Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with cocoa

The weather outside is frightful, but my drinks are so delightful

filthy light thief — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:28:47 -0800

Recipefilter - It's winter(ish) time in my town, and I love seasonal flavored drinks, but I want to make my own (from scratch would be fun). Please recommend hot cocoa / chocolate recipes, coffee flavorings and the like.

always believe in your soul

mippy — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 08:48:04 -0800

A while ago, Green and Blacks did a hot chocolate version of their Maya Gold. Is there anything with that similar orangey spice taste? I've tried Whittards chili, and it has the heat but less nuanced flavour. Bonus points if I can make it with hot water for a less calorific treat! I'm in the UK, so it has to be available here.

How much is "some" in C programming?

joshrholloway — Sun, 31 May 2009 06:45:51 -0800

How much of C do I need to learn before moving on to Cocoa, and what's the best resource for learning it? I'm very interested in programming for the Mac and iPhone, but I have no real prior programming experience. On the recommendation of an AskMeFi answer, I bought the latest edition of the Hillegass book. However, it states something like "this book was written for those who already know some C programming and something about objects." So how much is "some"? What resources will best help me learn the parts of C I need to know before moving on to Cocoa? I want to hit the ground running, so if there is a good crash course out there, what is it?Are there any video resources?

Everything good fades away, or the incredible shrinking candy bar

mecran01 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:51:25 -0800

Candy sizes are shrinking and cocoa content is being reduced using different strategies, like introducing cookie-fied versions of popular candy bars, i.e. jamming cookies where there used to be chocolate. Is there a niche website out there systematically tracking the shrinkage? Also, Hershey Bars taste like sweet brown crayons. Is this greed on the part of manufacturers or a response to rising chocolate prices?

Gotta Be a Way

thedoctorpants — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:38:37 -0800

I want to easily port my cocoa app (osx) to windows. What are my options? Do I have any?

How can I make my cocoa powder shine?

pluckemin — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:30:12 -0800

Help me find a recipe that will showcase my fancier-than-average cocoa powder. I bought a container of Callebaut French cocoa powder a while ago (unable to resist its beautiful, deep brown color), and now I'm at a loss for what to do with it. Normally I just use cocoa powder in lieu of unsweetened chocolate to make a pan of Mark Bittman brownies, but I'd like to expand my horizons and make some kind of dessert where the difference between plain old Hershey's and my vaguely splurge-y (for a grad student) cocoa powder really comes through.

I looked at this previous AskMe but a lot of those recipes seemed like they might be a little picky in the texture department when it comes to substituting cocoa powder for chocolate. I'd prefer recipes that either ask for cocoa powder, have been successfully made with cocoa powder, or seem unlikely to collapse/seize/crystallize/separate/etc. if made with cocoa powder.

It's not exactly hot cocoa season, or else I'd have an easy answer. I do love frozen hot chocolate (a la Serendipity 3), but I don't own a blender (only a food processor).

Bonus points if you can tell me whether this is Dutch-processed cocoa or not. Does "French cocoa powder" just mean it comes from France?

Cocoa, MIDI, how to?

unSane — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 22:22:26 -0800

How do I play MIDI notes from a Cocoa application, simply? Okay, fully nerdcore. I have a Cocoa application which needs to play a series of MIDI notes using the 'guitar' general MIDI sound. I know the MIDI notenumbers and can handle the timing. How do I do it?

My application has a window in which I could embed a hidden Quicktime player. I could probably ask this to play a MIDI sequence, but I still need classes to construct the sequence etc.

Context: the application is a guitar chord/scale finder. I would like to be able to play the currently selected notes in sequence as a chord or scale. That's all.

A bonus would be to be able to detect incoming MIDI and use this to map the incoming MIDI notes to a virtual guitar fretboard.

Newbie wants to convert a simple website into an iPhone app, am I doomed?

gramcracker — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 06:54:33 -0800

Easy way to turn my medical calculations website into an iPhone app? I tried fooling around with Xcode... I have no formal programming experience, but I've picked up HTML, Javascript, CSS, and basic PHP/MySQL. I was reading about the iPhone SDK, and how it'll be "as easy to create an app as it is in Cocoa," so I gave Xcode a try this weekend, complete with beginner tutorials, but it was waaaay over my head. I have no experience at all in C or C++ or anything like that.

