[Zev]

..which is why Joe Hewitt's Three20 framework was such a big deal.

Three20 wasn't a big deal because it was different from Apple. The noise behind Three20 is that it was (and still is, to a large degree) a cluttered mess of a framework that made it near impossible to use one part without importing the whole thing. I believe that Joe Hewitt has basically said as much on Twitter as well.

If you were to instead point out Apple's template code as a good example of code that is widely-used and not very good, you would have a much better analogy..

[jarin]

Oh yeah I agree that Three20 is a cluttered, monolithic mess. What I should have said was that Three20 was the first major attempt (that I know of) to break away from the strict nested-controller way of making data-driven apps by implementing a pretty nice URL-based application model.

Matt Gallagher has also done a good job of deconstructing the Apple Way and try new approaches: http://cocoawithlove.com/2009/03/recreating-uitableviewcontr...

[Zev]

Does recreating UITableViewController to be slightly more flexible really constitute a new approach?

[larrik]

It's not slightly more flexible, it's hugely more flexible. As someone who has apps that consist of a complicated web of tableviews, Matt Gallagher's work is amazing and helped me immensely.

Although, I think this link is better: http://cocoawithlove.com/2010/12/uitableview-construction-dr...

[Zev]

If you remove "to be slightly more flexible" from my previous post, you'll find the real point I was trying to make.

[Xuzz]

I think he's referring to TTNavigator, which is a really cool idea (and an idea I stole for my use in Cydia.mm, fwiw).