Side Project Spotlight

This week, the trio celebrates their podcast mid-life crisis by discussing a concept coined by Daniel Steinberg in a 2022 talk, "Packaged Oriented Programming." How do you organize your app using Swift Package Manager packages? What are the benefits and costs? There is also some discussion on dealing with JSON API changes, using Codable vs DTOs, and strategies for caching external package dependencies for the longterm. Be sure to stay until the end where Kotaro engages in some live "prompt engineering" with Chat GPT that generates some impressively bad jokes.

## Topics Discussed

- Mid-life crisis episode

- Are we buying the rumored AR headset?

- PickleJarTodo / LazyGrids are cool!

- Package Oriented Programming

- Previews and Package Oriented Programming

- Daniel Steinberg

- CocoaHeadsNL, Do iOS 2022

- https://youtu.be/_5uBJeJVUm0

- Why?

- How?

- How many frameworks per SPM?

- Codable/Decodable/Encodable/DTO

- Dealing with JSON API changes

- Unit testing

- Project organization

- Circular dependencies

- Assets/Resources

- Apple Food Truck example

- Caching SPMs for the future

- https://www.sonatype.com/products/sonatype-nexus-repository

- Swift Package Index

- https://swiftpackageindex.com

- Be mindful of importing dependencies

- Wrap-Up

- Chat GPT Prompting for Jokes!

Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

This week, Steve engages in a little "proompt engineering" with Bing, we bring back our Not a Sponsor segment to share how impressed we are with Clip Dish, and then we discuss the topic that all Apple dev podcasts must tackle at least once, "going indie." We focus on some of the logistics like whether you should use a company App Store account, how important it is to get an accountant, and ideas on revenue models, the special challenges of being an indie game dev, and end with some advice on getting started consulting. This is a perennial topic in PhillyCocoa and we only scratch the surface of the areas of discussion, but hopefully you'll get some utility from what we do discuss, especially if you are thinking of starting an indie app business or consultancy for the first time yourself.

Topics Discussed:

- Introductions

- “Proompt Engineering” with Bing

- PickleJarTodo Update

- SwiftUI Grid is cool!

- Not a Sponsor: GetClipDish.com

- Main Topic: Going Indie

- Slopes

- Fin Timer

- RECaf

- Going Indie Discussion

- Consider a Company Developer Account (e.g. LLC)

- Get an accountant!

- Create separate bank account!

- Understanding budget and runway!

- Revenue timing

- e.g. seasonal sticker packs

- Revenue Models

- One Time Purchase

- In App Purchase

- Subscriptions

- Apple App Store Small Business Program

- Focus on a project

- What About Games?

- Consulting

- General Liability Insurance

- One option is Hiscox, but look around based on your needs.

- How much to charge?

- Charge to your ability

- Once you have your first gig, you can grow prices

- How to find your first client?

- Networking!

*Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.*

This week, the trio wonder about the nature of a “sprint” and Steve takes his first tentative steps into whatever circle of Hell is reserved for Jira. The three amigos then revisit the topic of “AI” tools since this space is moving at warp speed. Kotaro and Steve talk about their experiences with ChatGPT and Bing before discussing some of the machine learning tools already available from Apple. Kotaro talks about diffusion model image workflows and the concerns of visual artists. Then Aaron tells us to wrap things up after some final discussion about generative art and how to adapt to this brave new world taking shape around us.

Topics Discussed:

- Introductions

- PickleJarTodo Update

- Tinder-like swipe gesture updated

- What’s a default sprint look like?

- Tangent: AI Tinder

- Next: Onboarding/preview data so we have a full experience with sprints

- Jira & Enterprise Apps

- AI Part Duex

- OpenAI ChatGPT

- Building a ChatGPT macOS Toolbar App Using SwiftUI

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6SMV_TUOJk

- Code snippets

- Bing Chat

- Microsoft Copilot

- Apple’s existing APIs

- Vision Framework

- CreateML/CoreML

- Diffusion model workflows

- Corridor Crew Anime techniques

- Visual Artists’ concerns

- Generative art via shaders

- Wrap-up

Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

This week, Steve makes progress building a log screen, but not without encountering obstacles.  Then the trio dives into a discussion about how we learn. What works for us, what doesn't, what are good resources? It's a content-rich episode full of tips, some possibly questionable anecdotes, a dash of philosophy, and so, so many links. It's a little haphazardly presented, but that's just our charm!

