Now that the Widgets app is in better shape, the plan is to finally work on a new version of A Book About Hype. While I love working on Widgets, I also love the community at forums.tumult.com! People have been asking for the book. I feel bad for not publishing an updated edition – especially since Tumult put extra work into improving the Physics API. Today, I decided to make it official. Work on the 2020 edition of A Book About Hype has officially begun.
Continue reading “Under Construction – A Book About Hype (Print Edition)”
It was getting late, on this first Saturday night after Thanksgiving. Not feeling well, possibly catching a cold, I decided to do something less mentally taxing. That basically meant doing work that could be done from my iPad. Snuggled under a warm blanket, I decided to check on my SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Would people find “Photics” if they searched for the words “Dashboard Replacement” online? In running this experiment, I found an interesting article from WIRED.
Wow, that was rough! The Widgets app had a really nasty issue. The app would freeze on startup. If you had too many contacts – boom! The fix was not easy. The “Contacts” widget had to be redesigned and rewritten. It would have been easier to delete the widget and create a different widget from scratch. I’m not sure where the motivation comes from, as the challenge was bit beyond my level as a developer. But somehow, this project is different. I stuck with it until I figured it out.
While not as dire sounding as the title of this article, (I like alliteration.) I’m in the middle of a battle. The difficultly of creating widgets was severely underestimated. Every single widget (except maybe the clock) has been a struggle. What’s even more surprising is how much I love it. It’s an epic challenge of man-vs-machine. The thrill of victory, in this cerebral conflict, is exhilarating.