Node based GUI (Cocoa)

Question

I am in the process of starting a project and whilst the logic part is relatively simple for me to mull through I am not very experienced with creating GUIs.

If you are not familiar with node based workflow here are a few examples

Nuke (The Foundry)

Max/MSP (Cycling 74)

SoftImage (AutoDesk)

The problems I have is where to start, What kind of object should I use to encapsulate the node gui? Or How would I go about making custom GUI elements that are click-drag/movable within a workspace? Are there any Books you recommend or anything you can link me too that would be able to get me up to speed.

Thank You

Answer 1

Your node view will derive from NSView, and I imagine that you'll want to use CALayers for your nodes.

You may find it helpful to look at some opensource Cocoa frameworks that implement custom views. Two that spring to mind are TwUI and GCDrawKit. Neither are a drop-in solution for what you want but they should give you an idea about how to architect complex custom views in Cocoa.