Grand Slam!

Apple has set a new record for WWDC video avialability this year, getting them out not even a week after the event ended. Amazing.

Even more amazing, they're not selling them this year. Registered developers can access them for free. Want to know what all the fuss is about with Xcode 4? Go watch the videos.

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Announcing OpenGL ES 2.0 for iOS 4

Okay, it's finally time for me to announce Super Secret Project B, which is a new book I'm writing on OpenGL ES 2.0 for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Yes, I know I said I wouldn't be writing any books in 2010, but the nice folks at the Pragmatic Programmers approached me after I made that statement with an economically feasible way for me to write a book this year. I couldn't say no.

My original plan had been to take my OpenGL ES from the Ground Up blog posts, supplement them, and turn them into a book with step-by-step projects to reinforce the points of each posts. My week at WWDC has caused me to change that approach. I went to all the OpenGL ES sessions and spent a fair amount of time bending the ear of Allan Schaffer, Apple's Graphics and Games Evangelist, as well as a number of Apple engineers who work on or with OpenGL. After a lot of hard thought, I came to the conclusion that the approach needed to change. Although modern hardware supports the fixed pipeline, Apple has stopped making phones that require OpenGL ES 1.1. The iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPad all not only support OpenGL ES 2.0, but they all require it if you want to take full advantage of the hardware.

OpenGL ES from the Ground Up, however, focused on the OpenGL ES 1.1 fixed pipeline.

Since OpenGL ES doesn't maintain backward compatibility the way workstation OpenGL does, much of the material from the fixed pipeline, such as lights, the model view and projection matrix, and the stock functions for submitting vertex, texture, and normal data are all gone from OpenGL ES 2.0. Instead, you have to handle all that work manually when you write your shaders. Shaders add some complexity to the process, but give you a tremendous amount of power and the ability to write more efficient OpenGL code.

In the Desktop world, it still makes sense to learn immediate mode first, then regular fixed pipeline, and then finally the programmable pipeline, because workstation OpenGL maintains nearly 100% backwards compatibility across releases, and you can get up and running quickly. On Workstation OpenGL ES, you can even mix and match the different modes, accessing the model view matrix and lights from your shaders. That's not the case with OpenGL ES, so spending a few hundred pages teaching things that won't be applicable to the programmable pipeline seemed like a poor use of time, both mine, and my readers'.

But, for the new programmer, the programmable pipeline is really hard to grok. I've been banging my head this past week looking for a way to present that rather complex topic in a way that people without prior graphics or OpenGL ES experience will be able to understand.

Thanks to a lot of people willing to talk with me, I think I've come up with an approach that will work, and I'm really excited about it. So, if you find OpenGL ES confusing, especially if you find the programmable pipeline and shaders confusing, look out for OpenGL ES 2.0 for iOS4. I don't have a release date yet, but I will post here when I have updated information about the production schedule.

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WWDC 10 Update

Well, we're well into the second day at WWDC and it is, as always, amazing, exhilarating, exhausting and, most of all, fun.

Unfortunately, there's not a heck of a lot that I can report on. Other than the keynote yesterday, which was heavily covered by both liveblogs and technical media. The iPhone 4 looks amazing. I haven't seen it myself, but I've talked to several people who have and without exception they just gush over the it, especially the screen.

But there's stuff going on here that's got me so much more excited than even the new phone. A lot of really smart people at Apple have been working very, very hard to give developers some really cool stuff and I just wish I could share it, because they really wowed me and many others I've talked to.

It's an exciting time to be an iPhone iOS developer.

Update: Okay, it's Xcode 4, it's not available to non-attendees, but it has been announced, so I can say what it is that has wowed us. Apple has completely revamped the developer tools with a new workflow. The current beta is still unfinished, but it's extremely impressive.

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MartianCraft Away Team

This is a teaser photo of part of the MartianCraft T-shirt that Rob designed for WWDC. We've got a small assortment of these to give away at WWDC. We haven't yet figured out how we're going to decide who gets to be red-shirts on our Away Team, but we'll get it figured out before Monday, and hopefully it won't require you to embarrass yourself too badly.

