Bob DeLaurentis

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 14:49:18 -0800

The more I get to know Instruments, the more I believe it should be introduced to coding students much earlier on. There is magic in measuring what’s happening inside your code beyond just matching inputs and expected outputs.

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 11:44:14 -0800

This is as close as any Apple developer video gets to “must see.” Matthew Massicotte presents a 20 minute tour of Swift Concurrency is new and hard, and you can do it.

Fri, 25 Oct 2024 07:05:05 -0800

Hard won lessons – Swift Type Checker

The root cause of a warning “Unable to type-check this expression” is not always inside the source file where it appears. I made a typo in computed property in a model object that caused the entire body to fail on the main screen.

After breaking it up into dozens of pieces trying to isolate the problem, it appeared as a different, still confusing error. But that error lead to the fix - changing a computed property from an optional into an Int.

In hindsight I should have just kept commenting out sections of the body until I’d isolated the culprit, rather than break it into sub-expressions.

Fri, 04 Oct 2024 14:04:43 -0800

I made a new thing! A simple way to add basic logging and Instrument tracking.

There are countless ways to get started with logging, and this one is my quick-start preference.

Add the file to any module, and it sets up a basic logger and signposts (visible in Instruments.) Instructions for each item’s call site are in the comments.

A general purpose global logging and signpost configuration file

Sun, 23 Jun 2024 18:04:44 -0800

An excellent video covering Xcode Terminology from Stewart Lynch.

Sun, 23 Jun 2024 13:53:05 -0800

Want to read: The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow 📚

Sun, 23 Jun 2024 12:53:35 -0800

Currently reading: The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson 📚

Sun, 23 Jun 2024 12:51:07 -0800

Just finished re-reading: Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen 📚. Getting ready for the AppleTV+ show later this summer.

2024 WWDC Notebook

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 08:59:10 -0800

👀 The Xcode Essentials talk clocks in at 36m, and while some of the things in it apply to the Xcode beta, so many of the capabilities demoed are already in Xcode 15 and earlier. It is a must-see for anyone new to Xcode and a solid refresher for everyone else. Watch: Developer App and YouTube.

👀 Run, Break, Inspect: Explore effective debugging in LLDB is excellent. Developer App and YouTube

👀 What’s New in Swift. Developer App and YouTube

👀 Analyze Heap Memory is a dive into the sometimes esoteric but vital to understand topic of memory. Developer App and YouTube.

👀 Explore Swift Performance is a tour de force by the amazing John McCall. Keep re-watching and learning until it makes sense. Developer App and YouTube.

👀 Create a Custom Store with SwiftData. Don’t miss this if you want to store data in your app in a JSON file. Developer App and YouTube.

👀 SwiftUI Essentials. This video is incredible. I didn’t watch it until late June. It is perhaps the best overview of SwiftUI I have ever seen. Developer App and YouTube.

More to come…

Developer Toolkit

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 12:37:02 -0800

A mix of tools I use every day, and tools I’ve found useful. Many of these are in SetApp.

Primary

Xcode Apple’s IDE (don’t overlook Instruments!)

BBEdit Bulletproof Text Editor

DevUtils JSON validator and much more

JuxtaCode Diffs and Merge tool

Carbon Copy Cloner Local Backup

Tower My fav GitHub client, for nostalgic reasons mostly. Xcode 15 does what I need. Tower is expensive but useful for newbies because of its extensive help and support.

Secondary

Swift Playgrounds Experiment here!

Glance Quick Look Code Files in the Finder

Bakery Icons for Dev versions

GitHub Desktop Free! Excellent GUI. Does what you need.

