To start today's iPhone Workshop, Rob Hochberg had the students download a drawing canvas from the Shodor website. The drawn canvas was in the form of an iPhone, and the code they used to modify it came from a free program called "Xcode." The students were able to replicated the finger motions used on an iPhone by mimicking the motions using their mouse cursor on their computers. Next, Rob led the group through the process of coding new actions into their virtual iPhones. One of the actions the learned was how the iPhone can draw lines and curves onto the canvas on the screen. It was surprising to see how much code it takes just to be able to record and display curves on an iPhone canvas screen!
After a break and a short discussion of iPhone coding, the students tried adding some code on their own! All on their own, the students were able to make the iPhone simulator change the colors of the curves while they were being drawn, and change to another color after the curve was completed. Some students tackled the task of fixing an unwanted feature on the iPhone simulator; forcing used to click the save button twice before it would allow changes to be made. By working through iPhone coding from start to finish, even making corrections to the iPhone simulator itself, the students had successfully made a simple iPhone program!