/ Recent content on aaron.vegh.ca Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Thu, 27 Feb 2020 15:24:04 -0500 /posts/2020/02/27/oneplace/ Thu, 27 Feb 2020 15:24:04 -0500 /posts/2020/02/27/oneplace/ This post is an appendix to my launch of the Codewerks Kickstarter campaign, which launched today! If you’re interested in coding on an iPad, please take a look. I’ve been thinking a lot about the kinds of applications that you see on different operating systems. One of the factors that makes Linux so appealing and elegant is the way that its applications are tiny, discrete, and interoperable. On the command line, composing a bunch of small apps to produce a powerful result is the core of what makes Linux great. /posts/2020/01/17/loyalty/ Fri, 17 Jan 2020 12:20:32 -0500 /posts/2020/01/17/loyalty/ In the year 2000, the first full year of my working career, I found myself trying to choose between two employment options: a contract editor position for a website, and a full-time role with an investment firm in Toronto. The contract looked pretty exciting to me, but I was months away from getting married, I was moving to Toronto for the first time and needed stable cash flow. The investment firm made the explicit pitch for stability amongst their other benefits. /posts/2020/01/14/hardg/ Mon, 13 Jan 2020 08:38:29 -0500 /posts/2020/01/14/hardg/ While development on Codewerks has been ongoing, I’d been working every day for a company that communicated remotely using Slack. And if there’s one thing that you need to have for important business communication, it’s GIFs. Lots and lots of GIFs. Slack has various bots that allow you to inject GIFs into the conversation, but they’re pretty weak, emphasizing speed over choice. It seemed to me the best alternative was to use a Mac app, but I couldn’t find one! /about/ Sun, 12 Jan 2020 05:20:49 -0400 /about/ I’m a developer of Apple-provided bits. I use Apple stuff and spend most of my time looking at Apple things while making software for Apple hardware. I ain’t addicted; I can quit anytime. About my work: innoveghtive.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/aaronvegh Github: https://github.com/aaronvegh /posts/2019/2/17/introducing-codewerks/ Sun, 17 Feb 2019 20:01:44 -0500 /posts/2019/2/17/introducing-codewerks/ Ever since the iPad was introduced, I've wanted it to become a way to write and work with code. I waited a long time before giving up and building my own solution to the problem. Coding on the iPad is really hard. Apple doesn't allow apps to execute arbitrary code (with limited exceptions nowadays). So die-hard iPad coders have resorted to some pretty gnarly workarounds. The most powerful workaround involves getting your own remote server, and using a terminal app to shell in. /posts/2018/1/3/the-hackintosh-of-2018/ Wed, 03 Jan 2018 22:14:18 -0500 /posts/2018/1/3/the-hackintosh-of-2018/ As 2018 opens before us, it’s worth noting the parlous state of the Mac desktop. Yes, we’ve just been introduced to the iMac Pro, but elsewhere things are grim. The Mac Pro is a lame duck computer, un-updated for years while Apple has at least promised its replacement, albeit with no timeline. The Mac mini is a farce. Last updated in October of 2014, even that update was a disappointment at the time. /posts/2017/1/29/inauguration-day/ Sun, 29 Jan 2017 17:59:18 -0500 /posts/2017/1/29/inauguration-day/ On Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017, I was doing my best to ignore the proceedings in Washington when my friend called to joke about it all. While Kash is a Canadian citizen, his family is from Pakistan and he’s a Muslim. We hadn’t had a chance to talk much during the election, but I’d assumed his feelings to be similar to my own. I was shocked to hear him talk about Clinton as “just as bad” as Trump, and to hear him opine that this isn’t so bad. /posts/2016/11/9/living-with-the-consequences/ Wed, 09 Nov 2016 10:00:18 -0500 /posts/2016/11/9/living-with-the-consequences/ Throughout this awful US election season, I’ve been talking a lot of trash about Donald Trump, and justifiably so. There’s plenty of documentation to support what makes him a repugnant human being, and there’s no sense in covering it more. The fact is, the people of the United States elected him President. And they handed him a cooperative House and Senate, paving the way for a fully-stacked deck for the first time since the 1920s. /posts/2016/8/14/failing-early-failing-often/ Sun, 14 Aug 2016 10:29:51 -0400 /posts/2016/8/14/failing-early-failing-often/ It’s Sunday morning and I’m reflecting on my failures. A few minutes ago I removed Magpie from the App Store, bringing to an end yet another in a long series of experiments that validate the hypothesis: Does Aaron know how to fail? Oh hells yeah, Aaron knows how to fail. On my podcast last week we received a question from a listener, which was essentially, “why does nobody talk about their failures? /posts/2016/6/7/the-dojo-in-your-mind/ Tue, 07 Jun 2016 08:35:41 -0400 /posts/2016/6/7/the-dojo-in-your-mind/ I just read Brian Gilham’s piece, You Don’t Need a Computer Science Degree, which simply makes the point that prospective iOS developers (or let’s face it, any developer) don’t need a computer science degree to become successful in this field. As the holder of a bachelor’s degree in English and a Master’s degree in Publishing, I can’t help but agree; but I also find myself moved to expand on that point. /posts/2016/5/6/microelectronics-are-my-new-jam/ Fri, 06 May 2016 12:35:58 -0400 /posts/2016/5/6/microelectronics-are-my-new-jam/ I’ve spent most of the past decade with a near-maniacal, laser-guided focus on one ambition: to become an indie software developer. It officially kicked off after seeing Daniel Jalkut give a talk at C4 in 2007. Success hasn’t turned out to be exactly what I thought, though it would be churlish to complain overmuch: I run my own consulting business and I’m a full-time iOS developer. But my ambitions to be a product maker have mostly faded. /posts/2016/2/14/new-blog-new-something-something/ Sun, 14 Feb 2016 20:29:06 -0500 /posts/2016/2/14/new-blog-new-something-something/ I’ve been writing on this blog since 2008, and in that time it’s been all Wordpress. In these last eight years I’ve seen Wordpress rise, become enormously popular, turn into a CMS and a replacement for web development altogether. I’ve also seen it turn into a popular vector for hackers. In the face of both increasing complexity (it just does so much more than blogging!) and decreased security, I’ve been casting about for an alternative. /posts/2015/11/3/why-contracting-is-the-answer/ Tue, 03 Nov 2015 09:26:53 -0500 /posts/2015/11/3/why-contracting-is-the-answer/ I got my first job out of school back in 1998. I was responsible for building and maintaining a website for a Hamilton-based magazine publisher. Less than three months into it, the publisher fired me: we appeared to have fundamental differences of opinion on what my job actually was. I thought it was a technical and editorial position, while he thought I should be selling ads and building business partnerships. /posts/2015/11/1/now/ Sun, 01 Nov 2015 09:41:48 -0500 /posts/2015/11/1/now/ This is a regularly-updated page of what I’m working on now, as originated by