RocketSim Add-on for Xcode iOS Simulator

Essential Editors JSON, Plist, and CSV editors

Networking

Proxyman Reveal HTTP Network Traffic

RapidAPI for Mac Formerly MacPaw. API tool

Special Projects

Nova Panic’s code editor

GitFinder GitHub in the Finder

EditKit Pro Xcode Extension

XCOrganizer Tag Xcode project files

Docs/Snippets

Dash Docs

A Companion for SwiftUI A menu of SwiftUI components

Libraried: UI Components iPad, although works on Mac

SnippetsLab Code Snippet Library

TeaCode Code Snippet Library

Design

DetailsPro macOS and iOS

Adaptivity macOS and iOS

Mock-up UI wireframe and prototyping design tool. macOS and iOS

Tue, 14 Nov 2023 11:58:59 -0800

And lastly, finished: Beyond the Blue Event Horizon by Frederik Pohl 📚

Tue, 14 Nov 2023 11:57:58 -0800

Still another vacation read: The Last Mile by David Baldacci 📚

Tue, 14 Nov 2023 11:56:57 -0800

Vacation Read Number 2: Finished Memory Man by David Baldacci 📚

Tue, 14 Nov 2023 11:55:36 -0800

Finished reading: Gateway by Frederik Pohl 📚

Fri, 28 Apr 2023 15:24:21 -0800

Great walk down memory lane on the latest episode of ATP. I forgot I had a Netcom account!

It also made me think of my very first hard disk, circa 1985 or ‘86, amid tales of swapping disks between the system and the data.

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 12:10:22 -0800

Just finished another re-read in audio form: Native Tongue by Carl Hiaasen 📚

Almost made me miss the mess that is the keys. Almost.

Memory Lane

Fri, 27 Jan 2023 17:38:18 -0800

My early programming steps were taken on a Sharp EL5100 and not long after, an HP41CV.

Before the Sharp was my trusty (unprogrammable) TI-30.

Another memory, remember Dektol?

Solved: The Mysterious Flickering Background Blur on Zoom

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 15:40:23 -0800

A very subtle Mac interface choice combined with a cross platform app adds up to trouble.

This is what happened. On a recent Zoom call, my video background flickered in and out of focus randomly. The effect was not the same as applying a background blur in Zoom. It might also look like focus hunting, but it isn’t. It is a subtle – far less intense than Zoom’s default blur – effect applied somewhere between the camera and the output.

The suspects: Reincubate Camo, Zoom, macOS Ventura, and an iPhone 14.

The effect only appeared on the Zoom call and in the Zoom preferences preview window. The preview in Camo had the same blur, but did not flicker.

I’ll skip the dead ends and describe the solution.

This can only be fixed when the iPhone is connected and on.

Open the Sidebar Control Center on the Mac and disable any Video Effects and the problem dissappears.

Do not bother looking in Camo. Don’t look at the FaceTime app preferences, or its menus, or in System Settings. Sadly, the latter probably deserves a warning label: “*some system-wide settings are located elseware.”

Evidently the preferences that disable this behavior only appear in one place, and only during live video.

Its unclear in my testing if the effect can quietly enable itself due to a background sync or some other event. But the problem has been appearing and dissapearing since switching to Ventura. The frequency was so irregular that it took well over a month to puzzle out a solution.

As a result, a visit to the Control Center appears on my pre-Zoom checklist, in the hope of sparing my future Zoom callers any more eye strain, and me any more embarassment.

One reason this problem was so challenging to puzzle out: given that Background Blur is a feature, and given that Apple does not even use the term in favor of Portrait Mode, its searchability is low.

I hope this post finds its way to another who might be searching for help with the same behavior.

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 15:41:35 -0800

Resources for Learning Swift/iOS Development

Bailey

Sun, 22 Jan 2023 18:30:10 -0800

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 18:11:54 -0800

Currently re-reading: The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein 📚

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 13:22:13 -0800

Currently re-reading: Where Wizards Stay Up Late by Katie Hafner 📚

Cold Hands

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 12:12:44 -0800

Goodbye, best of Twitter

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 12:03:58 -0800

It is with deep sadness and a sense of loss that my first post would be sparked by the formal end of both Twitterific and Tweetbot, two of the best apps ever. They thrived as most of the Internet embraced foolishness. Tweetbot Memorial 💔 Twitterific Memorial