Issue 19

10 April 2019

by Lori M Olson

#OPED

Since the school isn’t paying all the bills yet, for the past few months, I’ve been working on a Rails application for … a farrier. (If you don’t know what a farrier is, go Google for it now. I’ll wait). Equinect is actually a very interesting application, and over all it’s been a good experience. It’s in closed beta right now, but if you are actually interested, you can see my early prototype UI here.

But the real fun for me is what happens next. I’ve handed off the Rails app development on V2 to another Rails dev, and I’m switching over to… getting it wrapped up as an iOS and Android app with RubyMotion. I made a deal with my client, and I’ll be using Equinect’s mobile apps as a case study for a new course in the WNDX School. It should make for an interesting non-trivial example, and you all will be able to watch the steps as I go. — wndxlori

#FITS: Featured in the School

The big news this week is that #6PackApps is currently open for enrolment, but only until April 16. We’re not kidding! After that you will have to wait until the Fall session.

Think about it for a minute—if you get started on #6PackApps now, you could have your dream app in the App Store for the summer! Imagine sitting on your favourite beach somewhere, sipping a mint julep and raking in the cash because your app just got a retweet from the AppStore and your download count has just sailed past the Kármán Line. Ok. Maybe that’s a little over the top. But we can dream, right?

Suffering the debilitating regret thinking you may have already missed the boat? Not to worry—for those of you who missed the free, one hour webinar which introduces #6PackApps: Six Steps from Idea to App Store you can still catch the replay here.

We’ll see you in class!

#MSH: Motioneers Slack Highlights

The big news from the Motioneers Slack team in the week since the last #RMW is the release of RubyMotion 6.0. There does appear to be a licensing gotcha, however, which is tripping a few people up. Never fear, there’s some advice from the #COMM as to how to get those sorted out. There should be a 6.1 release appearing today to fix that, and a couple other issues. The headline along those lines is sudo motion update. Check out Slack for the whole story, of course.

#GOTW: Gem of the Week

If you’re like us it’s really helpful to have a complete end-to-end example to fully get our heads around a new concept. This weeks #GOTW provides a great example where Dougatron demonstrates a proof of concept for a RubyMotion Apple Watch app to control the MagicQ (free-to-download) lighting control software which in turn is used to control the (not free) ChamSys hardware. Dougatron pulls it altogether in a nice little Vimeo video.

Inspired to channel your inner Tiësto? Check out Dougatron’s code on GitHub.

And here’s a unique bonus: the video’s soundtrack might actually trigger a couple of new music downloads for you. It certainly did with us. He includes references in the video notes should the spirit move you in that regard.

#COMM: Community

We have a few items from the #COMM this week. First up is word from none other than Apple that effective right now, all new apps and/or updates for iPhone/iPad must be built with the iOS 12.1 SDK or later. What’s more, they must support iPhone XS Max or the 12.9-inch iPad Pro (3rd generation). I guess we all knew this was coming, right? Better get updated to Mojave and Xcode 10.1 pronto!

Next, we have a great slide deck on Making CocoaPods Faster from the Ruby on Ice 2019 conference in beautiful Rottach-Egern, Germany. The presentation is from Samuel Giddens who is part of the Mobile Experience Team at Square. We particularly like one of Giddens’ bullet points in response to “Why Performance?” Because, as Sam says, “Optimization is fun!” Indeed.

Finally, don’t forget this is the second Wednesday of the month, in other words TODAY is Meetup Day. Why not join us at 7.00 PDT on Zoom (download the app ahead of time) and get to know what your RubyMotion #COMM actually sounds like.

#AHOTW: App Highlight of the Week

If you really want a case study of what #6PackApps success looks like, you need look no further than graduate Michael Portz of Universal Coaching Tools who has successfully launched the dandy UCT:StopWatch app. Michael is a certified track & field coach, so his app is a beautiful example of a high level of domain-specific expertise being married to elegant app design. Congratulations, Michael—it’s a great app and your success is hard earned and well deserved.

#TWIL: This Week I Learned

From Davor Cubranic a tweet with a link to a great resource for DotFiles startup behaviours. We’ve always known they vary, but Configuring your login sessions with dot files is a great all-in-one-place reference in this regard. Worthy of your time and attention.

That’s a Wrap

Believe it or not, that’s it for another week. Can’t stomach the thought of missing a future issue of #RMW? Then you are left with little choice other than subscribe!
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Until then…may your CocoaPods be optimized.

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