Derek Sivers and brought to me by Manton Reece. As of February 17, 2019 Work Working with Small Planet since September 2018, a development agency in Brooklyn, NY. I’m currently working with a popular consumer brand in the OTT video space… I’ve undertaken a new project that potentially ticks all four boxes. It’s called Codewerks, and I introduce it here. /posts/2015/10/23/appletv-and-the-icloudpocalypse/ Fri, 23 Oct 2015 09:58:50 -0400 /posts/2015/10/23/appletv-and-the-icloudpocalypse/ First, the good news: Magpie for AppleTV is coming. Here’s proof! Nothing too fancy, but it does what it says on the tin. Here’s a shot of the home screen so you can see the icon and “top shelf” image. Beauty! In order to get to the bad news, I have to talk a bit about how Magpie works. It uses Cloud Kit to store your saved videos. This saved information is part of your iCloud account, so it automatically follows you around to any device that you’re logged into iCloud with. /posts/2015/10/21/disingenuous/ Wed, 21 Oct 2015 20:04:52 -0400 /posts/2015/10/21/disingenuous/ This is a post about Marco Arment’s decision to implement patronage pricing for his app, Overcast. It serves simply as a means for me to reach a conclusion about a group that I looked up to until now. The word I keep coming back to is “disingenuous”. I looked it up: not candid or sincere, typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does. This is the problem. /posts/2015/8/21/5000-years-later/ Fri, 21 Aug 2015 07:36:10 -0400 /posts/2015/8/21/5000-years-later/ Warning: Spoilers This is a brief rant on Seveneves, Neal Stephenson’s latest novel. I was pretty enthusiastic about the book when I first got into it. To wit: People, people. Are you reading @nealstephenson’s new book, Seveneves? Holy shit get on it, I can’t put it down so you can’t even have mine. — Aaron Vegh (@aaronvegh) August 1, 2015 But later in the book my excitement waned, then became bitter disappointment. /posts/2015/8/16/im-looking-for-a-partner/ Sun, 16 Aug 2015 12:12:51 -0400 /posts/2015/8/16/im-looking-for-a-partner/ Here’s the short version: I’m looking for someone to team up with, hopefully for the long term. Someone who can take what I build, and make sure the right people know about it. A “business person”, if you will. Here’s the long version: I’m a maker of software. I’ve been doing it for something like 15 years. I’ve built web sites, but nowadays I write iOS and Mac apps. I really love doing it. /posts/2014/12/9/apples-indifference-to-developers/ Tue, 09 Dec 2014 06:59:21 -0500 /posts/2014/12/9/apples-indifference-to-developers/ Developer Greg Gardner, whose app was rejected in September for violated unpublished guidelines, wrote a detailed account of the process. App development is seriously difficult work. The competitive landscape is brutishly crowded. The APIs that developers use to write apps are complex and ever-changing. The tools that we use to compose code and run it on our devices are byzantine, unreliable and becoming increasingly more so. And even when everything is going smoothly, developing a high-quality app is a huge endeavour, best done with the contributions of several people with multiple skill sets. /posts/2014/8/14/fancy-footwork-with-ios-8/ Thu, 14 Aug 2014 18:02:46 -0400 /posts/2014/8/14/fancy-footwork-with-ios-8/ While working on my sooper-sekrit project today, I came across a surprising hurdle. I wanted to accomplish the following feats using Interface Builder inside Xcode 6 (running iOS 8): A fixed-size UITableView, one that doesn’t scroll, but rather alters its height in its superview as the contents change; The table view has rows of varying height; Inside a UIScrollView that contains other views, above the table view, such that the full view, including the table view, scroll together; Using AutoLayout and iOS 8’s new Size Classes Turns out that it wasn’t easy! /posts/2014/8/8/the-limitations-of-ios-8-size-classes/ Fri, 08 Aug 2014 12:09:29 -0400 /posts/2014/8/8/the-limitations-of-ios-8-size-classes/ I’m working on a sooper-sekrit project right now, which I’m hoping to launch before the end of this year, and which will support iOS 8 only. I’ve been enthusiastically picking up as many of the new technologies as I can, and one of the most exciting, to me, is the introduction of size classes. This technology brings a change of thinking for developers: we discard the idea of fixed-size layouts, and use the power of AutoLayout to ensure our apps fit a variety of screen sizes. /posts/2014/4/26/stop-not-linking/ Sat, 26 Apr 2014 06:44:09 -0400 /posts/2014/4/26/stop-not-linking/ Image by Six Revisions The Internet is rife with opinions. It’s a stew of different communities, complete with their own thought leaders and carefully-drawn lines to separate them. I have my own community, and the occasions where I get a look at others are the opportunities for me to grow. Since the beginning of the Internet, the hyperlink has been the token of currency, strengthening the bonds that tie all the thinkers of the Web together. /posts/2014/4/16/keep-it-light/ Wed, 16 Apr 2014 14:41:17 -0400 /posts/2014/4/16/keep-it-light/ Code is serious business. It’s not always mission-critical, life-dependent stuff, but any programmer who’s spent long nights furiously trying to extinguish an inexplicable bug knows that it’s often no laughing matter. Yet I, and I think many in our careers, suffer from a condition called codeaphilia, a love of coding. The practice of it. Despite the frustration, the harsh deadlines, the constant quest for perfection (never achieved) and the thankless rewards, this is what I love to do. /posts/2014/4/16/cocoa-minute-objectifying-opaque-core-foundation-style-structs/ Wed, 16 Apr 2014 07:25:04 -0400 /posts/2014/4/16/cocoa-minute-objectifying-opaque-core-foundation-style-structs/ Note: I wrote this post in January of 2013. It remained in my Drafts folder till I discovered it today. I have no idea why I didn’t post it back then, but here it is now. -AV I got stumped last night on an uncommon (to me, anyway) problem while working on an app in Xcode. And because I couldn’t find an answer on Google or Stack Overflow, I figured it belonged online somewhere, so here goes. /posts/2014/3/19/probabilities-of-success/ Wed, 19 Mar 2014 18:06:50 -0400 /posts/2014/3/19/probabilities-of-success/ I’ve been making some changes to my life of late, bidding adieu to broad, take-em-all freelancing for the Web, and moving towards a state of steadier, longer-term relationships building for iOS. I’m reading these days as a fin de siècle, an end of one era, and the beginning of another. It’s a period of transition. Right now I continue to provide service to a small number of clients; it’s a vanishing business. /posts/2014/3/7/the-next-chapter/ Fri, 07 Mar 2014 16:40:56 -0500 /posts/2014/3/7/the-next-chapter/ I don’t often talk about my work directly. It’s either covered by an NDA, or not important enough to merit attention. But today marks a transition for me, and I thought it would be worthwhile to make a note of it. I’ve just concluded an eight-week contract with The Working Group, helping them build the iPad version of TSN’s new Hockey app. I’m really happy with the end result, and I’m looking forward to the update that’ll be coming in a few more weeks (or