Call to Arms for Narrative
Originally published on macresearch.org, around 2009. Reproduced from the author's archive; some links may no longer resolve.
Creating a Standard Mac OS X Plotting Framework
Over the years, I’ve lamented a few times that there is no first class plotting framework for Cocoa. Even when writing about worthy efforts like SM2DGraphView (link no longer available), I’ve still been left with the feeling that a plotting library on Mac OS X should be capable of much more. At times I’ve hoped that Apple may eventually plug the gap by publishing classes used in applications like Keynote and Numbers, but that is just wishful thinking. If there is ever to be a dominant plotting framework on the platform, it will probably have to come from a dedicated group working together on an open source initiative. Solo efforts — including my own (link no longer available), won’t cut it in the long run.
That’s why I’ve been pleased to see that there is some interest (link no longer available) in modernizing the open source project that I started, but didn’t fully realize: Narrative (link no longer available). I developed Narrative many years ago for an application that I was working on, but — like so many one man efforts — only implemented what I needed at the time, and didn’t maintain the project. While the source code is quite clean, it is very dated, having been written to target Mac OS X 10.2.
As everybody knows, open source is a double-edged sword: a poorly run open-source project will usually fade and die; a well run project, like GCC or the linux kernel, can thrive and produce good results. For an open source project to succeed, it needs a team of interested individuals, not generally a solitary champion. With renewed interest in reviving Narrative, it seems like the time may be rife to attempt to breath life into it, and perhaps make it the framework that we have all been longing for.
If this sounds like something that would interest you, get in contact with me (drewmccormack [at] mac.com). Even if you are not that experienced with Cocoa, you could probably learn a lot on a project like this, and contribute to the greater good of community of Mac researchers at the same time.
Drew McCormack