A Moment of Distraction

A week and a half ago I submitted my first app to the App Store.  Most approvals (or rejections) take about two weeks, so I should be hearing any time now.  The waiting is difficult.  Particularly given the chance of rejection, which even for something trivial would require that I resubmit it and wait yet another two weeks.  I want it to be out there before I move on to either improving it and/or working on something new.

This has been an amazing journey for me and it is only the beginning (good journeys never end, but that is another topic).  I took off ten years from software development and it has been mega fun getting back into the groove.  Without a doubt, the Apple / Cocoa / Objective-C environment is the best I have *ever* worked in.  The tools and technologies seem mature, stable and well thought out.  Objective-C is great.  Of course it ain't perfect, not even close, but it seems so much nicer than C++, which I tried to like, but never did.  I personally really enjoy its verboseness (not a language trait per-se, but the programming style used for Mac / iPhone development).  Years ago when I was working with C and C++ under Windows, Hungarian Notation was in vogue.  Now people seem to mostly laugh at the mere idea of obfuscating variable and method names for the sake of some sort of artificial naming consistency.  And Cocoa / Cocoa Touch is logical and consistent and fun.  A far, far, far cry from my attempts at using MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes) and other object-oriented hierarchies under Windows. 

I took about two months to re-familiarize myself with programming and to learn what I could about Objective-C, Cocoa Touch, Xcode, Git and other tools.  Using the tired analogy that once you've ridden a bicycle you never forget how, I found the same to be true with software development.  Everything fell into place quickly and if anything the long break gave me a valuable perspective and increased wisdom.  Then, I dove into it and three months later I have my first product.  And I had a bunch of other distractions vying for my attention.  All things in consideration, I'm rather proud of myself for having done this.

Shipping a product is a skill unto itself.  Many people can create something, but not so many know what to keep, what to drop, how much polish to apply and when to ship.  I have always had a sort of talent for that.  The last few weeks before release, I relied on a task list I kept in Things (my todo app of choice) and methodically whittled them down.  As it got closer and I could see the streaming rays of sunshine at the other end of the long tunnel I was in, I set a date ... September 1st ... and I made it ... actually got it done a day early.  yay!

Since then, I've been enjoying some downtime.  I haven't really looked at my app since then (sidebar: I don't really know why I am so secretive about what it does and what its name is, but it should be out in a few days and then I'll do another post with details.  As a hint, the icon at the start of this post is my App icon, which I'm pretty happy with, particularly because I am not all that good with graphics tools (yet)).  I did spend a little time on my website and have been catching up on WWDC videos and reading and generally digesting as much knowledge as I can.  I'm also reading a lot for pleasure.  And taking Buddha for long walks.  And enjoying the first days of almost-fall weather (at least it isn't as super-humid as it has been).  I even washed my van the other day (the outside, at least).  Wowzers, was she ever dirty!  Probably the result of parking under trees.  I took it to a self-serve car wash and scrubbed and scrubbed.  I couldn't get the top, though (I didn't feel like climbing up on top and I only had a step stool), so it still has black areas, but at least it is mostly somewhat cleaner now.

Yesterday was the announcement of the new iPod Nano and the iPod Touch upgrade sans camera (that is strange, apparently a part problem, maybe?).  Also the release of iTunes 9.  Some aspects of the new iTunes are awesome.  A greatly cleaned-up interface, but they inadvertently made the App Store harder to get to and hid the app categories from easy access.  The result is that apps in the "Top" lists and featured apps will do great, but everyone else will suffer.  Since I'll be one of the "everyone else's" with my new app, I'm less than thrilled about this.  Hopefully it will continue to evolve and improve over time.

I want to write more, but I feel like reading now.  I just started a new book on my Kindle, "A Fire Upon the Deep" by Vernor Vinge.  It is a hard sci-fi adventure and grabbed my attention from the first page.