so) that completes all the functionality we’ve been working on. /posts/2014/2/24/threadone-sales-are-suspended/ Mon, 24 Feb 2014 16:03:49 -0500 /posts/2014/2/24/threadone-sales-are-suspended/ It’s this simple: I screwed up. When I tested ThreadOne with my beta users, everything seemed fine. But when ThreadOne went on sale, it got into the hands of a completely different class of user: the ADN private messaging power user. And ThreadOne, it turns out, can’t handle the kind of volume these people deal with. Since ThreadOne’s launch, I’ve been anxiously investigating the nature of the crashes people were experiencing. /posts/2014/2/11/the-story-of-threadone/ Tue, 11 Feb 2014 17:39:33 -0500 /posts/2014/2/11/the-story-of-threadone/ Today I’m pleased to say that ThreadOne is now available. Now that it’s live, I wanted to write a bit about how it came to be, and what’s to come. The History Last summer, I was collaborating with my friends Adam Kool and Gavin McKenzie on an iPhone app. It was our ambition to start a company together, and this would be our portfolio piece. As we worked from our various day jobs, cafes and homes, a communication channel became of vital importance. /posts/2014/1/24/the-vortex-of-death-interview-programming-exercises/ Fri, 24 Jan 2014 16:40:56 -0500 /posts/2014/1/24/the-vortex-of-death-interview-programming-exercises/ Confession time: I was never a very good student. Back in grade school, I was completely average. The occasional A in reading, Cs in math, but mostly Bs. I especially muddled through tests, never really comfortable with the subject matter in an environment that demands the right answer, now. With the clock ticking. Tests all too often felt like contrived situations. If I could grade the tests I had been given in school, I’d consider them average at best! /posts/2014/1/17/lets-replace-the-privacy-policy/ Fri, 17 Jan 2014 18:29:51 -0500 /posts/2014/1/17/lets-replace-the-privacy-policy/ Ah, the Privacy Policy. It’s that last-second, hastily-assembled legal mumbo-jumbo that you cobble together as your application or web site is launching. It’s one of those assumed obligations that are a thorn in your side: a way of covering your ass, because almost nobody reads them anyway. In the latest episode of Core Intuition, the iOS dev community’s classiest developer, Manton Reece, talked about how he had to generate a privacy policy for his new app, Sunlit. /posts/2014/1/10/ipad-coding-for-web-development/ Fri, 10 Jan 2014 18:18:01 -0500 /posts/2014/1/10/ipad-coding-for-web-development/ On the most recent episode of Amplified (starting at about minute 37), Dan talked about how he does web development on an iPad. While clearly not his first choice of platform for development, the iPad is great for making touch-ups to existing sites. He outlined his process like so: Symlink a Git repository to Dropbox Use Textastic to edit the site, owing to the app’s ability to edit files in Dropbox If he wants to commit and push the Git repo to Github, for example, he’ll use Prompt to shell into a remote Linux machine, also running Dropbox, and commit and push from there. /posts/2014/1/6/busting-the-text-programming-orthodoxy/ Mon, 06 Jan 2014 12:36:44 -0500 /posts/2014/1/6/busting-the-text-programming-orthodoxy/ Part of the pleasure of programming comes from overcoming layers of abstractions to create something concrete. We have to work through the complications of application frameworks, language syntax and compiler directives that convert your desires into binary. If you put a gun to my head, I’d be forced to confess that part of the allure of being a programmer is that the process is really complicated. Very few people can do what we do, and we like it that way. /posts/2013/12/27/holiday-frame-of-mind/ Fri, 27 Dec 2013 11:02:23 -0500 /posts/2013/12/27/holiday-frame-of-mind/ In many ways, Christmas is a gigantic pain in the ass. Scrambling to social events, buying presents you can’t afford, hurrying to finish projects before the holidays begin… it’s too much. It seems to vary, but we at least have social permission to consider these last two weeks of December prime vacation time. Even those forced to work (and here I’m talking about office/knowledge work, not the poor souls who work retail) operate under reduced conditions. /posts/2013/12/21/angry-mac-bastards/ Sat, 21 Dec 2013 10:38:43 -0500 /posts/2013/12/21/angry-mac-bastards/ Update (December 21, 2013): Angry Mac Bastards appears to have gone offline, as a direct result of this incident. Their parting post offers a back-handed apology, and suggests the show will no longer air. The episode linked below is also now offline. The transcript below is now the only public record of this segment. Months ago, I put up a page to help solicit either a new job, or a new partnership. /posts/2013/7/24/pathetic-fallacy/ Wed, 24 Jul 2013 15:51:38 -0400 /posts/2013/7/24/pathetic-fallacy/ Things aren’t going too well for my beloved Toronto Blue Jays. Despite starry-eyed promises of a playoff berth owing to some off-season big-name trades, the team has floundered this season. After 99 games, the team is 45-54, and is looking like a lock to get swept by the red-hot Dodgers (first pitch is happening as I write this). My mysterious loyalty to this baseball franchise has continued unabated; I’m disappointed, but I feel a strange kinship to these talented but hapless young men. /posts/2013/4/18/springboard-this/ Thu, 18 Apr 2013 09:33:36 -0400 /posts/2013/4/18/springboard-this/ I had the great fortune to appear on Ash Furrow’s Springboard podcast, which went live yesterday. We talked about starting out as an iOS developer, how to find answers to questions, and — my favourite parts — what makes developing for iOS so special. Take a listen to the podcast right now. It’s the best 30 minutes you’ll spend this week. /posts/2013/3/13/nerdy-tip-use-coderunner-to-script-your-rails-app/ Wed, 13 Mar 2013 05:56:13 -0400 /posts/2013/3/13/nerdy-tip-use-coderunner-to-script-your-rails-app/ I picked up Nikolai Krill’s CodeRunner a while back as a sort of scratch pad for writing code snippets. With support for a variety of languages, it looked like a handy tool for banging together scripts and experiments. But I was let down a bit by one hope that didn’t pan out: a passing attempt at a kind of REPL for Objective-C. While Code Runner supports ObjC as a syntax, you can’t really use it to test your ideas against the frameworks. /posts/2013/2/1/girl-trouble/ Fri, 01 Feb 2013 14:01:14 -0500 /posts/2013/2/1/girl-trouble/ I don’t know how to sugar coat this. Women get a pretty raw deal in our culture, and the more instances I get exposed to, the angrier I become. My daughter is nine years old. She’s just a few short years from boys turning from an annoyance into a actual problem. The kind of problem where being attractive and female seems to turn many men into degenerate neanderthals. The kind of neanderthal whose behaviour makes it into blog posts like these. /posts/2013/1/1/announcing-nsregextester/ Tue, 01 Jan 2013 06:16:54 -0500 /posts/2013/1/1/announcing-nsregextester/ With the principle development work for Tiberius complete, I’m moving onto a new iOS project. I’m not sure how long it will take to develop, but it feels like a larger, more ambitious project, and I’m