Well, last month Eric Bariaux gave a presentation on Automated Testing in an iOS World during our Cocoaheads Belgium Meeting. I did video tape the session, but didn’t really find the time to process it yet … until then end of last week.

So I finally Imported the HDV Tapes, did some color correction, added a few titles, exported the whole thing … and ended up with a 90 GB file. I had to compress this into a smaller format for uploading and ended up with an 700 something Mb file which I uploaded to Vimeo.

Automated testing in an iOS World – Cocoaheads Belgium from Stefaan Lesage on Vimeo.

Audio Quality

I know the audio quality isn’t superb … We did have a lot of noise from the activity in the room next to ours, and I couldn’t really filter that out without messing up the rest of the audio. Next time I’ll try to bring an Audio Interface and a Microphone so we can record the audio separately.

High Quality Version

The file I uploaded had a resolution of about 640 x 360 pixels, which is perfect for displaying on an older iPhone / iPod Touch, but somehow low quality for viewing on the iPad. If people are interested in a higher quality version, I could generate an iPad specific version for you, but I won’t be able to upload that to Vimeo due to the file size.

Next Meeting

Well, since we should have had this months meeting yesterday … we will be skipping it and try to organize the next one on the 20 th December (if that’s find with everyone). We are still looking for a location or a topic, but we could also make it a ‘coding’ session if we can’t find someone to give a presentation.

Final Note

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., or even better … start organizing

Regards,

Stefaan

Well, I would like to thank Tom Maes and the kind folks at Sun Microsystems Belgium once more for allowing us to use the room for our Cocoaheads Belgium meeting.

It took us a while again to get everyone subscribed for this event, and to find an appropriate location, and sadly this time we had to limit the number of seats available. I hope everyone got in though, and if you didn’t make sure you register for the next meeting ASAP (or at least when we have more info about it). This time we had a room filled with about 30 people, at least a dozen of iPads, and even two iPhone 4 devices !

This month Tom Maes prepared a session on all things WWDC. Tom gave us his opinion about WWDC and why he finds it so interesting. As with many conferences, the sessions are quite interesting, but at WWDC you also have the opportunity to have some Lab Time with Apple Technicians which proves to be very valuable. He also mentioned that the conference isn’t always held in the session rooms, but quite a few times you meet up with interesting people in the lobby or hallways and you probably learn a few things there too.

Status Update

Personally I am very pleased with the way the Cocoaheads Belgium community is growing and evolving. I remember the first meeting where we all seemed strangers … but meanwhile we’ve grown acquainted to each-other and the sharing of knowledge and information is starting to be a fact !

I’ve had quite a few suggestions and ideas from the community last month and we have discussed a few of those during the meeting as well. For those of you who didn’t make it to the meeting, I’ll give you a little summary on the 2 most important suggestions.

NSCoder Nights

The goal here is to get together with a small group of developers and actually Code together. The idea exists in other countries and there is even a website dedicated to NSCoder Nights.

The actual goal is to have a weekly / bi-weekly event where a small group of Cocoa developers get together and … well code of course ! The big difference between the NSCoder Night and regular meetings is that the idea is to work in smaller groups, and be less formal. There would be no need to subscribe at all, if you feel you’re ready for an NSCoder Night you just turn up with your Mac and a project you want to work on.

It would be a great opportunity to share our knowledge ! One person could have an issue with some Core Location stuff and another developer could help him with the task at hand. I have already seen that we have quite a few smart people in our community, some know everything about Core Location, others about Core Animation and even some OpenGL experts. We are probably all experts in a specific area, but imagine what we could do if we could bring all that knowledge together … wel that’s exactly the idea of the NSCoder Night!

We have no concrete plans yet, but I noticed that the people present at the meeting would be interested in it, so here is a little list of things we would probably need :

• Spot with enough electricity / chairs to host a small group of developers
• Preferably a calm, not too noisy location
• If possible some Wifi access to the interent
• Some drinks / food in the neighboorhood would be great as well

In many cases it is done in a Pub with Wifi, which makes it absolutely perfect if it isn’t all too noisy (we still need to hear the each-other think & talk).

