Issue 35

4 September 2019

by Lori M Olson

This week we have some late breaking news. First up, a timely warning about a change in the behaviour of UIImagePickerController from Craig Hockenberry. Nasty bug, and we’ll probably have to implement the workaround if you want your apps that use it to work when iOS 13 drops. Next, we have some better news… Apple has pushed out the requirement on macOS app notarization on Catalina until January 2020. Just in case you were worried about getting that implemented in time! – wndxlori

#GOTW—Gem of the Week

We’re going to kick off #RMW035 with a kind of multimedia #GOTW: our own WNDXlori has brought the code up to date for a better toolbar that ditches all those crazy Apple constants along with all the leftovers from the long(ish) history of iOS. BetterToolbar enables the creation of toolbar items in a much more Ruby(ish) way.

But wait, there’s more: the original code was created as part of the MotionInMotion course and in particular episodes 36 and 37. So if you not only want to see the code but would also value having an expert walk you through it—Jacklyn Watson-Hamblin in this case—here’s your chance.

Oh, yes, and look for a discount on the MiM course buried somewhere in the TLDR below!

#COMM—Community

Way back in #RMW033, we featured Kate Hudson’s git-flight-rules which provided some common sense guidelines for using Git. We have something similar this week from Emmanuel Hayford who provides some common sense tips for selectively running tests with RSpec. Emmanuel has written 7 Ways to Selectively Run RSpec Tests and it’s well worth a look.

Also, may we say Emmanuel has excellent taste when it comes to selecting key images for his posts. For this one he selected a period black-and-white photo by Alex Holyoake featuring classic racing cars along with some airplanes in the background. It has a real Road-&-Track-circa-1965 feel to it and that always ticks a lot of boxes with us.

#AHOTW—App Highlight of the Week

Who hasn’t heard of Pong, right? The only real question is whether you remember it first-hand, or you heard about it from some rheumy-eyed geezer you met at the old folks home. We’re not saying which category we fit into, but suffice to say we’re as impressed as hell when you can implement all that beautiful, not-quite-of-this-world Pong physics in just 160 lines of Ruby. Much, much easier than reading endless, turbid hex dumps, for sure—but we’re not saying how we know that. Thanks to Ruby Inside for bringing this to our attention.

#DRGTK—DragonRuby Game Toolkit

This week we have another couple of great DRGTK tutorials:

The first is from Alpha and if the short screen cap which accompanies the tweet is anything to go by, the results are impressive—it’s reminiscent of old style, limited colour palette, 2D gaming from the post-Pong era.

We also have Ryan C. Gordon quickly walk us through DragonRuby Controller Configuration as a means of dealing with unrecognized joysticks in the DRGTK. It’s pretty slick and well worth the slightly more than two minutes you will have to invest watching the screencast.

#FITS—Featured in the School

The #GOTW mentioned the MotionInMotion course, so we are pleased to let you know, for a limited time, you can receive a 10% discount on the entire MiMlibrary. Later this fall it’s going to be subscription only. All you have to do is enter SEP1910OFF at checkout.

#DRSH—Dragon Riders Slack Highlights

Most noteworthy this week is an Android Update which Amir covers off with a little bit of code. You can find it on the Dragon Rider Slack team. You are a member of that, right?

#TWIL—This Week I Learned

From Sarah in Santa Clara we have the world’s shortest tutorial on the use of launchctl. It weighs in at just two (2) lines of code—in fact, many fewer characters than it required to bring it to your attention here. Then again, what Sarah provides is likely all you really need to know. Thanks, Sarah, your succinctness is an example to us all.

That’s a Wrap!

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Until next time…heigh ho, it’s back to school we go!

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