Complicated

...And it gets ever more complicated, as I discover there might just be a way to have each of a series of table entries rendered in different text colors. (I only hope after all the time I put into implementing this that I still end up using it.)

Developing

I had wanted to document my development process, but I've been so deep into it that it's been difficult to find the time to write about it. That, and because of my relative inexperience, even the basic, simple stuff has taken twice as long as it probably should. But I have been making progress.

I started out with (what I thought was) a reasonably simple, reasonably basic idea -- and promptly filled four or five sketchbook pages (maybe six) with ideas as to how it might be implemented, first on the iPhone, and then on the iPad. I decided to start with the iPad version.

In the end, it's taken about two weeks, off and on. I'm not finished yet, but I'm getting there. And I've learned a lot. Part of the delay has been in going back in and reworking code (and reworking it again) as I've discovered there was a better way. Lots of time has been spent implementing additional features and mechanisms and whatnot I didn't know I'd need 'till I had a working prototype. And then, there's the fine-tuning and attention-to-detail stuff that I just can't let pass.

When all is said and done, it will probably have taken much more time than will ever be returned in sales. But I had to start somewhere, even if somewhere quickly became much more complicated than I had anticipated.

Unproductive

I had better things to do today than deal with the ill effects of a corrupted font cache.

The Accidental Fart App

Now I understand this mania for fart apps -- they're so easy to create, even for the relative novice. (Well, that, and they appeal to the eight-year-old in us.) I didn't set out to make one, I really didn't, but after completing a second project -- which I'm going to remain quiet about, for the time being, as the basic idea might prove useful for a real product -- my eight-year-old specifically asked for one, and gave me glorious details of what it ought to look like.

While I did not implement his ideas for what it ought to look like (to keep it in reasonably good taste), I did create his fart app. I even added some additional non-fart sounds, just to make it more interesting.

I'm now looking forward to creating apps for more than just one eight-year-old. (Two if you count me.)

First Impressions from the WWDC Keynote

Might be best to think twice before spending the time to develop (to say nothing of building a business around) something that Apple is bound to add to iOS, sooner or later. Like, let's say, a full-featured Chat client.

But then again, perhaps you can't always be that confident. One of my absolute favorite cannot-live-without aspects of the iOS platform is Instapaper, and now Apple will be building that functionality in, to a certain degree. I love the app, it's not an exaggeration to say I use it every day, and the developer seems swell, and I feel badly for him by proxy. (This was not entirely a surprise — it's been lurking in the Lion beta, and I suppose it's an obvious addition to the iOS, as well — but still.)

Developer beta of iOS 5 today -- for Developers. And I'm a developer! (Paid for and everything.)

I've spent some time reading the developer documentation. (I think I understand some of it, at least.) It's — interesting, this feeling of trying to learn from a moving target. Not just the new stuff, it's the changes in the behavior of current classes that worry me. I had a similar experience when one of the first books I read was built around iOS 3, when 4 had already introduced all sorts of changes (which led to the occasional problem with the sample code). I have an unsettled feeling by the time I'm comfortable with iOS 5, something else will have superseded it. Gotta start somewhere, though.