iOS needs a block-based UIAlertView. So many currently-delegate based interfaces would be better served by block callbacks.

I’ve wanted the same. I’ve also wanted to contribute more open source code. With some time on my hands, I threw together RooAlertView.

As I mention in the README, I’m not terribly happy with it. I like the public interface, a single class method. But am sad to report that the static analyzer doesn’t like the implementation. The static method alloc, init’s a RooAlertView and then relies on the UIAlertViewDelegate’s callback to be called and then releases itself. I’m fairly confident it works and all, but am hopeful someone will provide a better solution that the analyzer likes and that’s probably cleaner.

From the uncrustify website:

The goals of this project are simple: Create a highly configurable, easily modifiable source code beautifier.

Since Tony had provided nice Automator actions, I figured I’d take it for a spin. After a quick

brew install uncrustify

and a few minutes messing with Tony’s sample .uncrustify.cfg making my own, I was impressed.

While in Xcode 4 I used Tony’s Automator service to uncrustify the selected text (I select whole files at a time). However, I had to give up on Xcode 4 due to stability issues so found myself back in Xcode 3.2.x. While in Xcode 3 I decided to create a User Script for uncrustify, thinking it would be much faster to execute. So now I have a shell script execute uncrustify on the selection and replace the selection with the uncrustified result (stealing the uncrustify line from Tony’s Automator service). I also have this bound to cmd+option+ctrl+u.

#!/bin/sh
/usr/local/bin/uncrustify -l OC -q

Here’s the User Script setup:

Liar! Note that it says I’m using ‘g’ as the shortcut instead of ‘u’ like I said. I’m pushing the ‘u’ key but it’s bound to ‘g’ in the Dvorak keyboard layout.

I’m not sure if I’m early or late to the uncrustify party, but I’m happy to be here.

Oh, and if someone does know how to setup User Scripts in Xcode 4, do tell!

Wait, one more thing! I’m working on a project where my 6 lines of whitespace after each function body wasn’t appreciated (understandable, it’s not for everyone ). rooSwitch to the rescue! I already have profiles for slight differences in Xcode prefs, so I dropped my .uncrustify.cfg on each profile and am now switching that file with the slight difference for this project. Success.

Short story

I’ve co-founded a new company, rocket, with the designer I worked with on Concentrate. Over the next month or so all roobasoft products will be transitioned over to rocket and will be sold through rocket’s online store. This is mostly a name change. I’ll still be the man doing the development and support, but now I’ll also have Dave helping to make things prettier and more user friendly.

More details

Shortly after hiring Dave to work on Concentrate I asked him if he was interested in partnering up in some way. At the time he was working full-time-ish for a startup with potential to be a big deal, so although he was interested, the timing wasn’t right.

4.5 or so months later and the timing was better, so we decided to talk through it. We ended up meeting at least once a week for lunch for a good month or so talking through details. Then in early September we met with an accountant and worked through business details. At this point it really started to take shape. Finally, on September 22nd, 2009, the secretary of the state of Idaho stamped our articles of incorporation and made it official, we were business partners. We’ve now got a fancy website, all sorts of official documents, a bank account and two names (our official company name is Made By Rocket, Inc., but we have a legally assumed business name of rocket).

Why?

• Our skills are complementary. I now have access to a designer without having to worry about hours spent, and Dave has access to a programmer without having to worry about hours spent.
• We worked well together. Regardless of how we did it, it was clear we’d be working together in the future. So partnering up seemed like a solid choice.
• Two is better than one. We’re both excited to have each other to bounce ideas off of, help keep each other on track and to help make better business decisions (or at least make sure we talk through things first).

How?

I’m guessing some of you are interested in how things are structured, so here’s a short explanation:

roobasoft, LLC will still exist and will remain 100% owned by my wife and I. All existing roobasoft apps will remain owned by roobasoft. roobasoft will license the rights to sell the apps to Made By Rocket, Inc. (an S-corp). rocket is co-owned 50/50 by Dave and I. That’s it. It’s really all a bit simpler than we thought and probably simpler than it sounds. Feel free to shoot me an email if you have any questions or want to know more, I’m happy to provide more details.

