Issue 90

4 August 2021

by Lori M Olson

OPED — Lori’s Unvarnished Opinion

I’m Not a Designer

I’ve heard this a lot. I can’t create an app because I’m not a designer.

I’m calling bullshit.

I’d like you to go and look at a few of the most popular apps on your phone and then do a little Google search on what the first version of that app actually looked like. I can guarantee that 95% of those apps looked like ASS for their first version. And why is that? Because the developers were more focussed on HOW THE APP FUNCTIONED and not how it looked.

And that’s what you need to focus on for the first version of your app—functionality. So don’t tell me about how you aren’t a designer—just get out there and create your app.

FITS — Featured in the School

The Model-View-Controller pattern is likely familiar to most Rails developers. But did you know there are equivalents in RubyMotion development? In fact, The WNDX School has you covered for all three, with a course dedicated to each: Models are covered in Core Data In Motion; Views in RubyMotion Query In Depth and you can learn about Controllers in View Controllers in RubyMotion. Sign up for any and all today.

You probably noticed recently that something new had shown up in the DragonRuby Dispatch email. Yep, discrete sponsored spots like this! We are strictly limiting that to just two per email. So, if you have a DragonRuby-related product or service you would like to get in front of well over 1200 raving DragonRuby-istas, please get in touch...we would love to help you get the word out! Sponsored

SPOT — Spotlight On…

Okay, okay we know…this is Python. What’s that doing in a DragonRuby newsletter? Well, it turns out it’s also a pretty good static code formatter for DragonRuby docs, all in a couple of gists: one for the readme (on the left) and one for the Python code itself as shown below on the right).

In the last issue of DragonRuby Dispatch, we brought you news of Blockly, a Lego-like (seriously) approach to putting together code. Absent a DragonRuby-specific version, the illustrative example to which we pointed readers was Blockly2Ruby.

Of course, it goes without saying that DragonBlocks was released mere minutes after hitting the publish key on the previous issue. In any event, take a look and see what you think. We like what we see!

TALK — Talk of the Tech

We haven’t mentioned this in a while so it bears repeating that Talk in this context is not just some loose metaphor, but rather a means of describing the two primary chat spaces available to DragonRuby-istas: the first is where you can find most of the game-related chat: Discord. For everything else, you can usually find some scintillating repartee in Slack. We try to feature an item from each, in each issue and we highly recommend you join both groups.

From Slack, this time ‘round, there is news of RubyMotion 7.20 being released. Over on Discord, word is Kevin Fischer has released Part 6 of his Roguelike tutorial.

GAME — All Things Gaming

Honestly, we are not trying to go out of our way to not feature DragonRuby code, but there’s another example that while not in DR, is still very cool particularly for those who prefer virtual reality rather than real reality: Doom VR. It’s also kinda cool that it’s from a local (as in Calgary, Alberta) developer: Red Iron Labs.

APP — All Things App

Anybody out there want to ‘ask not what the community can do for you, but what you can do for the community’? If so, here’s a great little project for you: adding support for UIImage’s new constructor, using system images, to BubbleWrap. Thanks to our friend Paul ‘Two Straws’ Hudson who gave us a heads up in a tweet from a while back.

Do you have a newsletter content crunch? Don't have the time or desire to write a compelling tech newsletter your readers will actually read right through to the end? Intellog can help. And they have a special offer on right now: they will curate and write your first issue of your newsletter for free. Find out more. Sponsored

TWIL — This Week I Learned…

OK, we’ll admit it. We haven’t closed a browser tab since the waning days of the Clinton administration. You just never know when you’re going to need them, right? Actually, it’s not that but rather we’re just too damned lazy to go through a jillion tabs and close them all. That was until Sommer Panage’s tweet where she mentions how to close every tab to the left (or right) of your current tab. It was no exaggeration when she said her “life shall never be the same”.

For our part, we say “what she said”.

HAHA — And They All Laughed

What’s Cassidy Williams doing when she’s not busy directing developer experience for Netlify? Making funny little videos: this one riffs on the apocryphal stat that two-out-of-three-developers don’t know what the hell they’re doing.

That’s a Wrap!

The world’s best DragonRuby newsletter can be delivered to you—at least it will be if you subscribe! Follow the WNDX School on Facebook, and don’t forget to follow WNDXLori on Twitter and Instagram.

If you enjoyed this issue of the DragonRuby Dispatch, please forward to a friend and ask them to subscribe, too…we really appreciate it!

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

RubyMotion Weekly brought to you by