not even sure yet that I have the ability to do it. This is, therefore, the best kind of project. One of this project’s components involves a great deal of parsing using regular expressions. I’m working on a UIView subclass that performs syntax highlighting, and writing the correct regular expressions to match the patterns in my target text has proven to be a challenge. /posts/2012/12/16/disappointing-others-for-fun-and-profit/ Sun, 16 Dec 2012 12:59:11 -0500 /posts/2012/12/16/disappointing-others-for-fun-and-profit/ In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to Apple, and among his first moves was to kill off most of its products. No more Quadras, Performas (Performae?) LCs, Newtons and OpenDocs. In the video above, from the company’s 1997 Worldwide Developers Conference, Jobs takes questions from the audience. This three-minute clip is his answer to why he killed OpenDoc. But never mind OpenDoc. His answer is about focus. And focus is about saying no. /posts/2012/11/14/my-presentation-for-tacow-couchdb-for-ios-developers/ Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:47:31 -0500 /posts/2012/11/14/my-presentation-for-tacow-couchdb-for-ios-developers/ I had the great privilege of speaking at our regular Toronto Area Cocoa and WebObjects user group meeting last night. I spoke about CouchDB: an introduction for the uninitiated, and its application for iOS developers in particular. CouchDB, and the iOS framework called TouchDB, form the networking foundation for Tiberius, ensuring that sweet sweet data seamlessly moves between a user’s various iOS devices and the web. I firmly believe in CouchDB as an enabling technology for the next generation of mobile apps that rely on a web services backend. /posts/2012/11/4/the-case-for-text-entry-on-an-ipad-mini/ Sun, 04 Nov 2012 13:16:02 -0500 /posts/2012/11/4/the-case-for-text-entry-on-an-ipad-mini/ I went on a scouting mission to the Apple Store today. This was going to be my first chance to hold and use an iPad mini. As an iPad 2 owner, I wanted to see if the new mini would work for me: is the screen too small? Is it too slow? I managed to fight my way through the crowds to spend about 15 minutes putting a black iPad mini through its paces. /posts/2012/10/15/the-cingleton-experience/ Mon, 15 Oct 2012 18:36:54 -0400 /posts/2012/10/15/the-cingleton-experience/ In the year 2007, I was taking my first baby steps into the Cocoa development world. I was attending the C4 conference, and it was an experience with equal parts terror and enlightenment. Conference Badges, past and present. Left: C4[1] dog tags from 2007. Right: Çingleton 2012 I was a tourist: a web developer with pretensions towards Cocoa development. All the guys I met there were seasoned developers, whose examples were exciting, if not out of apparent reach. /posts/2012/9/5/doing-it-right/ Wed, 05 Sep 2012 12:18:41 -0400 /posts/2012/9/5/doing-it-right/ I’ve been building web sites for some twelve years now. And I love what I do: using code to express an idea is a task that I approach, every day, with a sense of humility and honour. But if there’s one thing I really hate about being a developer, it’s that circumstance forces me to be less good at my job than I’d like. This job description, posted by a Denver-based Web development shop named CrowdFavorite, kind of set me off. /posts/2012/8/16/the-book-a-review/ Thu, 16 Aug 2012 09:45:10 -0400 /posts/2012/8/16/the-book-a-review/ Sometime in April 2010, I read my first digital book on an iPad. In a fit of irrational exuberance, I decided from then on that I would no longer read paper books. I didn’t really plan for that decision to be binding, or even bear out in reality. But that’s exactly what happened: over the proceeding two-plus years, every book I read was made out of bits instead of atoms. /posts/2012/7/28/logitech-ultrathin-smart-cover-review/ Sat, 28 Jul 2012 12:43:16 -0400 /posts/2012/7/28/logitech-ultrathin-smart-cover-review/ I’m perhaps more inclined than most to be first in line when the future arrives, and you never know when you get to the head of the line whether you’ll be handed a plate of bacon or a punch in the gut. With the iPad it was definitely the former. But the future isn’t entirely without flaw. While I believe firmly that the iPad is a new kind of general computing device, I don’t believe it’s completely there yet. /posts/2012/7/3/a-new-tablet-landscape/ Tue, 03 Jul 2012 12:50:37 -0400 /posts/2012/7/3/a-new-tablet-landscape/ The technology space has been uncommonly active lately, with three of the biggest players announcing their tablet strategies for the next year. This is important stuff, because, as appears to be increasingly clear, the tablet is the next generation form factor for mainstream computing. True, many people don’t recognize that yet, but I think nobody can argue that Apple, Microsoft and Google all believe so. Over the past few weeks, each of these companies has held a major event to demonstrate their tablet plans. /posts/2012/6/27/juggling-chainsaws/ Wed, 27 Jun 2012 20:07:43 -0400 /posts/2012/6/27/juggling-chainsaws/ Let’s tell a story through metaphor! Imagine you are a chainsaw repair-person. Fascinated by the intricacies of the machine, you get lost for hours in the maze of valves, gears and other miscellaneous chainsaw-bits. People bring you their chainsaws, and you fix them. Sometimes those chainsaws have problems so strange and arcane, you impress yourself with the solution. Often, you derive great satisfaction from just knowing what the problem is from the second you lay eyes on it. /posts/2012/6/18/your-phone-at-the-centre-of-a-computing-universe/ Mon, 18 Jun 2012 10:28:44 -0400 /posts/2012/6/18/your-phone-at-the-centre-of-a-computing-universe/ It’s not enough to have the best idea. You have to execute it correctly as well. And sometimes that means waiting until the technology catches up. I present Exhibit A for your consideration: The Asus PadFone is a “system”, if you will, for having your phone act as your main computing device. You can plug it into an empty tablet computer case to upsize your screen, and a laptop keyboard to turn it into a traditional PC workstation. /posts/2012/6/10/your-technology-sucks/ Sun, 10 Jun 2012 17:42:59 -0400 /posts/2012/6/10/your-technology-sucks/ Most people might take me for an Apple cult member. Fair enough: pretty much everything I own with a CPU on the inside has a fruity logo on the outside. But let me propose an alternate theory. Rather than using Apple products because they were born in Cupertino, I use them because they are the best. They’re not “best for graphics”, or “best for apps”, or even “best for being cool”. /posts/2012/6/3/why-is-dreamweaver-dead/ Sun, 03 Jun 2012 08:02:08 -0400 /posts/2012/6/3/why-is-dreamweaver-dead/ Although I got my first dialup Internet account in 1995, I didn’t get into writing HTML for another three years. At that time, a budding webmaster would have their pick of authoring tools. For me, it was between Claris Home Page and Adobe’s newly-acquired GoLive (formerly Cyberstudio. Ahh, the 1990s.). In those days, many people looked at the World Wide Web as a medium similar to the interactive CD-ROMs of the time; they were supposed to be media-rich experiences. /posts/2012/5/28/coda-2-the-ipad-and-the-future-of-computing/ Mon, 28 May 2012 07:11:12 -0400 /posts/2012/5/28/coda-2-the-ipad-and-the-future-of-computing/ In 2010, when the original iPad was launched, I told anyone who would listen that this was the future of computing. Yes, it looked like an oversized iPod Touch, but this diminutive computer had the potential to forever change the way that people interacted with technology. My over-arching hypothesis about the iPad is this: With sufficient software, the iPad will displace traditional desk- and lap-based computing. Furthermore, it hasn’t happened yet. /posts/2012/4/8/blackout-free-baseball/ Sun, 08 Apr 2012 10:52:16 -0400 /posts/2012/4/8/blackout-free-baseball/ I like baseball. I don’t have cable TV. And Major League Baseball doesn’t want to let me watch my beloved Toronto Blue Jays. This post will explain how I’m doing it anyway. I’m using MLB’s brilliant MLB.tv service: for $125 for the season, you can stream, in high definition, any live baseball game. It’s a fantastic service; it does exactly what it says on the tin. But it comes with a giant asterisk: owing to the existing agreements that MLB has with local cable operators, your local team – most certainly your team – will be under blackout. /posts/2012/3/8/the-war-is-over-apple-won/ Thu, 08 Mar 2012 19:44:50 -0500 /posts/2012/3/8/the-war-is-over-apple-won/ The technology industry has an amazing ability to change; it’s perhaps this property more than any other that keeps us all hanging on, waiting to see what’s next. The hardware changes the fastest: quicker processors, better displays, greater storage. More slow to change are the affiliations: you’re an IBM person, an Apple person, a Microsoft person. With the benefit of twenty years of observation of the technology industry, I can see how these swings occur. /posts/2012/1/15/agency-focus-product-focus/ Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:58:32 -0500 /posts/2012/1/15/agency-focus-product-focus/ In the fall of 2010, I began working “full time” for ContactMonkey, a Toronto-based startup focusing on making it easy to give people your contact details. At the same time, I’ve continued to run Innoveghtive, my own web development shop. I don’t do a ton of client work these days, farming it out to one or more trusted hombres. This is a rather odd position for me to be in. On the one hand, I have my natural experience as a development agency, serving at the whim of clients who pay for my effort. /posts/2011/12/20/lion-pisses-me-off/ Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:45:20 -0500 /posts/2011/12/20/lion-pisses-me-off/ The Mac is the computer that doesn’t get in my way. I have shit to do, and the Mac lets me do it. It gets bonus points for letting me do it in style. I’ve been a Mac user for more than 20 years, and despite the headline of this column, that’s very unlikely to change. But since I’ve upgraded to Lion, I’ve heard mutterings out there. A couple weeks ago I was listening to Build and Analyze, wherein Marco discussed his frustrations with Lion. /posts/2011/11/1/let-a-thousand-steves-bloom/ Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:12:21 -0400 /posts/2011/11/1/let-a-thousand-steves-bloom/ I loved the Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs. It provides an even-keeled, unblinking account of a very complicated man. After reading this book, that’s the most concise word I can think of for Jobs: complicated. How else can anyone account for what he accomplished in his life? People, from the so-called “Apple faithful”, to Wall Street analysts, to my own mom, wonder whether Apple will prosper in a post-Jobs era. /posts/2011/10/5/neutron-star/ Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:41:19 -0400 /posts/2011/10/5/neutron-star/ When I was fifteen years old, I was introduced to the Macintosh for the first time. It was 1988, and before that moment I was almost completely ignorant about computers. But this strange, peppy little box with its monochrome 9-inch display ended up turning my life upside down. Before that moment, I thought of myself as someone who would grow up to be a writer. Over the proceeding years, my ambitions changed: from writer, to publisher, to developer. /posts/2011/9/21/my-secondconf-blitz-talk-the-idea-factory/ Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:12:00 -0400 /posts/2011/9/21/my-secondconf-blitz-talk-the-idea-factory/ It’s with great relief that I stand on the other side of this Blitz Talk presentation for SecondConf 2011. I’ve done lots of presentations for larger groups, but nothing has been as challenging as those five minutes! There’s no margin for error if you have 15 seconds per slide, so I had to do a lot of practice. The execution was marred with errors, but the worst part was that my slides were very dense with information, and most of the room wasn’t able to see them! /posts/2011/9/20/sit-stand-walk/ Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:37:02 -0400 /posts/2011/9/20/sit-stand-walk/ When I was in my teens, I was a twig of a kid, tall and skinny. I think we all get our personal perception of our body type from how we were in high school. So I still have this picture in my head of myself as your average nerdy beanpole. But the mirror tells a different story. In the last 15 years, I’ve put on a lot of weight. Years spent sitting at my desk for long hours, eating convenience foods rather than proper meals, have taken their toll: I’ve gone from an apparently normal 160 to a pear-shaped sub-200 pounds. /posts/2011/9/5/the-teksavvy-nightmare-scenario/ Mon, 05 Sep 2011 19:53:49 -0400 /posts/2011/9/5/the-teksavvy-nightmare-scenario/ About three months ago, I switched my Internet service from Rogers to TekSavvy. While the quality of my service with Rogers was just fine, it was an easy decision to make: TekSavvy leases Rogers’ cable lines, and offers dramatically higher monthly bandwidth (300GB vs 95), for a lower price. The switchover to the new service took about five weeks, owing primarily to the fact that I owned my cable modem (Rogers required you to buy a modem for their “Extreme” service a few years back). /posts/2011/8/22/the-99-hp-touchpad-review/ Mon, 22 Aug 2011 10:28:30 -0400 /posts/2011/8/22/the-99-hp-touchpad-review/ Late last week, HP announced that it was exiting the WebOS hardware business, little more than a month after the TouchPad tablet was launched. Since the operating system’s early days as a smartphone OS I have long admired its graphical style and adherence to quality. Of course, given the choice between iOS devices (the iPhone and iPad) and these admittedly high-quality imitators, there was no doubt as to where my dollars would go. /posts/2011/5/15/tablets-as-demo-pieces/ Sun, 15 May 2011 10:36:10 -0400 /posts/2011/5/15/tablets-as-demo-pieces/ I finally had an opportunity to play with a couple of the recent arrivals in the tablet space: the RIM Blackberry Playbook and the Motorola Xoom. Having read the reviews and evaluated the specs, I was looking to compare my Internet-provided conceptions with actual experience. The results were surprising. Given the market superiority of the iPad, a potential competitor must carefully tailor their product offering to not merely match, but exceed the capabilities of the incumbent. /posts/2011/3/11/twitter-killed-my-app/ Fri, 11 Mar 2011 20:16:26 -0500 /posts/2011/3/11/twitter-killed-my-app/ You couldn’t say the warning signs weren’t there. But I doubt anyone would have guessed that the end would come so abruptly. Twitter did it today: they killed my app. It’s kind of a joke among developers to say that you’re working on a Twitter client. Let’s face it, there’s no shortage, right? Well now there’s probably gonna be. Go read the article for the details, but the nut is this: Twitter really only wants you using their apps to access the service. /posts/2011/2/22/apple-and-the-future-of-publishing/ Tue, 22 Feb 2011 09:07:03 -0500 /posts/2011/2/22/apple-and-the-future-of-publishing/ Revolutions don’t happen without spilling a lot of blood. And if I sound overly blasé about it, that’s because I’m holding a bag of popcorn rather than a gun. Plenty of people are up in arms about Apple’s recent decision to charge 30% for all subscription- and content-based offerings on the iOS App Store. And they should be: for these people, Apple is literally taking away their profit margin, and sometimes even more. /posts/2011/1/19/here-is-the-love/ Wed, 19 Jan 2011 17:15:48 -0500 /posts/2011/1/19/here-is-the-love/ I’m working on a new Mac app. At this stage in the game, I’m too embarrassed to tell you much about it. But in my long, agonizing quest to become a Cocoa Master, this is another stage in the journey, one I hope brings me measurably closer to my goal. This past weekend, I had the opportunity to give that app my full attention. I took the lovely @erinlthomas for a writing retreat in the middle of winter-locked Prince Edward County, where we had nothing to do but focus on our projects. /posts/2010/12/31/insert-obligatory-year-in-review-post-here/ Fri, 31 Dec 2010 11:48:21 -0500 /posts/2010/12/31/insert-obligatory-year-in-review-post-here/ I’ve been feeling more contemplative than usual in the hours approaching the flip to the new year. Perhaps it’s the combination of my various Twitter homies making year-end observations, and the fact that so much is in flux right now for me. So I’m going to bloviate a bit over what happened in 2010, as much to help me make sense of it all and to put myself on track for next year. /posts/2010/10/23/the-conundrum/ Sat, 23 Oct 2010 11:50:36 -0400 /posts/2010/10/23/the-conundrum/ Apple announced the new MacBook Air this week, and as of today, they appeared in my nearest (albeit not quite local, per se) Apple Store. As someone long fascinated by the MBA, and who also will be upgrading his 2-year-old 15-inch MacBook Pro in January, I decided to have a look. The new Air comes in an 11- and 13-inch version, and as I walked into the store, it was the smaller one that happened to be available, so I sidled up and started to play. /posts/2010/8/26/crossing-the-border-with-your-phone/ Thu, 26 Aug 2010 04:57:05 -0400 /posts/2010/8/26/crossing-the-border-with-your-phone/ This time was going to be different. I knew that going out. For too long, we Canadians have traveled to the US, and essentially shut our phones off before crossing the border. And while I have a great time in cities like New York, Chicago and (most recently) Boston, there’s a great degree of handicap attached to being in a foreign land without that great security blanket. Having ubiquitous Internet is arguably even more important while traveling; so it’s ironic that traveling is the time you can get it the least. /posts/2010/8/2/spoiling-you-for-another/ Mon, 02 Aug 2010 05:13:48 -0400 /posts/2010/8/2/spoiling-you-for-another/ Okay, pop quiz: what’s going to be on the next iPad’s feature list? You’d probably say one thing right away: the same Retina Display that has made the iPhone 4 such a treat. After all, one look at the precision and crispness of that display, its indistinguishability from paper, its placement directly beneath the glass such that you feel like you’re manipulating the pixels directly, and it’s clear this technology will be propagating everywhere Apple needs to show stuff. /posts/2010/6/9/when-the-client-is-in-the-wrong-ballpark/ Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:15:04 -0400 /posts/2010/6/9/when-the-client-is-in-the-wrong-ballpark/ I took a call today from a potential new client. As with many such interactions, there’s always an underlying tension. They want to know, “can I afford this guy?”, while I want to know, “can they afford to pay what I’m worth?” Unfortunately, one of the chief struggles in my business is separating one kind from the other. I’d spoken with this client last December. The general site had been outlined, and she needed to get her ducks in a row before moving any further. /posts/2010/5/29/a-standing-offer/ Sat, 29 May 2010 19:39:39 -0400 /posts/2010/5/29/a-standing-offer/ In the 2000 movie High Fidelity, there’s a scene where Barry (Jack Black) receives a response for a poster he’s put up in the store. The poster is a wanted ad looking for “hip young gunslingers”; a guitarist who is “into” four particular bands. Although the scene isn’t foreshadowed, we come to understand that the poster has been up for a very long time, and that this is the first response Barry’s had for it. /posts/2010/5/28/market-realities-on-the-app-store/ Fri, 28 May 2010 06:16:15 -0400 /posts/2010/5/28/market-realities-on-the-app-store/ Much digital ink has been spilled over the economic and social ramifications of Apple’s App Store. On the face of it, the App Store is a revolutionary platform connecting the users with its developers, doing so with an unprecedented degree of closeness. And while many developers have chafed (to put it mildly) against the fact that a capricious Apple stands part-way between these two parties, there can be no doubt that the vast majority have not suffered for it. /posts/2010/5/12/the-faces-of-twitter/ Wed, 12 May 2010 06:15:05 -0400 /posts/2010/5/12/the-faces-of-twitter/ When I mention to most people that I’m a big fan of Twitter, the reaction I usually get is along the lines of “what is it good for?”. And I think anyone who uses Twitter knows that the answer is “it depends”. To me, Twitter is where I go to listen to people who matter to me. As my friend @publicfarley repeated just yesterday: (And yes, I deleted my Facebook account a couple weeks ago. /posts/2010/5/10/seeing-red/ Mon, 10 May 2010 05:20:49 -0400 /posts/2010/5/10/seeing-red/ This morning, Apple made the iPad available for pre-order in Canada. At the same time, Rogers announced their data plans for the 3G version of the device. While they made an effort to match AT&T in terms of pricing (many details are still unclear), they added a third option that, for me, reveals the extent of their anti-consumer behaviour. First, let’s see these plans: 250MB – $15 5GB – $35 /posts/2010/5/7/the-spectrum-of-newspapers/ Fri, 07 May 2010 16:52:22 -0400 /posts/2010/5/7/the-spectrum-of-newspapers/ I love news. I have always been keenly interested in staying on top of current events, especially in the technology sector. But I get my kicks out of reading everything from the state of foreign economies to the heroic efforts of a dog to save the life of a child. For most of my life, the news has come in the form of ink-on-paper. The newspaper is that daily device which packaged the latest news into a convenient