Mobile
Asset Catalogs: Love Em or Leave Em?
I’ve never been to a WWDC, but each year I get positively gitty when the session videos become available. And what do I get the most excited about? No, not Passbook, iCloud, or the big-ticket stuff. No, I like the small stuff. The simple stuff. The stuff that improves my day-to-day and fixes things I constantly find annoying.
This year, that something was Asset Catalogs.
Why Asset Catalogs? Well, simple. Ever since we got the iPhone 4 in all it’s retina glory, I’ve always found it frustrating to manage keeping TWO versions of every graphic. (The original and it’s double-resolution version.) There’s so much monotony in it:
- I need to keep all the files paired together in Xcode, in the right order. (Partly due to OCD, partly due to basic organization.)
- I need to make sure they’re both named EXACTLY the same.
- If I want to rename an image, I GOTTA DO IT TWICE.
- I hate how much space it takes up on the Project Navigator when the folders inevitably all expand.
- I need to make sure the @2x is exactly twice the dimensions of the original. (Designers always flub this.)
Sadly, Asset Catalogs don’t fix #5, but they do help us a ton with the other four, and hey, that ain’t bad! Still, not all is rosy in a catalogued world, so let’s take a look, shall we?
Tutorial: Using RaptureXML Like A Pro!
In a world with evolving data formats such as YAML and JSON, it’s remarkable how much we still use XML, but what’s even more remarkable is just how bad the XML parser offerings are for iOS. Whether you use the native NSXMLParser stuff or any of the many third-party frameworks, you’re forced to write a […]
Getting Started with Mogenerator
NOW UPDATED FOR XCODE 5 If you’re an iOS developer using Core Data in your app, whether a n00b or expert, you should be using Mogenerator. I mean, really, you *should* be using it. If you don’t, well don’t worry, I’m not only going to tell you why you need it, I’m including a tutorial […]
Introducing WebImageView
As a big fan of SDWebImage, I was both shocked and dismayed that the Android world had no such component. If you’re not familiar, SDWebImage is an iOS UIImageView extension that lets you set Web URL’s and have them automatically loaded and cached for better performance later. Often, a developer can get away with their […]
John Blanco
I've been writing mobile apps professionally for 10 years: Blackberry, Java, ME, iPhone, Android. I've gotten dozens of apps into the various App Stores for dozens of clients, big and small.
My current specialty is in iOS and Xamarin development. If you need an app written at a fixed price or just need a hourly developer to give a boost to your current team, I might be your guy.
Let's make an app!