Introduction to Quartz Composer Custom Patch Programming Guide

Describes how to create custom patches for distribution.

Organization of This Document

This document is organized into the following chapters:

The Basics of Custom Patches describes how the patches that appear in Quartz Composer relate to the code that generates a custom patch. It provides an overview of the tasks needed to create a custom patch and package it as a plug-in. It also describes the Xcode templates that you can use to write custom patches.
Writing Processor Patches shows how to write three patches that process data—one that processes a string, another that converts a numeric value to a color, and another that shows how to configure a parameter that can’t be represented by one of the standard port data types.
Writing Image Processing Patches describes how to use input and output image protocols to create a patch that produces an image by operating on two input images.
Writing Consumer Patches discusses how to use OpenGL in a custom patch and provides instructions for writing a patch that renders a quad that you can animate.