Tag Archives: iOS

Don’t Let Small Things Stop You From Making Progress.

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This one is coming from my own recent experience. I am working on a remake of one of my popular apps – Time Clock Helper. I have some of the basic parts working, but I wanted to add the ability to add multiple punches. The original app could only use four punches at a time with an option to turn off either pair of them. There were some issues with SwiftUI and deleting the punches, but I managed to come up with a work around for that.

The problem that slowed me down over the last few days – to the point that I didn’t really want to look at it until I had an answer was how to handle deleting punches. I originally allowed them to delete any punches they wanted, but that caused some minor issues with my work around for SwiftUI. So, to avoid that issue, I made the first and last punch permanent. That worked well and the user could add and remove punches at will.

The only problem is that it didn’t fully make sense. Why were the punches you added always in the middle and not simply at the end? I struggled with this idea. I liked that idea that the initial punch in, and the final punch out would always be kept in place. But, would that make sense to someone other than myself? I wasn’t so sure about that.

But, today I decided to just leave that problem alone for now and move onto other parts of the app. As I was plugging away, it suddenly became obvious. It was so obvious that I am cringing as I write this – get rid of “Add Punch” and change it to “Add Break.” Boom. Problem solved. A few seconds of coding later I fixed an issue that had been bothering me for days.

If I had simply been able to ignore the small issue and move on a few days ago, I probably would have found the solution days ago and not wasted so much time. Oddly, I thought of this topic earlier today when I didn’t yet have a solution. I was simply going to write about how I ignored the small problems and was able to make progress on my program in spite of the issue. But, I guess I proved my own point in a better way that I would have expected.

Between Dates – Another App Spotlight.

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Since it’s the end of the month is a time that people tend to focus on dates, I thought I’d spotlight another app of mine: Between Dates.

Between Dates was written at a time that I was regularly calculating dates and the number of days between various dates on the calendar. The app has gained several features over the years, but it still retains its original functions in a way that doesn’t force the user to search through menus or screens.

The main part of the app is on the top. You set two dates using the picker wheel on the bottom and the app will calculate the number of days, weeks, months and years between those two dates. It will also tell you if the selected day is one of the holidays that are preprogrammed into the app and the day of the week that is represented.

The other handy features are the ability to add or subtract days from the selected date or two set both dates to the same date. These features were part of the original app and made my life a lot easier. At some point I needed to know how many days were between the dates and then I needed to add that many dates to the end date to figure out the next time I had to do a task. Using these buttons, you would set the date and copy it to both dates and then add the number of days you needed. That will give you your final date. You can easily continue to do this. It saved me a ton of time trying to count days on a calendar, or attempt to do the math manually.

There weren’t too many apps did what this had done at the time, and as far as I can tell there still aren’t many with all of the features this app contains. It is an app that I am proud of. It has a clean look, easy to use features and none of them get in the way of what the user is trying to do.

It also lets you save the dates you selected so you can recall them later. I used this occasionally to remember birthdays, or to calculate what anniversary it might be that year. You can easily find out how long you were working at a certain job, or working on a project. You can also calculate when you need to pick up medicine, custody agreements, or even just figure out what day of the week something happened.

There is something for everyone in the app.

A Focus Switch…

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Since a new year started today, I decided that this page should change it’s focus a bit. I still love rubber ducks and most things ducky, but the focus is going to change to my actual work. I have been a programmer from almost as far back as I can remember (somewhat before my teenage years). In 2015, I decided to become a full time developer. I formed Ducky Planet LLC and developed and published multiple iOS apps. Many of the links on the top of this page will take you to the individual app pages if you would like to see them.

So, what does this change of focus mean? It means that starting today this page is going to focus on app development. My plan is to write a post each day about whatever comes to mind on that day. It could be anything development related from an app that I developed to a new trick that I might have learned. This in turn has the potential to help others on the same journey as I am, but more importantly it forces me to focus on app development each day.

I suspect the topic of focus is one that will be returned to regularly since it is the most difficult struggle when you are working on your own. I have plenty of ideas, but the motivation to start a new project isn’t always easy. Hopefully, this blog will help with that motivation to pursue new projects in order to come up with ideas for new posts.

Over the last couple of months I have focused more on learning new things, along with finding ways to make better use of the tools I already have. I am sure some of that will be of interest to others along the way so I will share many of them as time goes on.

But, for now. Welcome to Ducky Planet’s new focus. I hope you find it of interest and stick around!

Don