So, if anyone has a suggestion of a place where we could host the NSCoder Nights, please let us know. Remember this is supposed to be a smaller group, and there is no problem at all with having it take place in 2 or more places in Belgium at the same time. For example, I could imagine one in Antwerp, one in Gent, one in Brussels, …

NSBBQ

The other idea is a suggestion for a more social happening. From time to time we get together for our meetings, and we even take some time to grab a beer together and that’s how the idea started to grow. And if there is one thing we Belgians love on hot sunny days, … its a BBQ with good food and a few drinks! (if you answered : creating iPhone apps in 1 day, you should check the NSCoder Night topic again)

The idea is to plan a day where the whole community could meet up and socialize. Since there is no technical content attached to this event, you could even bring your girl/boyfriend, husband/wife and maybe even the kids.

We have absolutely no idea yet on how we should organize this. For now it’s a wild idea, but a quite interesting one. With the help of the community we could get it organized (find a location, catering, …) or we might even be able to do it ourselves (bring our own food, do the BBQ ourselves).

If you are interested in this idea, and have some suggestions / can offer a helping hand, please get in touch with us.

Feedback & Suggestions

If you have any feedback on the topics mentioned or have any other suggestions at all, feel free to get in touch with us. You can reach us through our Google Group for CocoaHeadsBE and CocoaHeadsBE group on LinkedIn, and of course our CocoaHeads Belgium webiste / Blog. Furthermore you can also follow the CocoaheadsBE twitter account to learn more about us.

Next Meeting

As of yet, the date is undecided. If we keep our schedule, the next meeting would be on the 26th of July, but that will probably be during most people’s summer holidays. Personally I’m out of the country during the last 2 weeks of July, but that doesn’t mean you guys can’t have a meeting without me.

Some people suggested we should skip July and jump straight forward to August. Who knows, we might be able to organize our NSBBQ during the summer holidays for those of you eager to see me before the end of august

Final Note

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

Well, I would like to thank Raphael Sebbe and Sandrine Louiseau from Creaceed once more for allowing us to use the room for our Cocoaheads Belgium meeting.

The room was filled once again, and I think we had approximately 20 people joining us this time (and about 8 iPads I believe). Of course all the familiar faces were there again, and we also had some newcomers there too.

This month Raphael Sebbe prepared a session about XCode for us. Raphael is a developer from Creaceed who are the creators of some Mac and iPhone products like Prizmo, Hydra and Vocalia. And Raphael showed us how he is using XCode for a few things, learned us some new keyboard shortcuts and showed us a few Tips and Tricks. All in all, it was a great session both for beginners like me and more advanced XCode users.

Cocoaheads Belgium – Raphael Sebbe – XCode : Basics & Beyond – April 2010 from Stefaan Lesage on Vimeo.

You can find a PDF version of the actual presentation on the Creaceed website.

Status Update

Before the session started I gave a little Status Update on things we have already done since the last meeting. As we all know by now, we have our Google Group for CocoaHeadsBE and CocoaHeadsBE group on LinkedIn, and of course our CocoaHeads Belgium webiste / Blog. Furthermore you can also follow the CocoaheadsBE twitter account to learn more about us.

I would like to encourage everyone to help us fill it with content you guys are looking for. A great example here is the Book Reviews like the ones posted by Spencer Pieters. The more content we have, the more visitors the website will generate, and the easier it will be for Cocoaheads Belgium to achieve some things.

If you have a Cocoa Problem, feel free to post it in our Google Group … if you have an interesting tutorial to share you can always post it on the CocoaHeads Belgium website. Even if you post it on your own website, we would appreciate a little post on the CocoaHeads Belgium website which links through to your website for the full content.