format. /posts/2010/5/5/regarding-the-proposed-canadian-dmca-bill/ Wed, 05 May 2010 06:54:04 -0400 /posts/2010/5/5/regarding-the-proposed-canadian-dmca-bill/ *Canadian technology and privacy watchdog Michael Geist reported today that the Prime Minister has asked for a US-style DMCA bill to be delivered in six weeks. This sudden turnaround in policy is an alarming development, given the current fair regime we enjoy today. I was moved to write a letter to my MP, who happens to be the Finance Minister. I’m including this letter below with the invitation to my fellow Canadians to crib as necessary in crafting your own letters to your MP. /posts/2010/4/27/double-edged-success/ Tue, 27 Apr 2010 19:14:54 -0400 /posts/2010/4/27/double-edged-success/ Meeting your goals is hard. If they are real goals, then achieving them is the result of long hours, lots of mistakes, and plenty of lost sleep. Over the past year I had two long range goals: to complete and publish a large technical book, and to start selling an iPhone app on the App store. And what do you know: I succeeded. After all the labour, I now have a new book on store shelves, and a cute little app in the store. /posts/2010/4/9/what-the-ipad-is-doing/ Fri, 09 Apr 2010 05:02:25 -0400 /posts/2010/4/9/what-the-ipad-is-doing/ This is for the coders out there. while (outWithiPad) { int averageHumans = rand(10); // assume exposure to anywhere from // 1-10 averageHumans for ( i = 0; i <= averageHumans; i++ ) { [self receiveInquiry:@"Is that an iPad?"]; [self sendResponse:@"Yes."]; [self receiveInquiry:@"Is it really good?"\]; [self sendResponse:@"Yes."]; [self giveDemo:UIDemoTypeOverview withEnthusiasm:YES]; [apple incrementiPadUnitsSold]; } } I haven’t tried compiling this, so overlook the bugs. But the intention is there, I think you’ll agree. /posts/2010/3/12/your-own-internet-bubble/ Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:57:33 -0500 /posts/2010/3/12/your-own-internet-bubble/ I wasn’t making any noise about it for fear of some d-bag breaking into my house, but I just spent the last week in Florida. I took the wife and spawn to the sunny Gulf shores near St. Petersberg, and we had a lovely time. When a Canadian such as myself travels to the US, it’s usually with a great deal of trepidation. Not for the horrors of flying (though they are manifold), nor the slight discomfort of being somewhere similar-but-different. /posts/2010/1/27/my-tablet-prediction/ Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:59:25 -0500 /posts/2010/1/27/my-tablet-prediction/ The Tablet — or whatever Apple chooses to call is — is upon us. As I write these words, we’re 4.5 hours away from the unveiling. So in the finest spirit of pundits everywhere, I thought I’d share my own small opinion on what this product is, and what it will mean. Apple has done an amazing job managing the secrecy. While not a drop of information has come out of the company through official channels, teh Interwebz are abuzz with rumours and speculation on this device. /posts/2009/11/6/web-development-with-the-mac/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:01:47 -0500 /posts/2009/11/6/web-development-with-the-mac/ I’ve been itching to talk about this for a good six months. But now I have official permission from my editor, so I’m going to town. In March 2010, there’s going to be a new book on store shelves everywhere. It’ll have my name on it, and it’s called Web Development with the Mac. The book is part of a new series by Wiley, targeting Macintosh developers. The series includes books on Objective-C, Java, Cocoa Touch, iPhone Game Development and Snow Leopard Server. /posts/2009/11/3/iphone-hacks-review/ Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:12:30 -0500 /posts/2009/11/3/iphone-hacks-review/ I’m a big fan of O’Reilly. They publish great, nerdy tech books for people like you and me (no, not you, Mom). So when my name was pulled in a draw to win an O’Reilly book, I was elated. O’Reilly has a deal with Cocoaheads groups around the world, it seems, and our Toronto chapter has just joined the program. The book at issue, as you have no doubt deduced from the headline, is iPhone Hacks, by David Jurick, Adam & Damien Stolarz. /posts/2009/10/2/my-c43-blitz-talk/ Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:51:18 -0400 /posts/2009/10/2/my-c43-blitz-talk/ For my C4[3] proposed Blitz Talk, I wanted to talk about ideas: they are the fuel of any beginning business venture. While my talk was rejected, I benefited from an early shot at C4 registration, and the satisfaction of putting together a fun presentation. Here it is, for your education and erudition. C4[3] Blitz Talk2 /posts/2009/9/28/the-sunny-side-of-c43/ Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:48:30 -0400 /posts/2009/9/28/the-sunny-side-of-c43/ The Sunny Side of C4[3] There’s no doubt about it: C4 is a marathon of an event. For someone like me, a dedicated introvert, there can be no greater challenge than being put in the presence of 170 other people for 48 hours, and being asked to interact with them. But oh my, who those people are. If we were talking about your average crowd of slack-jawed, too-much-TV-watching, baggy-pants-wearing, Blackberry-wielding gum chewers, I would have taken a pass. /posts/2009/9/27/the-thing-that-happened-at-c43/ Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:19:46 -0400 /posts/2009/9/27/the-thing-that-happened-at-c43/ I’m back from C4 now, and as I come down from the adrenalin rush of a fascinating weekend, followed by a not-that-bad-yet-still-horrendous flight, one thing from this weekend has stuck with me. And I think it’s going to stick with me for some time to come. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably seen the movie Serenity: that feature-length conclusion to the television triumph that was Firefly. Perhaps, like me, you’ve only seen it once. /posts/2009/4/17/the-lenovo-s10-mac/ Fri, 17 Apr 2009 06:26:45 -0400 /posts/2009/4/17/the-lenovo-s10-mac/ Out of both a belief that it could be quite practical, and a desire to have a cool new gadget, I recently took delivery of a new Lenovo Ideapad S10. This netbook has been on the market for about a year now, and NCIX had it on sale for $350. I added a gig of RAM and got the complete package for a total of $409, after shipping and taxes. /posts/2008/11/16/this-delay-brought-to-you-by/ Sun, 16 Nov 2008 03:47:31 -0500 /posts/2008/11/16/this-delay-brought-to-you-by/ I haven’t been working on Napkin for the past couple weeks. It’s because there’s something that’s prevented me from working on it. And while the headline of this article suggests that the cause is a curse of some kind, I’m bleeping it because I can’t say it yet. I’ll have something to announce on this in the next couple weeks, but for the time being, I’m using all my development time (and plenty of my “day job time”) working on this new project. /posts/2008/10/30/solving-the-printing-problem/ Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:36:00 -0400 /posts/2008/10/30/solving-the-printing-problem/ Have you ever tried learning to ski? Or skate? Or rollerblade? All these sports have something in common: it’s pretty easy to get started, but you’re gonna get hurt unless you learn how to stop. Cocoa is pretty similar, actually. You can code