That’s it. So roobasoft still exists, but it won’t be publicly active in a month or so. Our plan is to put a page up on roobasoft.com explaining it’s now rocket and pointing to madebyrocket.com. However, I do plan to keep this blog and will probably even continue to post things here. We’ll see.

Sometime in April I was chatting with Andy Kim, of Potion Factory and The Hit List fame, over IM and I asked him how he, a one-man shop producing some awesome stuff (both code and design work), got things done. His advice was pretty simple: Always make sure you know what to do next. I’m convinced that advice, along with a lot of other things, helped make the next three months extremely productive for me.

This really wasn’t anything new. I’m sure I had heard this before, but hearing it from Andy was apparently just enough to make me actually try it for reals and experience it for myself.

It wasn’t long before I noticed how serious the change was. If I either didn’t have my “to do today” (more on that later) list available, or I had let myself finish everything without adding to it, I would almost immediately procrastinate when a task was done. However, when I crossed something out, if there was another task to pickup and do right there without me having to think about ‘what now?’, I almost always immediately got to it. So simple.

How I manage my lists

I use two list systems. One for my to do today list, and one for planning at a larger level. The to do today list is paper based. I carry a small Moleskine squared notebook for this list. My other lists are stored in The Hit List organized into folders and releases and stuff like that. Every morning I scan my lists in The Hit List and write stuff down in my to do today list. I put a large square to start each item and then write the task next to it. When I complete a task I put a check in the box and strike out the words. If I decide to not do something, I use an X and strike out the words. This has worked great for me.

If I notice my to do today list getting small, and I know I have a lot of available time left in the day, I try to make sure I re-scan The Hit List for things to add. This is because I know if the list is empty before I’m done working for the day I’ll find myself watching YouTube videos of babies laughing or on Wikipedia reading about a Country I’ll never visit.

More on To Do Today

Concentrate was heavily inspired by a productivity method called The Pomodoro Technique. Part of that technique involves a To Do Today list. You pick from your larger list and put down what you think you can do today. The technique also has you estimate tasks and some other stuff that I don’t do, but are probably worth checking out. The Pomodoro Technique gave me the idea for the to do today list vs. working off one master list. I highly recommend it. Being able to look at a, relatively, much smaller list makes a huge difference compared to staring at your endless list for a project.

Feel free to drop a comment here with your own take on this. I’d be curious if others are using a to do today list or if you try it and how it worked for you. Good luck!

So as you could guess, the biggest news here at roobasoft HQ is that Concentrate has officially shipped. So far, it’s been very successful (compared to other apps I’ve launched). I wrote a bit more about it on the Concentrate blog here.

The most enjoyable part of the release has been watching people talk about it on Twitter. This has meant a lot. Folks seem to get the idea and see how it can help them pretty quickly, and that’s very important. It means a lot when people recommend it so willingly.

To watch twitter real time I’ve been using a new Mac app, Incoming!, to search for the terms: getconcentrating, #Concentrate, Concentrate app and Concentrate OS X. Incoming! has a lot of potential, but its quite buggy in its current beta form. Hopefully it will all be cleaned up soon. Should be a great tool. Update Aug. 16th: 0.89 of Incoming! just came out and fixes both of my reported issues. If you need to keep an eye on twitter I’d definitely check Incoming! out, it’s looking great.

It’s also been enjoyable to get fantastic feedback from users. From that feedback I’ve been able to prioritize features and have scheduled what will be in Concentrate’s 1.1 and 1.2 releases.

I have a few blog posts I want to write. I’m hoping mentioning them here will help make me feel accountable and actually write them. Here are the ideas:

1. Avoiding procrastination with next actions
2. roobasoft v2.0′s secret weapon: A project coach
3. Taking the time to pay attention to details

OK, that should keep me busy until the next v2.0 post, which surely will be late. In fact, how ’bout I just say there won’t be another until October 1st. Done. It’s in my calendar. So, you know, it has a fighting chance of happening now.

[1] Yes, I set a goal I had no realistic expectation to meet)

[2] That may sound pessimistic, but trust me, it’s optimism for me.

