eCrisper – under the hood
eCrisper is created specifically for Mac using the Cocoa frameworks, the same way Mac OS X itself is created. Much of Cocoa is implemented in Objective-C, an object-oriented language that is compiled to run at incredible speed.
The actual set of tools used is the Xcode developer tools package. This package is included with every Mac so if you have a Mac you can write your own kiosk software. Xcode is an incredibly productive development platform, better than anything I have ever used (and paid a lot of money for) under MS Window.
And finally, how can eCrisper display all the new web content including HTML5? It is actually very easy. It uses WebKit, the world’s most advanced web browser engine. WebKit is a Cocoa framework so software developers can easily integrate web browsing into their applications. A very basic web browser that supports any web page supported by Safari requires just a few lines of code.
It gets better. Apple provides online documentation, hundreds of source code examples, forums, etc… and even human interface design guidelines on how to make things look good.
So if your down to your last $1000 and unemployed, get a Mac, learn everything on Apple’s website, study the examples, and start writing Mac software for Mac OS X (iMac, Macbook, Mac mini,Mac Pro) but also for IOS 4 (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch). The same tools are used for IOS 4.
So should you write your own kiosk software? Well eCrisper took me about 8 months to write but you decide. You should definitively get the tools and have fun writing small applications.
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