your guts out, but if you don’t know how to troubleshoot your problems, you’re in for a world of hurt.So too with my little printing problem from last time. /posts/2008/10/28/catching-up-with-printing/ Tue, 28 Oct 2008 06:44:02 -0400 /posts/2008/10/28/catching-up-with-printing/ When I began this project, I was in a low point for my day job: the clients were unusually quiet, and I was even starting to get that pain-in-the-gut feeling when things are going bad. Right now, of course, things are right back to normal: crazy clients with crazy websites and crazy deadlines. So I’ve been working my fanny off, and subsequently paying less attention to our dear Napkin. But it’s still very much on my mind, and after a couple weeks, I’m back. /posts/2008/10/10/cleaning-up-plus-what-you-get-for-free/ Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:20:24 -0400 /posts/2008/10/10/cleaning-up-plus-what-you-get-for-free/ Okay, things are moving again. Having got my application to save and open documents, I decided that I would clean that up a bit, by filling in some configuration in XCode. Going to my Target and showing the properties, I was able to change the name of my documents from ???? to .nap, and provide nice document icons. I also named my document format: “Napkin Doc”, and so that’s what you see when you Get Info… on the saved documents. /posts/2008/10/8/aaron-to-wall-frack-you/ Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:09:25 -0400 /posts/2008/10/8/aaron-to-wall-frack-you/ These are the moments that keep you going, that sustain you through the impossible times. Just now, I’ve solved the stupid saving problem. And my God, it’s simple simple simple.You need to use one of three methods to enact a Save motion; the most common appears to be dataOfType:error:. That’s the one that I used, and indeed that’s appropriate for this situation. I’ve got a wired-up Save command, and the contents of an instance variable that I want to stuff into a file. /posts/2008/10/6/the-wall/ Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:48:42 -0400 /posts/2008/10/6/the-wall/ Flush from my unexpected success with the “junk data” coming from my calculator class, I decided to step back and take care of some of the boring bits: document opening and saving, undo, printing, copy and paste, and drag and drop. This is the stuff that people expect to be able to do with any Mac application, so I have to make sure it’s there! I started with saving. Maybe because it seems so simple in the Hillegass book, I thought this wouldn’t be a problem. /posts/2008/9/29/a-wasted-day/ Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:19:10 -0400 /posts/2008/9/29/a-wasted-day/ When I set out writing this blog, I wanted to ensure that I was writing some code every day, even if only a little. Work has been slow lately, so this hasn’t been too hard to accomplish. Sadly, I’d also expected to be making more progress in a day than I accomplished today. Still, perhaps the failures are as worth recording as the successes.In this case, I was setting out to knock off some more of the bugs that afflicted my initial implementation. /posts/2008/9/27/searching-nsstring-before-the-insertion-point/ Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:04:36 -0400 /posts/2008/9/27/searching-nsstring-before-the-insertion-point/ Although I was gratified to have achieved my basic objective — getting a mathematical expression as a string to actually spit out a numerical answer — it felt like a kludge. The biggest sacrifice I made right away was to limit my calculations to appearing as the last bit of text in the document. Recall my method for grabbing the expression string: aRange = [[self string] rangeOfString:newline options:(NSBackwardsSearch)]; The [self string] means that I’m looking at the whole contents of the NSTextView, going backwards till I find a carriage return. /posts/2008/9/25/making-the-left-side-of-my-bitch/ Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:51:52 -0400 /posts/2008/9/25/making-the-left-side-of-my-bitch/ That’s really what it comes down to. Whatever the user has entered into Napkin, if they hit the “=” sign, I want to snatch up the equation they put in and spit back an answer. That’s easier said than done, since there are a lot of situations that I have to contend with. Some that occur to me include: (2+3)/7 = My age is 2008 – 1973 = For now, I’m only going to be dealing with the first example, where the only thing on a line is the calculation. /posts/2008/9/24/reading-from-a-pipe/ Wed, 24 Sep 2008 07:33:57 -0400 /posts/2008/9/24/reading-from-a-pipe/ Last time, I was trying to get a shell script to give me back the results of a calculation sent to the command line utility bc. By writing the shell script that takes an argument, like mybc “2+2” I get back the right answer: 4 Amazing. A computer doing math! In my previous post, I bitched about how hard NSPipe is to use, so I was avoiding it. /posts/2008/9/23/implementing-calculations/ Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:02:33 -0400 /posts/2008/9/23/implementing-calculations/ Just to get started, I wanted to create a text editor that would detect when a mathematical expression is entered, and supply an answer. Using NSEvents’ keyDown: method, I can detect when the equal sign is entered, and then parse the expression by overriding the insertText: method: – (void)insertText:(NSString *)input { if([input isEqual:@”=”]) { [super insertText:input]; myCalc = [[Calculator alloc] init]; [super insertText:[myCalc calc:@”2+2″]]; So, for now I’m not parsing what the user actually enters, because I haven’t figured out how to do that yet. /posts/2008/9/23/introducing-napkin/ Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:55:49 -0400 /posts/2008/9/23/introducing-napkin/ So here’s what I’ve got. Imagine a text editor that also has the capabilities of a spreadsheet. At its most basic level, you could type a mathematical expression, hit the equal sign and get an answer. Further, you could write out items in column format using nothing more than the tab key. The app would know to keep columns lined up, and it could perform math both across rows and down columns. /posts/2008/9/23/the-choices/ Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:36:18 -0400 /posts/2008/9/23/the-choices/ At the core, I’m running a business here. I really want to learn how to program in ObjC/Cocoa, but my day job keeps me pretty busy, and I haven’t had the time to really, really learn it. Yet, I’ve got some potentially great ideas here that I’d like to put on the market. What to do?I joined the Toronto chapter of Cocoaheads — Tacow — first of all. There I met other local Cocoa developers, all at varying stages of knowledge. /posts/2008/9/23/what-im-doing-here/ Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:22:24 -0400 /posts/2008/9/23/what-im-doing-here/ This is the first in what I hope will be an enlightening series of posts tracking the development of my first Cocoa Mac application, Napkin. Getting to this point has been a long journey, and I can see there’s still a long way to go. But at this point, at least, I’m starting to write some code, and I’d like to have a way of documenting this very complicated process: share my forks in the road, and how I chose a particular way.