Sunday, December 30, 2007

Getting there slowly, but it's working.

Well, it's coming along pretty well. I spent too much time today reading a bunch of stuff about Apple's HIG, and how the guidelines are out of date and not followed even by Apple itself. There is so much information for trying to get the program acting and looking right, it becomes overwhelming reading documentation and reference material for programming. Anywho, here's some pics of the Workout Manager for the program. It's still quite incomplete, but it is better than nothing. I still need to implement order to the way exercises are performed in a workout, since how they are displayed is completely random, based on CoreData's whims. I don't know if I will keep the HUD style for the panels. If so, the Pop-up menus and buttons will need to be custom built, since Apple provides no standard HUD controls. (They provide the HUD style though, go figure.) I like the HUD look for panels, but it is only available in 10.5. Cheers.


Textured:

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Thoughts.

The back end for the application is coming along nicely. The data model is working, and will allow for creation of custom workouts which can then be copied to different days. Since there will be custom workouts, a user will be able to compare progress over time of different round, time, or load based workouts, and chart their progress. Doing a bit of research, the USDA has a nutrient database containing over 7000 different foods, which may end up being a solution to the application's problem of adding in each of your own foods. This would be easier and is probably more accurate. Since it is available online, updating of the food database into the application would be a trivial exercise. Other thoughts in consideration are making the application look as good as iTunes, iCal, or iPhoto. Layout wouldn't be difficult, but getting the color scheme right may prove to be hard. We'll see.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Finally, Progress.

It's been over a year since I started working on this application, but I've finally sat down and am putting it together. There is a serious lack of fitness and diet tracking software for the Mac out there, so I've set upon the adventure of teaching myself Cocoa, while at the same time putting together the best damn Mac shareware app I can. It will take quite a while, but in the end it will be worth it. There are so many useful things in 10.4 and 10.5, it's hard to ignore them. Sorry for all of you 10.3 and lower users -- I suggest upgrading. I foresee many future applications not supporting 10.3 or earlier due the functionality available to developers in 10.4 and 10.5. This program will support CrossFit and the Zone diet concepts, as well as traditional training and nutritional regimens. I hope to have a early beta out around the end of March or April of next year. Keep your eyes open, and your bookmarks on this page for updates.