Topics Discussed:

- PickleJarTodo Update

    - https://getslopes.com

- How to Learn 

    - Books vs Articles

        - https://bignerdranch.com

        - https://www.swiftbysundell.com

        - https://www.hackingwithswift.com

        - https://designcode.io

        - https://www.kodeco.com (formerly Ray Wenderlich)

        - https://practicalcoredata.com

    - Videos

        - https://www.youtube.com/@azamsharp

        - https://www.youtube.com/@EngineeringwithUtsav

        - https://www.youtube.com/@Kavsoft

        - https://www.youtube.com/@iOSAcademy

        - https://developer.apple.com/videos/

        - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/apple-developer/id640199958

    - Mentorship/Meetups

        - http://phillycocoa.org

    - Apps

        - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/interactful/id1528095640

        - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fabula-for-swiftui/id1591155142

        - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/libraried-ui-components/id1642862540

        - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/judo-design-and-build-apps/id1564578427

    - Coding

        - Contracting

        - Side Projects

        - Game Jams

- Tangent: Comics and Anime

- Final Words about Learning

    - Find what works for you!

    - How to Take Smart Notes, Sönke Ahrens

        - https://www.soenkeahrens.de/en/takesmartnotes

    - Learn multiple programming languages

    - Learn from Mike Zornek

        - https://mikezornek.com

- State of the Mobile Union Announcement!

    - http://phillycocoa.org/blog/state-of-the-mobile-union/

    - March 22, 6-8pm at Comcast Technology Center

On this exciting episode, incremental progress has been made with PickleJarTodo! I know, you're in awe at our productivity. But, the bulk of the episode is a semi-literate discussion about the latest crop of "AI" tools and their potential impact on our discipline of software development. From the current crop of tools like ChatGPT and CoPilot to potential uses in designer/developer collaboration and even full app generation, this discussion is preliminary, but interesting, and we will surely revisit the topic in the future as we gain knowledge and experience in the space.

Topics Discussed:

- PickleJarTodo Update

    - SwiftLint for TODO warnings

    - Core Data model relationships

- AI and Software Development

    - Azam testing blog post (testing is about confidence)

        - https://azamsharp.com/2023/02/15/testing-is-about-confidence.html

    - Generating code via Figma-like app

    - Apple and AI tools

Steve's voice is back...like 95%! Tune in this week for an update about PickleJarTodo where, as usual, we quickly go off the rails into a classic Kotaro rant about JIRA! We also have some discussion about the perennial SwiftUI issue, integrating Core Data. Plus, some pros and cons we have found trying to use GitHub Projects and we end by setting some semi-realistic goals for next time!

Topics Discussed:

- PickleJarTodo Update

    - Side Projects Can Help Day Job Projects

    - GitHub Projects Tickets

        - Kotaro Rants About JIRA Slowness. 🤣

        - GitHub Projects Discussion

    - Core Data is Our Nemesis

    - Core Data design patterns in SwiftUI

- Next:

    - Kotaro: Wire up UI components

    - Steve: Core Data Model layer CRUD

    - Aaron: Layout review sections/settings

Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

Steve lives! The trio is back this week and while Steve still sounds like a frog has taken up residence in his throat, the show must go on! In this episode, we discuss the plan for the next few months, make some goals, assign some tasks, and go off on tangents about Apple backends, Disney World weirdness, and the awesomeness of the Ren Faire. New year, new plan! Let's gooooooo!

## Topics Discussed:

- Steve lives!

- Plan to finish PickleJar MVP

    - Why the PickleJar name?

    - Time management with a 9 to 5

    - 2023 Timeline

- Tangent: Apple Backend Woes

- Plan to finish PickleJar MVP (2)

    - Timeline

    - Capacities

    - Update GitHub Project Todos

- Tangent: Disney World & Ren Faire

- Outro

Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

Steve is still recovering from some bad laryngitis and we should be back to our regular schedule next podcast. In the meantime, Kotaro provides some quick updates about the pod, the app, and his personal goals for the new year. Stay to the end to hear examples of what our future robot overlords consider developer "jokes." Welcome to 2023! We hope you build some cool stuff this year.

## Topics Discussed:

- Podcast update

- PickleJar update

- Personal developer goals for the new year

    - Better understand how to build Mac apps.

    - Improve my skills at shaders.

    - Get into Godot more.

- ChatGPT "Jokes"

Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.

It's the final episode of 2022! This week, Steve is solo as he puts on his best "podcast voice" to talk about his personal journey to embracing SwiftUI over the last year. See you in 2023!

## Topics Discussed:

- Steve's journey to embracing SwiftUI

   - WWDC22 turning point

   - Integrating SwiftUI and UIKit

   - Living the SwiftUI Preview lifestyle

   - Greenfield app prototyping with SwiftUI

   - Better cross-platform collaboration with SwiftUI

   - Feeling re-invigorated about Apple app development

Intro music: "When I Hit the Floor", © 2021 Lorne Behrman. Used with permission of the artist.