application-design

i am wondering if there is any way i can create an app that starts as a desktop application, for personal use for now. and since desktop applications can work with my HDD files which i may want to manage but don't feel secure throwing them onto a web server. but what i think i may want to do in the future is port the app to the web since that is where i think is the future of applications to come. web apps are available everywhere eg. web apps can be used on smart phones etc. facilitate team collaboration etc. i have looked at some technologies but all seem to have some disadvantages Adobe AIR

My application loads lots of data from a database into a complex data structure. The in-memory data structure ressembles the structure of the database, which means that if the database contains the following tables: table A, key is A1 table B, key is B1, one of the columns is a foreign key to [the key of] table A table C, key is C1, one of the columns is a foreign key to [the key of] table B Then I have classes A, B and C, and: a data member of B (B::m_a) is a pointer to A a data member of C (C::m_b) is a pointer to B This implies that if I load the database, that I have to load it in the

I've been learning about the Model-View-Controller paradigm ("MVC"), but I'm quite confused since some tutorials contradict other tutorials. My current understanding of the process looks something like this: Router / Dispatcher / Front Controller: Though not specifically referenced in the "MVC" name, the Router is still a very important part. It is here that requests are translated from raw URLs to a specific controller. For example, routing a request for www.StackUnderflow.com/question/123 to the "Question" Controller of the application. Model: This is where raw data is collected from some

I'm just getting started with TDD and am curious as to what approaches others take to run their tests. For reference, I am using the google testing framework, but I believe the question is applicable to most other testing frameworks and to languages other than C/C++. My general approach so far has been to do one of three things: Write the majority of the application in a static library, then create two executables. One executable is the application itself, while the other is the test runner with all of the tests. Both link to the static library. Embed the testing code directly into the

I am creating an app and I would like a user to set some obligatory preferences during first app launch. What is the most common scenario to achieve this? Should I set some user defaults to see if the app has been setup? Also - if I determine that the app is being launched for the first time - how should I display "Setup" window? If I load it from the separte xib file - how will I deffer the display of main app window? The standard way to do this is in the +(void)initialize method of your main controller class. For example, in your interface (.h): @interface MDAppController : NSObject { BOOL