It is my firm belief, as an iOS developer, that RIM is not dead yet. If things continue the way that they are going, this may indeed be the case in six months from now. However, most people miss a very important point, which I’d like to try and explain if I can.
Over two years ago, I began writing apps for iPhone and iPod touch. My third app was a little utility called “Sefira”. I distributed a few copies, and it was fun. However, a few copies is hardly a living, and I entered into talks with a well known software shop to sell what would become [...]
An integer pointer contains an address of an integer variable. We often won’t care about the value of the pointer, but rather the value at the address that the pointer points to. (Similar to a coat check. We don’t care what the card is made of, but rather what the number on the card is.) [...]
This is a pattern to read in single values: #include; using namespace std; int main(){ const int CAPACITY = 100; int arr[CAPACITY]; int num; int size = 0; cin >;>; num; while(cin){ if(size == CAPACITY){ cerr;>; num; } for(int i = size-1; i >;= 0; i–){ cout << arr[i];} A bit of history: The word [...]
D train. Mexican guy on my right, removes the saran wrap from a turkey sandwich on white bread. I thought it was PB and J initially. A closer looks proves me wrong. We’re going over the bridge. It’s bright, a little warm in my sweatshirt.
Ever gone in to Starbucks and seen those iTunes gift cards with a single use promo code on it? Perhaps you know a developer? Maybe you’ve followed one on Twitter and managed to grab a promo code for Angry Birds Space. Whatever the scenario, you’re going to want to use that promo code to download [...]
No notes today since it was a lab, however, here is a puzzle from Professor Weiss. It is a metaphor for pointers, which we’ll get to soon. The full puzzle, pulled from an email: Folks, Here’s a little ‘puzzle’ in anticipation of our next major topic– pointers. It’s not a ‘trick’ question, simply a real [...]
No notes today since we had a midterm.
Good night iPhone. Good night keys. Good night new iPad. Good night old iPad. Good night v5 pen which is always in my back pocket. Good night MacBook. Good night 24″ Dell monstrosity which looks tiny next to the iMac I use at work. Good night VC13. Good night Facebook. Good night to all the [...]
I’ve been using the new iPad for a few days now. I didn’t buy the iPhone 4S, so this newfangled voice dictation is still very cool to me. (I wonder how speech therapists can use it, by the way. I’ll bet it can be done with a little hackery.) Voice dictation isn’t quite Siri though. [...]
Looks like the Icon Reference site I wrote about last June has a new home. And it has updated info for the new iPad. Check out the Icon Handbook here.
On Friday, I went to the Apple Store SoHo, on my way to work. As I walked there from the train, I saw the long lines. People were queuing up. There must’ve been about 50 people waiting outside. I thought I would be smart and buy new iPad at the SoHo store because everyone would [...]
Last night, I had the incredible opportunity to talk about Ultimate Omer 2 on the radio with Nachum Segal and ZK. (Embarrassingly, I still don’t l know what ZK stands for.) I want to take a moment to thank Gd for the opportunity. Thanks Nachum, ZK, Gary, and Dad. (If you want, I can cover [...]
A default constructor is one which takes no parameters. Does it always make sense to have a default constructor? Not necessarily. A copy constructor is a constructor that allows you to copy a value from an existing object. The Miranda rights are the rights of someone who is arrested. The arrested person has the right [...]
A “low level” class is a class that doesn’t have much in it. A higher level function allows you to think in terms of the purpose of the class. There’s a third type of class, called a “structure.” Structures existed in Fortran, COBOL, and Pascal. A structure is a class without any functions. A structure [...]
When you write code, you’re usually giving instructions to the compiler. When you see a hash/pound/tic-tac-toe symbol #in a program, that line of code isn’t talking to the compiler. It’s talking to the preprocessor. To review, the preprocessor is the part of your program that runs some basic housekeeping on your code before it gets to [...]
Confession: I’m working on a role playing game for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. I’ve been keeping a “paper blog” (AKA a journal) for a few months now, jotting down progress and observations. These things are always fun to look over, and once we’ve got something going, I’ll try to start posting those entries to [...]
Wishing y’all a happy purim.
A little computer programming history: Alan Kay envisioned the modern day laptop in 1969. SmallTalk was Kay’s language. Object Oriented programming got a reputation of being slow, because it required powerful hardware. Bjarne Stroustrup, the designer of C++, didn’t want this to happen with his language, so he stuck with C style terminology. Data members [...]
An object is essentially a value that belongs to a class. We’re about to learn about what classes are. When including a class in another class, you need to include the definition of that class. Variables inside of classes are called data members. One of the things that you try to do in C++ is [...]