Dan's Developing Days

Learn Something New - XCode Initial Impressions

2012-06-21T13:33:00.000+10:00

I'm going to take a leaf out of some of my favourite blogger's books and try and learn something new, something I haven't done for a while. And considering that I haven't found a good reason to blog for a while I'll post about it here. I bought my first Mac today, a proud moment for me, a long time dedicated windows user. Now I find myself in a new environment where there's lots of stuff to learn, and new things to uncover, particularly in the development space. There's XCode, application development, virtual machines so I can still do windows stuff and some new windows development I'd like to learn like ASP.NET MVC 4 and Web API. So this is the first in my blogs about the new stuff I'm going to try and learn.

XCode - Initial Impressions

My first impression of XCode takes me back to the days of C++ and windows forms and MFC. Probably just because of the C++ style interface. Drag and drop controls feel pretty good but there's large chunks of code that aren't immediately obvious what they do for a beginner. At the time of writing I've only gone through the hello wold tutorial.

API

I think the API is the part the reminds me of MFC development so much. Variables and interfaces are named in such a way that it's not clear what their use is at the get go. The NS prefix seems prevalent and after the initial tutorial it seems like a redundant prefix. I don't understand the square bracket syntax yet, but at a glance it looks remarkably complicated for a modern development tool.

Interface

The interface is good. For a basic test application it's very straight forward, simple and easy to navigate. On a macbook air it runs nice and quick. Not much else to say at this point because I haven't learned how to use it enough.

Debugging

Pretty straight forward. Breakpoints and stepping through code is easy and similar to the visual studio I'm used to. It's quick and pretty straight forward, and unusually has a very iTunes feel to it due to the interface, play button, feedback screen. It's not really a negative but it makes you feel like you're developing in a sandpit with all your toys rather than as a serious developer.

Ok so it's not much of an initial review, but hey I've only done the initial tutorial so far.

Review of Blogsy

2011-09-28T21:39:00.001+10:00

I've never used Blogsy before, but now that I have my iPad I thought I'd give blogging through it a go. What better way to see how useful it is than to write a review for my blog using nothing but the tool itself.

The Keyboard

So this review doesn't just cover Blogsy, but the process of using the iPad to blog online. I have very large hands and often find it hard to type on small keyboards. I'm using the iPad on screen keyboard to write this blog, and although I'm making lots of mistakes, its actually quite good.

The biggest drawback I think is going to be around the fact that you can't rest your fingers on the keyboard. Over time this will definitely make my hands hurt, in fact I'm only a small way through and my wrists can already feel a little bit of strain. I do intend on getting a wireless keyboard for this thing at some point though if I do end up using it more, however iPad haters will probably have something to say about that.

Made for the Tech Savvy

This program, Blogsy, is clearly made for the tech savvy. The blog is written in markup instead of some GUI based editor and it's a breeze to use, even without a mouse. There are helpful buttons to enter in some basic markup commands, headings lists alignments, quotes etc.

Additional Content

It would be a pretty boring blog post if there wasn't some image or video content somewhere in there. The right hand side of Blogsy includes links to popular applications. These let you place media or links easily into your blog post from various locations.

This photo is of my two Aussie Eastern Long Neck Turtles when I first got them. Aren't they cute!? Content from Picasa, Flickr, You Tube and more can be placed as well as copying data directly from Safari. It's a great feature. My favourite part of the feature is that you can upload content from your own local photo album to your content provider. I really can't fault this feature. It is simple and it works well. Drop box support would be nice, but not necessary for me as I don't store media there.

Code

Sure I might not write much code any more, but I still imagine that posting code will be important to me.

int main (int args[])
{
int i = 0;
}

Clearly from this it is not going to be practical to post about code using Blogsy. Honestly even writing code on an iPad is just cumbersome, so I suppose even if it did have a code feature I wouldn't use it.

Anything Else?

Not really. Features are small and simple but this app has pretty much everything you need to make simple blog posts on the go. For only a few bucks I'd highly recommend it.

An End

2011-09-28T17:39:00.001+10:00

I haven't posted to this blog in some time because my job has become much more managerial and a lot less technical. I intend to start posting again soon but I'm not sure what the content is going to be like and whether or not I'll cover more technical content from my management position or management content or perhaps both.

I have a few projects outside work that are about to start also including a new hobby around home automation, I intend on using this blog to write some information about that, but I guess I'll have to wait and see. I'm also very interested in investing in setting up my own brand, starting with a relevant domain name and website containing this blog as well as any future blogs and work I'll be doing. I expect my future posts to cover some of this also.