Issue 645

Comment

I've been enjoying all the memories of the Mac that have been everywhere this week as we reach the 40th birthday of Macintosh. My favourite story was sent out only via email from the Steve Jobs Archive, but there have been stories and videos everywhere.

I've written about the first Mac I ever purchased before, but never about the first one I ever used. I can't remember the year exactly, but if I had to guess, it was either 1990 or 1991, and I would have been 16 or 17. I grew up in Poynton, and getting access to a Mac there in 1990 was probably a little harder than in California. However, my school did have one.

It was kept on a wheely trolley locked in a storage cupboard in one of the teacher's offices, and I'm not sure I ever knew its official purpose. I'm quite sure I never saw it used in any lessons. It did get occasional outings to the school "Computer Club", held once a week after lessons finished. Through that club and persuading the teacher that I wouldn't break it, I was granted occasional time after school alone with that Mac, and I remember being amazed by it. I don't have strong memories of exactly what I did with it, but I remember one app vividly. Aldus PageMaker. Microsoft had released Windows 3.0 by 1990, so I might have already seen a windowing operating system, but I had certainly never seen anything like PageMaker! Fonts! Drawing shapes! Flowing text from one text area to another! Dragging and dropping objects on a page! What would they think of next? 😍

I had one other close encounter with Macs a couple of years later when looking for a summer job when I was back home after my first year at university. I applied for a job with a small company in my home town. I walked over and found a few people working away writing software for Macs. I think I blew the interview, but I remember not being too worried about it as I walked home, as I wanted to work with Windows at the time. 🫣

My university had no Mac computers or at least none available to students, so my next proper experience with the platform was buying my first Mac in 2006. I sometimes wonder how different my career would have been if I had worked in that summer job and learned how to code Mac apps in the early 90s, though. 🤔

News

Update on apps distributed in the European Union

We knew this legislation was coming, but until yesterday, we didn't know what Apple would do about it. Now we know.

I don't quite know what to think about it yet, as I only saw the announcement quite late yesterday, but at the moment, I still believe that this will be a step backwards for consumer trust in the App Store. My views on alternate App Stores or sideloading haven't fundamentally changed from what I wrote here. Plus, when I wrote those words, it was without the additional restrictions and revenue requirements Apple announced yesterday. I think alternative stores are bad for developers without the rules Apple added yesterday¹, and it's undoubtedly worse for developers with them.

I feel like a broken record as both this week and last as I have ended up linking to old pieces of writing as I still have the views I had then. None of us has had time to properly process this news yet as it's only a day old, though, so I'll spend some time thinking about it properly this week. If I don't write more about it next week, you can assume my views haven't changed. 😬

¹ I know I'll get emails about this, so I'll briefly explain. It goes back to consumer trust in the App Store. Worthy of it or not, the iOS App Store has an amazing amount of consumer trust right now, and that's a kind of magic that's hard (if not impossible) to put back in the bottle after it's spilt.

New options worldwide for streaming game services and apps providing access to mini apps and games

We can probably all agree is that this change is good:

Today, Apple is introducing new options for how apps globally can deliver in-app experiences to users, including streaming games and mini-programs. Developers can now submit a single app with the capability to stream all of the games offered in their catalog.

Finally!

There are more changes, and not just for streaming/bundled apps. You should read the whole post. 👍

Tools

Xcode Bookmarks

I remember being totally dependent on bookmarks to move around the first IDE I ever used, Turbo Pascal. I remember also being excited to hear Apple added the feature to Xcode, but I must admit I've barely used them. Maybe if I memorised the keyboard shortcuts, with help from Dominik Hauser's tips, I'd use them more. He covers setting bookmarks, adding descriptions, navigating to them, and marking them complete.

Code

HandShadows

I love this new package from Adam Wulf! I found it via his recent blog post, where there’s another video demo, but the one in the README file is probably the clearest demonstration of what it does. What a super effect!

A new access modifier in Swift: package

I had missed this feature of Swift 5.9. It’s rare that the existing levels of visibility don’t give you enough control, but I can see situations where a package level would be useful. Thanks to Marco Eidinger for reminding me this exists!

SwiftUI main thread hang detector

I’ll let the opening sentences of Wade Tregaskis’ post do all the talking:

This is useful for reporting when your GUI thread (the main thread/actor) hangs for a significant amount of time. There are numerous heavier-weight tools for analysing this sort of thing, but I've found that this simple monitor does what I need most of the time.

It’s a short post, but you don’t always need to write an essay!

Design

In Praise of Buttons

This article from Niko Kitsakis is wonderful. Especially the section on Direct Manipulation, which reminded me that Apple used those words extensively when teaching us how to create apps. It's worth a read.

Jobs

Senior Mobile Software Engineer, iOS (Swift) @ Doximity – We are looking for a talented iOS Software Engineer to join our growing team of developers. We have built and maintain a suite of fully-native iOS and Android apps that healthcare professionals use on a daily basis to increase productivity and provide better patient care. – Remote (within US timezones)

iOS Developer @ KURZ Digital Solutions GmbH – Join KURZ Digital Solutions! Take the lead in developing innovative apps as an iOS developer and explore modern technologies in a dynamic team. Experience a culture of learning and creativity that combines tradition with digital innovation. – Remote (within European timezones) with some on-site work (Germany)

Is your company hiring? There are plenty of people looking for jobs over on iOS Dev Jobs, and you can post the job for free!

And finally...

Steve Jobs showing Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf how to use a Macintosh Computer at Sean Lennon (son of John & Yoko)'s 9th birthday party in 1984.

If that sentence doesn’t make you want to see the pictures, I don’t know what to say to you. 😍

Issue 645 January 26th 2024