A curated catalog of iOS frameworks | Hacker News Reader

A curated catalog of iOS frameworks

iosframeworks.com

149 pointsdanielh44 comments

Disclaimer: I'm the creator of http://cocoacontrols.com, which is a competitor to iosframeworks.com.

* Provide direct links to the source code where possible

* License info is extremely useful; I'd hate to find something perfect for my app only to discover that it uses an incompatible license.

* Provide ratings support.

* What's a framework in this case? iOS doesn't support third-party frameworks, just static libs and loose bundles of code.

* What differentiated value does this provide vs. my site or http://cocoaobjects.com/? I'm not trying to be snarky or cut this down; I think there's a lot of room to differentiate and provide value in this space, it just needs to be articulated clearly.

As a developer of iOS frameworks and libraries, I will vouch for cocoacontrols as a solid site. It's easy to add a new entry and search for existing controls by license.

thanks, jeff. glad you like it! :) also, thanks for submitting nimbus just now!

Thanks for providing a solid service :)

+1 on cocoacontrols! I did not yet contribute but the content provided is great. I recommend it to many other iOS dev looking to get things done without re-inventing the wheel.

Thanks for the first 3 suggestions.

Frameworks, on the site at least, means any pile of code that can be used on iOS. It's definitely a misnomer, but it fits well enough with what people search for. I'm sure you had the same issue when deciding on a name for cocoacontrols.com.

It's hard to say what differentiates the sites. They definitely serve the same niche.

I'm sure you had the same issue when deciding on a name for cocoacontrols.com.

Actually, I only publish UI-centric projects (hence 'controls'). It's a forcing function for me to scope what content gets published. I've actually had to reject quite a bit of cool stuff as a result.

edit: also, I intended to say 'here are a couple pieces of feedback for you' in my original post. Re-reading it just now, I realize that it comes across as a bit rude. Not my intention at all. My bad :)

It would be great if the licensing details were included. One of the most time consuming things is looking into a particular framework only to find the license is incompatible with what you're writing.

Great idea. It'll go on my TODO list.

How can we suggest new frameworks for inclusion on the site? E.g. You are missing Cloudmade's SDK for OpenStreetMap. http://cloudmade.com/products/iphone-sdk

That's a feature that I have yet to implement, but it's on my todo list. Follow @iosframeworks for updates to the site.

Related: a collection of custom UI controls for both iOS and Mac OS X: http://cocoacontrols.com/

Nice, thanks!

I'm missing here sort options, by most popular, best rated, etc. Also the details for the framework are very short, a really small explanation, and somethimes nothing but the link to their web page.

Maybe adding screenshots and opinions would increase usefulness.

Anyway, added to favs, I really like the idea!

Interactivity (most popular, etc) is definitely on my TODO list for the site. I'll probably end up requiring login with OpenID for commenting and rating.

I agree that the details are pretty slim on frameworks. As part of the interactivity feature, I plan to add a form for suggesting changes.

Thanks for the feedback!

Feature request: screenshots, if available.

Of a framework? As in API? I am not sure if I understand, how would one make a screenshot of ROR? or Django? or jQuery?

Unless you mean top application using a given framework, but then, it is not indicative of the framework, but the amount of time one spent on graphics on top of the framework.

Screenshots of UI frameworks could be nice.

Why not? It has been done with the Linux Kernel...

http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/millionvis/Treemap_Visualization_...

I'd say "screenshot." I've always like jQuery's demos, such a thing could be done for the frameworks to provide a quick insight into how they're implemented.

http://api.jquery.com/text/

Many of these frameworks are UI frameworks, which are almost impossible to evaluate without first seeing a screenshot (or, even better, a screencast).

Longer descriptions on the homepage:

"Tapku Library is an open source iOS framework built for iPhone & iPad. The framework include..."

That tells me nothing about Tapku other than it's an open source framework for iOS, and I don't really need the iOS part because I'm aware I'm on a site for iOS frameworks.

- Search needs to search tags and substrings (e.g., searching for "ASI" or "http" does not find "ASIHTTPRequest", even though both are substrings of the library name, and the library is tagged with "http").

- The search results page needs to include more information. That first line just isn't enough, especially when the whole summary is just a few words more (e.g., clicking on "Bullet" adds "and rigid body dynamics.") The search results should probably include the library tags, and maybe the full first paragraph.

- Pages for individual frameworks should probably include links to comparable frameworks (see osalt.com, for example)

Could you make the listview 2x the size? Really, 5 items per page is not helping anyone. Especially when you get to frameworks starting with C, I, HTTP[], etc.

Yup, I agree. This is on my todo list.

It would be great if there was a screenshot of each entry.

Good idea. joakin mentioned this too. It's on my todo list.

The fact that this site lists oolong engine* makes me suspect that it's not at all a carefully selected lists of framework.

(oolong is basically a poorly put together collection of sample code with an 'engine' label slapped on it. For example the engine doesn't actually have any concept of 'lights', instead the 'lighting sample' is a rip-off of an Apple sample with all light properties hard-coded calls to OpenGL).

Not only that, Box2D and Bullet are not iOS-specific.

I've made no effort to ensure that the frameworks available on the site are iOS-specific. The main point is that they're available for iOS.

This is an interesting addition, but I have to agree with the other repliers that: a sorting mechanicsm is desperately needed and more information about each framework would be nice. (screenshot, etc) Other than that, this is a great way to stay on top of these frameworks. I'm sure you thought of this, but gitHub has a few lists that do this as well that you might want to take a look at.

Great idea (I also love cocoacontrols.com).

Please show more than 5 results per page. PLEASE! How about 25-50?

It'd be nice if there was some way to compare frameworks that have similar features. For instance, I'd like to compare physics engine frameworks, either based on their listed features, or if there was some way for users who have tried multiple ones to leave comments comparing them.

What would a non-curated catalog look like? One generated automatically via a Google search? Aren't you just saying that a person took the time to go through and make the catalog?

Yep, that's basically what I'm saying.

Those gigantic download sites full of obscure low-quality shareware are what non-curated catalogs look like.

Curated how exactly? You individually test each framework out?

I second the screenshots request as well as more thorough descriptions. I don't want to have go to each framework's site to view the details.

Missing many frameworks (JSONKit, for example), and no ability to add them to the database! Also lacking license.

Great initiative. But please make the site more comfortable for us with an iPad. Make the buttons bigger!

I've never tried it on the iPad. I'll see what I can do!

It would be great if there wasn't a spelling mistake in the second sentence.

Good catch. The framework details were taken, for the most part, directly from the homepage. I'll fix it when I get the chance.

Feature request: drop curated. Way too pompous.

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