CocoaHeads Belgium November Meeting – Notes

First of all, I would like to thank all attendees for showing up. I think we had about 20 people fighting their way through the rainy streets and joining us in Nivelles. Apparently there were a lot of new faces, I guess that means the word is getting around.

This month we had a very interesting session about the CLang Static Analyzer by Cyril Godefroy (developer of the 321Run iPhone Application). We did our best to video tape the session again, and after a full day of editing and uploading it is finally available on Vimeo.

Status Update

Before the session started I gave a little Status Update on things we have already done since the last meeting.

The Google Group for CocoaHeadsBE is still available, but we need some action in it :-) Feel free to use the Google Group and post things in it if you want !

We also created a CocoaHeadsBE group on LinkedIn. We’re not quite sure what we will do with it, but for those of you who have an account on LinkedIn, make sure you join the group as well. It could be used in the future to post job openings and get in touch with each other on a professional level.

Since the 4th monday of the month would be in the Christmas Hollidays, we are going to check if we can schedule the meeting on the 21st of december (third monday). We will update the website once we have a confirmation.

This month’s session : Cyril Godefroy : CLang Static Analyzer

I had seen a few minutes of a demo about the CLang Static Analyzer at the iPhone Tech Talks in Paris, and I was quite happy when Cyril told me he wanted to give a presentation on it at the CocoaHeads Belgium meeting. Cyril traveled from France (Lille) to join us in Nivelles.

Cyril gave us a very good overview on the CLang Static Analyzer and showed us how to use it to detect possible memory leaks and other things. He then went on by showing us some pitfalls and workarounds a few things. Since I had never used it myself, I was quite interested in seeing it in action when I got home. So, first thing I did when I got home was install the latest XCode and let the CLang Static Analyzer check my code.

Cyril also created a guest post on this website where he attached the actual slides from the presentation. Thanks for that !

For those of you who couldn’t make it to this month’s meeting, I’ve uploaded the video to Vimeo :

CocoaHeads Belgium – November 2009 – CLang Static Analyzer from Stefaan Lesage on Vimeo.

The Video

The video is pretty descent, though it might be a bit hard to see the actual screen and the code. I spent the better part of a day editing the video and trying to improve the sound in Post Processing.

People have asked if it was possible to put an iPod version online. Well, that’s actually possible and I could even create an AppleTV (HD 720p) version. The only thing is, bandwidth isn’t cheap. The current version of the video is about 120 Mb in size, and if 10 people start to download it, that would generate 1 Gb in traffic. If others discover the video the bandwidth might increase pretty fast.

So, YES, I could provide an iPod / iPhone version and even a High Definition version for the AppleTV, but that would come at a cost. If enough people are interested in that, I might have a look at what it would cost and could setup a system where you could buy the actual video. For now if you can live with the video on Vimeo, well, it’s feee … :-)

If you want us to keep video taping the sessions, please let me know. And if you have any suggestions on how to make the video even better, feel free to talk to me as well.

Next month’s meeting

After the session, I asked the attendees if it wouldn’t be better to plan the next meeting on the 21st of december, instead of the usual 4 th monday of the month. Everyone seemed to agree, since the 4 th monday of the month would actually be in the Christmas Hollidays. I’ll try to see if we can find a location and someone who can give a presentation.

Ideas for Presentations :

It doesn’t matter where the next meeting will take place or on which day of the month it takes place, but one thing we will surely need is someone giving a presentation or a session on something related to Cocoa Development. If you have any ideas, or are willing to give a session at next month’s meeting, please get in touch with us so we can arrange everything.

Sessions could be anything, ranging from How to market / promote your application to how to design a good Mac / iPhone User Interface or even something technical like an in-depth look at Instruments. I had someone talk to me about presenting the ‘Bug of the Month’, in which he could give a short session about a typical problem he encountered while programming and how he solved it. All great topics for sessions !

So if you’re willing to give a presentation / session at the next CocoaHeads Belgium meeting, please let us know !

Final Note

I still have some coupon codes from Stefanie Höfling from The Big Nerd Ranch Europe. She was kind enough to supply us with a Coupon Code which gives you an additional 50€ reduction on one of their courses. She even promised she would double that reduction for member of the CocoaHeads Belgium community. So, I’d like to thank here in the name of everyone involved in CocoaHeads Belgium. Sadly I forgot them, but I’ll make sure to bring them with me at the next meeting.

I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Eric Bariaux from TInSys who kindly sponsored the venue in Nivelles.

If anyone thinks he can help us out with one of the ideas mentioned in this topic, please do contact us. If you still have more ideas … well contact us as well. There is a real need for a CocoaHeads Belgium, and I’m sure that we can make it happen if we all work on it together.

Regards,

Stefaan