Now that Apple is forced to open their mobile operating systems for third party devs in an unprecedented manner, can we work on an indie foss podcatcher that does not suck?
A weird thing about being 50 is that there are programming languages that I've used regularly for longer than some of the software developers I work with have been alive. I first wrote BASIC code in the 1980s. The first time I wrote an expression evaluator--a fairly standard programming puzzle or homework--was in 1990. I wrote it in Pascal for an undergraduate homework assignment. I first wrote perl in the early 1990s, when it was still perl 4.036 (5.38.2 now). I first wrote java in 1995-ish, when it was still java 1.0 (1.21 now). I first wrote scala, which I still use for most things today, in 2013-ish, when it was still scala 2.8 (3.4.0 now). At various times I've been "fluent" in 8086 assembly, BASIC, C, Pascal, perl, python, java, scala; and passable in LISP/Scheme, Prolog, old school Mathematica, (early days) Objective C, matlab/octave, and R. I've written a few lines of Fortran and more than a few lines of COBOL that I ran in a production system once. I could probably write a bit of Haskell if pressed but for some reason I really dislike its syntax so I've never been enthusiastic about learning it well. I've experimented with Clean, Flix, Curry, Unison, Factor, and Joy and learned bits and pieces of each of those. I'm trying to decide whether I should try learning Idris, Agda, and/or Lean. I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting a few languages. Bit of 6502 assembly long ago. Bit of Unix/Linux shell scripting languages (old enough to have lived and breathed tcsh before switching to bash; I use fish now mostly).
When I say passable: in graduate school I wrote a Prolog interpreter in java (including parsing source code or REPL input), within which I could run the classic examples like append or (very simple) symbolic differentiation/integration. As an undergraduate I wrote a Mathematica program to solve the word recognition problem for context-free formal languages. But I'd need some study time to be able to write these languages again.
I don't know what the hell prompted me to reminisce about programming languages. I hope it doesn't come off as a humblebrag but rather like old guy spinning yarns. I think I've been through so many because I'm never quite happy with any one of them and because I've had a varied career that started when I was pretty young.
I guess I'm also half hoping to find people on here who have similar interests so I'm going to riddle this post with hashtags:
What is the best way to learn #ObjectiveC on Linux?
At some point in the future I want to get a feel for the language. I'm not so fussed about learning Cocoa and the Foundation framework. I'm more interested in the syntax and structure.
I need something with a solid set of tutorials, without using a Mac.
Is #GNUstep the best option? Are there any good tutorials for #ObjFW?
#Swift can be so much cleaner and more concise than #ObjectiveC. Really digging the new concurrency syntax with #ASync and #await for working with #CloudKit. Now if only I could convert my entire project to this. But 16 years of development has lots of legacy code. But I am slowly modernizing some of it and writing new stuff in Swift and SwiftUI.
As you may be aware, I'm currently intrigued by #ObjectiveC. I especially like seeing it being used outside of the Apple universe. #GNUstep is a big part of that.
This video is from #FOSDEM 2011, so a while back. I haven't found a more recent video like this.
I'd also love to know if ObjC is used anywhere else.
I'm not about to write any code in it. It's just fun for me to learn about it.
Anyone looking for an experienced iOS and Android developer? I'm available for full-time or part-time contract work, with 15+ years experience in Objective-C and Java. Based in the New York area, but prefer remote. Message me on LinkedIn or DM me here for my CV, contact details, references, etc.
Here it is: A comprehensive look at NSItemProvider: what it does, how it works, and how to use it properly. I want this to be a one-stop-shop reference for anyone using this class in their projects.
NSItemProvider is a key class in iOS and Mac Catalyst, used in everything from Drag and Drop, to Pasteboard, share sheet, and beyond. Understanding how this class works will help you make better apps and gain insight into what the system does for you.
Please read the post, and send me feedback. Share it with your iOS developer friends. Let me know what you think!
I’ve done nearly 30 years of C/C++ by now, and probably 20 years of Objective-C. So usually, that's my baseline for programming. These languages don't hurt, they're just “how programming is”. Better languages are “oh cool I get to have fun”.
That said, I recently wrote some new Objective-C code and … actually wanted to go back to Swift. Those square brackets really are a downside of the language. The Swift-style of method call syntax is superior.
I’ve written down most of what I’ve learned about xcframeworks into this blog post. I hope it can be a one-stop shop to answer all your practical questions, including:
Are there any #ios developers here who might be able to tell me whether programs for current iOS can interact with external devices that provide serial I/O over USB; such devices would be connected to an iPhone/iPad using Apple's Lightning to USB OTG cable? Or is the MFI programme the only way to do this? #ObjectiveC#Swift#USB#iPhone#iPad#Apple (This is for a #HamRadio project). Thanks in advance!