MacTechGroup

The MacTechGroup holds meetings for Macintosh programmers on the first Wednesday of each month at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

Next Meeting:
Apr 6 2011 7:00 PM Building E51 Room 335 MIT Sloan School 


NOTE THAT OUR OFFICIAL ROOM IS 335 - but check the other rooms!!!!!

Subject: Adventures in taking over a stalled project

J. Spencer Love

I've been programming since 1969.  In the 1980s, I tutored MIT students
on object-oriented programming.  I have iPhone, iPad, and books, but still
I was having a bit of trouble taking the plunge into full iOS app
development.

A friend of mine has been working on an app, which she started in December
2009, and about which I gave some advice.  A beta was published in early
2010, but since then, her project was stalled.  She said she couldn't
figure out how to implement my proposed solution.  Actually, I think it
was her day job that ate her brain.

So I offered to take over the project.  I've been working on it for over a
month now.  Her code had...issues.  iOS didn't work the way she thought.
On the other hand, even though I'd read a bunch of documentation, it
didn't work the way I thought, either.  (Learning curve, anyone?)
Meanwhile, the advice I gave may have become obsolete with the advent of
iOS 4 -- or maybe not.

So I'll be describing some of the stuff I've learned along the way, and
also sharing with you some testbed code I wrote to figure out what was
*really* going on.  If you're fairly new at this, you'll learn something.
If not, please come anyway and shoot down my ideas!  Then I'll learn
something.

The app will have in-app purchasing, and it's sort of a book reader and
sort of a game.  I won't share some details about the app that my friend
wants to keep proprietary, but there is still plenty to talk about.  Also,
I'm looking for beta testers.  And content providers, for that matter.

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You can get a map showing building E51 at
<http://whereis.mit.edu/bin/map?oldstate=2&off.x=4620&off.y=1640&hi=bldg_e51&zoom.x=89&zoom.y=38>


The MacTechGrp always meets the first Wednesday of the month. (Sometimes I screw up the date of the notice, but it's always the first Wednesday)

You can get more information on the MacTechGrp and directions at http://www.mactechgroup.org.  Sometimes even the meeting announcements are up to date.

To contact the unindicted co-conspirator irresponsible for this group,
email owen@clipboardinc.com