I'll post some more pictures as we get closer to WWDC.

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Briefs Rejected by the App Store

Rob Rhyne explains what's going on with Briefs, his iPhone-based prototyping tool. Unfortunately, it's not good news.

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Oh, Hey! I'm Teaching Again.

I'm teaching up with Julio Barros of E-String Technologies to hold a three-day iPhone SDK programming workshop in New York City the week after WWDC. The class starts on Wednesday, June 16 and runs through Friday June 18. No prior iPhone programming experience is required, though some prior programming knowledge and a general understanding of C-style syntax is recommended.

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Almost WWDC

Well, it's the Thursday before WWDC and, as always, I'm swamped yet super-excited. The Pre-WWDC Pilgrimage is all planned. If you expressed interest, you should have received an e-mail with the details about how to pay if you want to take the bus.

I shy away from making predictions before big events because I don't have any inside information and I'm likely to be more wrong than right with anything but the safest predictions (like a new model iPhone being announced). However, I do think there's something big this year that hasn't leaked yet. Something completely unexpected. Chances are, if there is, it will leak the night before the keynote. The number of people who find out about new projects increases exponentially in the 24 hours leading up to the actual presentation, and leaks become nearly impossible to prevent at that point, but I have a gut feeling there's something we haven't heard about yet, but I haven't the foggiest idea what it might be.

Of course, I think a new iPhone model is almost a foregone conclusion, and perhaps some moderate hardware refreshes on the Mac side, though I think the focus of this WWDC is clearly going to be the iPhone OS. We might see a price drop, speed bump, or something similar on the Mac side, but I don't think we're going to see any Mac line completely refreshed or much time devoted to the Mac in the keynote. It's within the realm of possibility that the Mac Mini, which is sorely overdue, or the Mac Pro, which is also sorely overdue, to get revamped, but probably not. I expect Steve to spend a fair amount of time giving us details about how many iPhones and iPads have been sold, how many applications have been downloaded, and whatnot. I expect to hear more about GameCenter and to see some silly montage about some developer's success story with the App Store.

I've seen rumors about a iPhone OS-based AppleTV. Maybe. Steve's comments at D8 might have been the sort of mis-direction he's known for, and the AppleTV is definitely in need of a refresh if it's going to continue being sold, but I think Steve was telling the truth about the subsidized TV box market, so if there is an AppleTV refresh, it's going to be combined with something else: a partnership, new business model, or something that will make it a viable, profitable product.

Steve will almost certainly have us watch a new commercial, either for the new iPhone or some other new product. If he's really excited about it, he'll make us watch it twice.

For the most part, I really don't care what gets announced. The incredible interest in the iPad and growth of the iPhone as a platform already provide me with more to explore than I have time for. I'm looking forward to sitting in the RDF on Monday with 6,000 other Apple geeks. It's an extraordinary experience watching Jobs work, especially in person. He's a master showman, and my only complaint about the last few Stevenotes has been all the time he's given to third party developers who lack his presentation skills. I really do hope there's more Steve and less awkward third-party developers on stage this year, though I suspect the format will be similar to previous years.

Last year, I didn't do the Keynote line-thing. I visited with people in the line much of the morning because I was still on East Coast time, but then I went back to my hotel and had breakfast, then went back over to Moscone West just before 10:00. This year, however, I'm going to do the early-morning geeky wait-in-line thing. My fellow Martian Rob is attending his first WWDC and I feel like the line is something you have to do your first time, and I don't him to do it alone. Besides, it is fun. And, hey, maybe there will be strippers again, because strippers never seem out of place at a developer conference, especially walking around at 6:00 in the morning in 55° weather wearing bikinis and high heels, right?

If you're going to WWDC and want to say hi, the best way to find me is to follow me on Twitter. I spend most of the day at Moscone West and am pretty easy to find. If I'm not in a session, I usually park at a table to work and tweet my whereabouts.

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