Basically what I'd like to do would be to copy all the HTML and javascript files from my website into a big folder and install it on an iPhone, using Safari to run the program. (Many hospitals don't have wireless access, and often have poor cell reception from all the thick walls and lead sitting around, hence wanting to allow people to run it locally.)

Is there a way to just call Safari and say, "open this index HTML file" in Cocoa/Xcode/the iPhone SDK? I'm afraid I don't have the time to pick up C or Object-C, even though I'd like to.

Small mac app idea wanted

jasminerain — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:30:33 -0800

Are there any small Mac applications that you wish existed but doesn't? I need to make a Cocoa application for a class in a few weeks, and I get to choose the application. I'd really like it to be unique and useful. It has to be small enough to be doable in 3 weeks, but it's okay if it's a large project as long as something fairly impressive can be accomplished towards the goal in 3 weeks (in other words, something with a small core functionality and possibly many features on top). I wouldn't mind continuing to work on it after the class is over.

Also, if you have an idea but it's kind of a large project, go ahead and post it anyway.

I'm not looking for anything that'll make money, but it would be nice if the project is useful to more than a handful of people.

Thanks for any suggestions!

What happens if I eat moisturizer?

dobbs — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 16:51:20 -0800

"For external use only." Okay... what if I eat it? Okay, so I live in Toronto where it seems no store carries this (Cocoa Butter) which is in a few recipes (like this).

However, today I found this moisturizer (Cocoa Butter Stick), which lists as its ingredients:

"100% pure Cocoa Butter"

The label also says, "For external use only."

This site is telling me cocoa and cacao are pretty much used interchangeably as words (one is a powder and one isn't).

My question is, If this stuff is 100% cocoa butter, why can't I eat it? What will happen if I do?

The only thing I can think of is that because this is marketed as a moisturizer it obviously doesn't have the safety seal type of thing that would be on an edible product and the company is simply covering its ass. What say you?

Hot chocolate bar?

stam_broker — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 17:14:52 -0800

Candy question. Has anyone run across candy that's similar to hot chocolate powder pressed into the form of a bar? I tasted something like this in Germany in the mid-1970s and it was great. For the candy experts, how might I cook such a thing? When I was a kid in Germany in the mid-1970s, I went on a Volksmarch (public group walk). The refreshment stands had some candy bars, and I distinctly remember a chocolate energy bar that was shaped vaguely like a Kit-Kat. It tasted a lot like hot chocolate powder (e.g. Swiss Miss) pressed into the form of a bar, with the same powdery, granular taste.

It MAY have been called Dextro-Energie but I am not sure, and any variation in the 2000s may not be similar to what existed back then.

The thing is I've never tasted any kind of candy since then that has a hot chocolate powder taste, and I liked it a lot. If nobody here has ever tasted such a thing nor knows how to get it, how might I whip up such a candy bar in the kitchen -- i.e. what do I bind the powder with; what temperature should it be cooked at; how do I prevent it from turning into chocolatey goop?

How do I get potential clients hooked?

schwa — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 20:40:20 -0800

I'm a software development consultant and am getting frustrated at the number of potential clients slipping through my fingers. I get a good number of interested leads through my website or through referrals (thanks guys) but the ratio of potential clients to paying clients is too low. What might I be doing wrong and how can I help gain these clients? The sequence generally goes like this: I get an email from a lead introducing themselves and the problem they want help with and asking about my availability. I email back and explain that I am available, and that the project sounds interesting and would love to talk more with them about it. At this point one or two more emails go back and forth, with them describing the problem in more detail and me describing my relevant experience and skills. Frustratingly, more often than not this process dies when I don't hear back from the client.

I'm an experienced developer, with good skills in my field and a good track record behind me. I don't think my rate is unreasonable (in fact I think it might well be low for a developer with my experience). I understand sometimes the client isn't ready to hire a consultant and was just looking fore ballpark rates that he can budget for. I understand that there can be a tonne of valid reasons for a client abandoning the process. Its always possible the client has found a better developer elsewhere, and so forth. But I'd like to know what I can do to help prevent this from happening and what I could do when a potential client goes cold on me.

Any advice?

How long does it take to learn how to program for Mac OS X?

Ø — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 00:44:32 -0800

How long does it take to learn how to program for Mac OS X? I frequently have ideas for applications that I wish existed, and am trying to figure out whether it's worth learning how to make them myself (as a hobby -- I have no professional programming aspirations).

Based on the answers to a previous AskMeFi question, it seems like the best approach is to start with Kochan's Programming in Objective C and then move to Hillegass's Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X.

