It’s been a year since I started working on the Metal version of Uru/Myst Online! In 2020, I received an Apple Silicon Developer Kit. One of the first things I did was make a list of games I wanted to see on Apple Silicon. I wanted to understand the performance of the DTK, and I also wanted to keep some existing titles from being lost in the transition. On that list was Uru/Myst Online by Cyan...
Continue reading...Mac
An Early Eulogy for the Intel Mac Pro
As Apple gets closer to replacing the Intel Mac Pro, I’m not sure what my next desktop Mac is going to be. I’ve always found myself working on many different kinds of projects over the life of my Mac. And it’s been important to me that my Mac should be able to evolve with me. If I have a new graphics project, I should be able to install the GPU that I need. New project going...
Continue reading...Swift and Obj-C: 2015 Plans And Obstacles
My current plans for Swift adoption in 2015: I’m just finished a contract project in Swift 1.2. It was a really great experience for working through Swift and finding it’s strengths and weaknesses. At work, we may introduce some Swift 2.0 into our application for new source, but there is currently no pressing need to transition anything existing. Our library we ship to other developers will continue shipping in Obj-C. There are currently no plans to...
Continue reading...Obj-C and Swift, not Obj-C vs. Swift
On Twitter, I’ve been vocal that I don’t believe Obj-C is going away any time soon. For reference, Apple’s stance on the matter is: “Objective-C is not going away, both Swift and Objective-C are first class citizens for doing Cocoa and Cocoa Touch development.” It’s important to note that while there are a lot of community websites stating that Swift is the replacement for Obj-C, that has never been any sort of official position from Apple. This “There...
Continue reading...Why I’m Not Adopting Swift (For Now)
If you follow me on Twitter, I’ve made a lot of noise about how I don’t think developers should be adopting Swift in it’s current state. My problem isn’t with the idea of Swift, or replacing Obj-C. I believe Swift could, in the coming weeks or months become a language suitable for writing production code. But I don’t believe it is such a language today.
Continue reading...Xcode CI Review
Recently I’ve been piloting Xcode’s Continuous Integration server for a project at work. We’ve been using it over the last few months, and so far it’s been going well. I’ve had people both at work and outside of work ask me about it, so I thought I’d write up a review of my experiences so far.
Continue reading...Testing Apple Seeds
Having worked with beta versions of Apple software since the original version of OS X, I thought I’d share a few tips on how best to test new versions of OS X and iOS as a developer.
Continue reading...Skeuomorphism
Recently there has been a lot of discussion about skeuomorphism vs. flat user interfaces, but I think the entire discussion is broken. Let’s go back to the beginning: The original Macintosh GUI. An extremely flat UI, but full of skeuomorphism. Folders look like folders. File deletion is done through a trash item, that not only emulates a trash can but looks like one. Floppy disks that are inserted into the Mac appear as disks on the desktop. The...
Continue reading...iCloud is Hard
I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few months talking to people about CoreData’s iCloud syncing features. One complaint I hear is that Apple should make the API easier to implement and handle problems automatically for the developer. CoreData’s persistent store iCloud syncing API has it’s faults, but I think developers underestimate how many issues are out of Apple’s control.
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