from scratch.
- The use of the BSD license pretty much means there’s little reason NOT to use BWToolkit. It makes your life a lot easier, little restriction upon use, it’s free (beer and speech). What’s not to like?
Some things I don’t like:
- I found a bug (BWSplitView’s show up in initial random locations if the host window’s “visible upon launch” setting is not on). I reported the bug via email but have received no reply from the author (it’s been long enough). Granted, it seems he’d prefer filing it in his bug tracking system, but I don’t have the cycles right now to do that so I wanted to at least email to ensure the bug didn’t slip through the cracks. So, I’m not sure how active the project is right now. *shrug*
- There’s not much documentation. Granted, there’s enough to get you going, and eventually you can figure things out. But to make a well-rounded distribution, full documentation of the classes/widgets and an accompanying sample application that shows everything off would make for a better final product.
- Some of where documentation would be very useful would be things like bottom bars…. you can do bottom bars now so, what’s the point of this class? What advantage does it provide? Or is it a holdover from long ago when the OS provided no means whatsoever? In which case, is the bottom bar class smart about the OS version? Again, one could figure it out from reading code, but formal documentation is better.
All in all, a nice little toolkit.