I don't have any experience with serious programming languages, but over ten years ago was pretty adept with BASIC. I'm a pretty quick study in general, though.

Realistically, around how many hours would it take to gain enough proficiency to make useful applications?

OS X plugins

shino-boy — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:54:26 -0800

Novice programmer; OS X plugin question... I'm using this cool OS X app. The developer allows (Cocoa) plugins to be used by the app, and provides a well-documented example with the SDK. I've contacted the developer and pitched some feature enhancement ideas, he has replied that he will consider them when he has time, perhaps in a future release of the cool app.

I have this burning need for these features. I have them working in a separate, crappy app. I'd really like to have them in the cool app, and I wonder if I can do that by wrapping them into a plugin.

My question is: If an OS X app accepts plugins, how accessible are the main app's methods and protocols from the plugin? To be more specific, if the id's of the main app's methods are not known to the plugin writer?

Am I just in over my head? Is this borderline hacking?

Disclaimer:
I bought two licenses of said cool app - I'm not trying to crack anything, I just really *really* want my features implemented.

Tic tic toc

Skyanth — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 11:30:22 -0800

If I put a glass of cocoa or milk in the microwave and get it out when it's hot, hold it in my hand and tap on the bottom of the glass (or mug) with a spoon - so with the spoon in the drink, not under the glass - the sounds it makes starts out as a really low "toc" but becomes higher with each tap. What is happening? It's not as if the glass becomes much hotter or colder in the first 10 seconds after I get it from the microwave.

Are there any wxWidgets applications on Mac OS X with good UIs?

schwa — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 09:05:03 -0800

Mac OS X software is sometimes known for excellent UIs. Is this something that only comes with Cocoa. Or are there applications written using another framework (specifically wxWidgets) that have great UIs? I'm porting a Win32 application to Mac OS X using wxWidgets. I've been looking at the screenshots of wxWidgets showcase applications all the Mac OS X screenshots all seem to be from some incredibly ugly applications.

Good Mac OS X applications tend to look awesome; take for example Delicious Library, Sandvox, almost anything from Apple (except the "pro" apps), Voice Candy, Comic Life and almost anything by the Omni Group and Panic.

I haven't yet found a Mac OS X application written in wxWidgets that doesn't have a crap UI or that reeks of a quick port from Windows or Linux. While I understand that not all applications need to have fantastic UIs and sometimes just getting it working is enough. But I am curious to find that sleeper wxWidgets Mac OS X application with a wonderful UI. Bonus points if the application is cross-platform too.

adobe killer?

kingfisher, his musclebound cat — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 09:00:18 -0800

I've been wondering. Is anyone working on a OSX replacement for photoshop and illustrator? Something native to the OS and without all the baggage, oddness, and expense of the Adobe programs. I wondered about this for some time, but after checking out Microsofts' (yes really) Expression package, it makes me wonder . . . what's next for drawing/illustration software on the Mac?

Help a 98 lb weakling develop into a Mac programmer with Cocoa-fu.

mboszko — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 16:05:12 -0800

I would like to learn to program for Mac OS X, and Cocoa seems to be the way to go. Considering most of the documentation and books I've picked up say things like, "since this book is about Cocoa, we assume you know Objective-C," and the Objective-C books assume I already know C... What's the best path for a beginner like myself to progress from knowing nothing, to actually programming using Cocoa on Mac OS X? I did some BASIC programming on my ATARI 800, and later in high school, but that was more than a decade ago. So, I understand some basic programming concepts, but anything beyond that, treat me as a newbie. An additional consideration-- if I'm only going to be using Objective-C, is there any resource that will teach me that language as a whole without mucking about with the parts of ANSI-C I'll never use? ...or is that not a good way to go?

Special Mexican Cocoa

hautenegro — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 22:56:08 -0800

Does anyone have a good recipe for mexican hot chocolate that involves melting cocoa butter with ...ahem, smoking tobacco?

I want to start programming under OS X. Where to start?

slater — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 01:59:36 -0800

I've done some programming in my time (Basic & Turbo Pascal way back when), shifted more to the web side of everything about 8 years ago (procedural PHP server-side and HTML&JS&CSS client-side). Having recently purchased a mac mini, and hearing the gospel of how easy it is to program with carbon & cocoa, does anybody have any recommendations (books) on where to start? I'm not looking into writing the next big MMPORG or anything like that, just little apps and work myself up from there