Next Meeting

We decided that the next meeting will be on monday, the 31st of May. Currently we are still looking for a room we could use to hold the meeting, and also for someone to hold an actual session on something.

So, if you do know of a location we could use, or are willing to present something related to Mac / iPhone or iPad development, please get in touch with us.

Final Note

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

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

Please go to http://github.com/cgodefroy/CLang-static-Analyzer-cases for the source code of demos. I tried to add comments to explain a few things. If you have more code examples, fork it and send me a pull request (never tried it might be fun).

If you want more information on my iPhone app 321Run, please have a look at the 321Run website. Feel free to play around with the application and show it to your friends (there is a free and apaid versions). Getting feedback from Belgian users would be great, so please go ahead, download the app and give it a spin. It is a nice app for beginners and regular runners.

I am working on version 2.0 and am looking for some testers who would commit to run at least once a week for one month;-) Of course while using 321Run.

What else? Hopefully Stefaan will be able to put online the video he succeeded to record.

First of all, I would like to thank all attendees for showing up. We had about 35 people from all over the country joining us on this Meeting. For those who couldn’t make it, or didn’t know about this initiative, no worries, we will be putting all information online anyway, and this time we even video taped the session !

Status Update

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

As requested by the group, we have created a Google Group for CocoaHeadsBE. Some of you had indicated that it would be a lot easier to post things in a Google Group as opposed to posting it on the Website. Well, the Group is there, but apparently not everyone found it yet. 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.

This month’s session : Stéphane Winnepenninckx : iPhone Bootcamp at The Big Nerd Ranch

This mont’s meeting was all about the iPhone Bootcamps at The Big Nerd Ranch (Europe). Stéphane Winnepenninckx from WiS & Co took the opportunity to share us his experiences with the iPhone Bootcamp at The Big Nerd Ranch. Thanks to Stephane we even had Stefanie Höfling from The Big Nerd Ranch joining in as well !

Stéphane covered everything you need to know in order to be prepared for the iPhone Bootcamp at BNR. It would be way too much to cover in an article, and since we video taped the session, I decided to put the video online for everyone to watch.

CocoaHeads Belgium October Meeting from Stefaan Lesage on Vimeo.

The Video

Well, the Session was video taped as a test. I’m not quite sure if we will keep doing that in the future. Personally I’m not 100% happy with the result. The video was shot in HD format, but in order to upload it to the interwebs I had to compress it a lot. It just wan’t affordable to upload the huge HD file since it would cost us way too much in bandwidth.

As I mentioned this was just a test, but if people are interested in those Video’s, we might continue video taping the sessions. If we can find the resources we might even add a second camera to the setup. Of course that would take us a bit longer to produce the final movie, but it would be a bit more dynamic to watch.

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 if we pick a fixed day in the month for the sessions. That would actually make everyone’s life a little easier and would allow us to plan things ahead. There was a consensus on having the meetings in the third of fourth week of the month, and on a monday or wednesday. I’ll be putting a new doodle online later this week in which everyone has the opportunity to vote for.

Additionally someone in the audience mentioned we could use their offices in Nijvel as well. Personally I don’t mind having the meetings take place once in Gent and once in Brussels as well. It would make it a bit easier for those who are located on the other side of the country to get there. If the person who suggested to use their offices is reading this, could you please get in touch with is so we can work something out ?

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 noticed we had less attendees this time, but I also noticed we had quite a few new faces joining in as well. This is great, since it a clear sign that there is interest in this initiative and that the word is getting around. If you know someone who is into Mac Development or iPhone Development, please do tell them about this initiative and website.

Oh, before I forget it. Stefanie Höfling from The Big Nerd Ranch Europe 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.

For those of you who couldn’t make it to this month’s meeting, but would still like to get that discount, Stefanie provided me with a few additional cards / coupon codes. Make sure to ask me about the Coupon’s during next month’s meeting.

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