May 10, 2021What’s wrong with Flutter?I’ve been writing Flutter apps since 2019. And in the beginning I was very optimistic about it. Just imagine — I didn’t need to write two apps in two different languages to make one product! I tried React Native and Xamarin earlier, but they didn’t cover my needs. Flutter did. …Flutter5 min read
May 10, 2021Apple M1 (Silicon) for DevelopersI’ve been using Apple computers since their CPUs had PowerPC architecture. I experienced the transition to Intel, I saw the evolution of Xcode since its early versions, I used Rosetta when it used to run PowerPC binaries on Intel CPUs. That’s why when I saw Apple announcing it would be…Xcode7 min read
Published in CodeX·Jan 21, 2021Which Programming Language to Learn in 20212021 has already started, but many of us are still locked at home, having minimum contact with other human beings and maximum free time. For some people it’s a synonym of boredom, for others— an opportunity to learn something new. And as 2020 showed us the importance of the IT…Programming13 min read
Published in CodeX·Jan 12, 2021Exporting QR Codes in FlutterQR codes are an easy way to exchange small amounts of data between smartphones (data reader) and any media (data provider). They are easy to generate and to scan, you can customize them, add logos, change colors, and make them “yours”. Two smartphones with Flutter apps can easily generate and…Flutter4 min read
Published in Better Programming·Nov 20, 2020Implementing Blurs and Shadows in iOS AppsAdd some additional style to your app with blurs and shadows — For most of my projects, I get the app designs from my clients. And if I need to say what the most used design elements have been in 2020, I’d say that they’ve been flat elements, blurs, and shadows. There’s no problem with flat elements, as the native iOS design…Programming3 min read
Nov 18, 2020Custom-Shaped Switch in iOS AppsOnce I got a rather simple-looking task from a regular client of mine: he needed to make a screen for an iOS app with several switches. The switch was long and thin. …Swift4 min read
Oct 22, 2020Data Conversion in SwiftBack in 1936 the computer scientist Alan Turing invented a model of a computational device later known as The Turing Machine. This machine did simple operations and had a state. This state was actually a piece of data, and the machine was “running” algorithms to perform operations over that data. …Swift Programming7 min read
Oct 15, 2020Universal Go-back Function for iOS AppsDuring my career as an iOS developer I wrote around 50 apps. Some of them were small and stayed in the stores just for several months, others stayed alive and got regular updates for years. I’m not a designer myself, I get designs from my clients or a third-party designer…Programming2 min read
Published in Better Programming·Oct 13, 2020Extending UIViewController With PopupsSyntactic sugar to make alerts, text fields, and more easier to work with — Showing even simple pop-up dialogs requires several lines of code in Swift. When you have data validation or proper error handling, you have tens or even hundreds of places where you can show a pop-up. Let’s write several UIViewController extensions that’ll do the work for us. self.show(message: "Let's start!") Showing Errors and WarningsProgramming5 min read
Sep 27, 2020Writing Synchronous Code in SwiftWhen you write mobile apps in Swift, you usually have a lot of background work. I’ve been working as a mobile developer for almost 10 years and I can hardly remember a single project without Internet requests. Each Internet request requires time to be processed. …Swift8 min read