So what happened in June plus 2 weeks of July? Development. I started focusing on my new OS X app, Concentrate. Late May and early June were fairly slow. I spent a lot of time experimentating, brainstorming and sketching UIs. Then, about 4 weeks or so ago, the idea was whittled down to what it would be, proof of concept work was done and I had a list of high level things to do. After that everything turned over resulting in 4 extremely productive weeks. Of course I still had some slow days, but they were very few and I was able to get kicked out of them with ease. I also employed a secret weapon that I’ll blog about soon after Concentrate’s release.

So where am I today? The app finally has an official name, Concentrate, and its website is taking shape: http://getconcentrating.com. It also has an icon:

Concentrate is currently in a private beta and I’m hoping to ship 1.0 in the middle of August.

A lot of time was spent settling on both the scope of the application, it started much bigger, and the name and icon. The scope fell into place more or less on its own. The naming, however, was a lengthy process going through about 3 “oh, that’s the one!” names and a handful of icons. I have no regrets about that time spent, I’m very happy with where it all ended. I plan to blog more about Concentrate’s history on its blog (still to be themed).

OK, if you’re interested in helping out with the beta, I’m trying out running the beta through MacDeveloper.net. You’re free to sign up there as a tester for free and get involved that way. Or you can just send me a note asking for a beta build (ask nice ). I’ll blog more about my MacDeveloper.net experience after 1.0 ships.

I’d say 90% of Concentrate is done. Now it’s time to dig into the last, but most difficult, 10%.

The cookies pictured here magically appeared in my office today, and they’re as good as they look. She rocks.

The coupon code is WWDC09, but clicking that link should pre-fill that in for you.

Enjoy!

• Sleep in on Monday Even with Steve Jobs not running the show, I’m guessing people will be queueing up for the keynote surprisingly early. Sleep in. Take the morning off. Watch the keynote later when it’s available off apple.com.
• Turn off twitter If you’re a Mac or iPhone dev, you’re probably following a handful of people that will be at WWDC. Don’t bother loading twitter, it’s just going to be full of your attending friends telling people what session they’re in, what they’re wearing and about what party they’re going to. It will just increase your jealousy.
• Enjoy your comfy chair The chairs at Moscone West are awful. Wallow in your comfy chair and appreciate it. Side note: before attending my first WWDC (or any conference) I assumed each room had movie theatre style stadium seating. Not sure where I got that picture, but I was sorely disappointed.
• Bake your own cookies I’m a sucker for treats, especially the kind that magically show up in the afternoon. The magic treats are probably one of my favorite parts of WWDC (yes, I know that’s sad). Bake your own cookies or brownies one morning. Try really hard to forget they exist and ask someone in your house to put a plate out randomly one day. Cookies! [1] Bonus points if you can convince someone else to do the baking.
• Just walk right in and use your bathroom Taking a bio-break at WWDC is tricky. Between sessions there’s always a line for the men’s room. Enjoy the fact that you can just waltz right into your bathroom and use it without waiting (and hopefully minus the sticky floors too).
• Throw your own party The nights at WWDC are packed with social events. Take your significant other (or whoever) out to a fancy dinner or just get out and do something. You likely won’t meet any new people, especially Mac/iPhone devs, but it’s very likely you’re like me and don’t get out often enough.
• Get stuff done WWDC is a lot of fun and you certainly can get a lot out of it, but you really have to consider it a vacation. As much as I tried each year, I got nothing done [2]. So stop crying about not being able to be there this year and go check things off your todo list!
• Call ADC Finally, if you’re really bummed out about not being there, use a tech support incident. Call ‘em up and just chat about something (just make up an issue). Talking to someone at Apple could help you feel like you’re there. Of course, I’m not really sure anyone’s manning the phones during WWDC since they’re all at the Moscone center having a blast! [3]

[1] – A lot of the WWDC survival guides actually suggest avoiding the junk food and some suggest avoiding the Moscone food altogether. If you’re stronger willed than I, do that. My first year at WWDC I went nuts on the free Odwalla drinks and had a tummy ache for a couple days. Pace yourself.

[2] – Of course if you show up well prepared with questions and bugs to sit down with an Apple employee you could save yourself a lot of time in that one week.

[3] Don’t do this.