Dashcode was a software application created by
Apple Inc. that was included with
Mac OS X Leopard
Mac OS X Leopard (version 10.5) is the sixth major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Leopard was released on October 26, 2007 as the successor of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, and is available in two ...
and facilitates the development of
widgets for
Dashboard For business applications, see Dashboard (business).
A dashboard (also called dash, instrument panel (IP), or fascia) is a control panel set within the central console of a vehicle or small aircraft. Usually located directly ahead of the driv ...
. It was first included on new
MacBooks shipping around the time of May 24, 2006, as part of the
Xcode developer tools.
Dashcode, Version 3.0 (328), was included as part of Apple's
Xcode developer tools on the
Mac OS X Snow Leopard
Mac OS X Snow Leopard (version 10.6) is the seventh major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers.
Snow Leopard was publicly unveiled on June 8, 2009 at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conferen ...
DVD as an optional install.
The last iteration of Dashcode, Version 3.0.5 for Xcode 4, is still available to developer account holders as an optional install fro
Downloads for Apple Developers (Apple Developer ID required)
History
WWDC
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; ...
mentioned Dashcode as a new feature to be included in Leopard during his 2006
WWDC keynote speech. Although not installed by default as part of an Xcode installation, the DVDs handed out at the
WWDC did contain a version of Dashcode. Although the version number was in fact lower than that of the "MacBook build", the WWDC build of Dashcode contained several additional templates, as well as some interface and functionality improvements. This WWDC build launched on both
Mac OS X v10.4 and the WWDC build of Mac OS X 10.5 ("Leopard"), but was unusable on 10.4 (crashes soon after startup).
Public beta
On December 20, 2006, Apple released a
public beta
A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...
of Dashcode. When announcing this release, Apple stated the beta had been "scaled back" for compatibility with Mac OS X v10.4. This beta expired on July 15, 2007.
Dashcode and iOS
Dashcode Version 2.0 (151) is included as part of Apple's
iOS SDK. This allows for the creation of
Web apps for the
iOS version of
Safari
A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an importa ...
.
Dashcode Version 3.0.2 (336) is installed with Xcode on OS X Lion.
It is not known if this will allow for the local installation of Dashcode-created web apps, as such an ability will allow iOS to run a software layer akin to Mac OS X's Dashboard, which runs on a local installation. Currently, iOS maintains a separation between native code and web code, in that way native applications can access data from the Internet, web content can't be accessed by native applications save for Safari; likewise, web content (including web apps) can be run inside the Safari browser, but cannot have access to the filesystem or other internals of iOS and cannot be installed on the operating system in the same way as native code.
Native code software for iOS is currently developed using the
Xcode suite, particularly an iPhone-centric version of
Interface Builder packaged with the iOS SDK.
References
External links
Dashcode public beta downloadfrom Apple
from Apple Developer Connection
Dashcode Developer TipsDashboard User Tips
{{macOS developer tools
MacOS development