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Tuesday, 10 February 2009 23:40 |
Releasing an application does not only mean to develop it. As you go further and further, you find that more and more tasks have to be completed before coming to the final release. Being the only one to work and with a 8 hours a day job surely makes everything harder than usual, but beside being tiring it is also funny.
The development of MacZone project has ended a month and half ago, but I'm still not able to release it. I spent the last period designing the icons and redesigning the website. Something has still to be done, but I'm satisfied with the result. I'm not a designer (yet...), but I'm proud to have been able to do all these design tasks by myself, including xhtml and css. You will see it online when I will release the app.
But alas, I have some more things to take care of. I have to write down a user manual. It won't be a long one, because the app is fairly simple to use, but it must be done, and it must be made well. I have to set up the payment system (even if I already did this for Startrail, it is not straightforward. Moreover I need to fix it so you people do not have to wait for their browser to return here). I also have to implement a new system to track downloads of my applications for statistical purposes. There is also the app beta testing, but I need to have almost all the rest set up to be able to follow it properly.
Things have to be done, one after another, and I have to tell you that this is not easy. But also that I will do them, as it is required, wthout complaining. So stay tuned.
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Sunday, 18 January 2009 09:25 |
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I finally finished writing code for my project. All the features needed for the first release are now there. I began testing and I had some performance issues. Some of them are now resolved, while some others are not and I'm still investigating on them.
The next step is icon design and website redesign. I'm trying to do everything by myself, even if I'm not an experienced web designer. I'm following some good tutorials. If the final result will not be satisfying I will hire a good designer, but I want to give it a try first, because it is something I would like to do by myself.
In the meanwhile I opened a new personal blog. If you are interested on knowing more about me, you can find it here . New readers are always welcome. |
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Saturday, 27 December 2008 06:53 |
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The code refactoring of the Maczone project is finally complete. It took a while, but less than I thought, so I'm quite happy. In the process, 2600+ lines (on a total of 7000+) were deleted and the remaining ones were almost rewritten, all without losing functionality and even adding some. This was possible thanks to new Leopard technologies (the new collection view played a big role, for those who know what I'm speaking of, even with its still buggy implementation) and also thanks to the redesign of the user interface, I made to the app, to better suit the purpose of the program.
But... what purpose? I know probably you are still wondering. Well, I think that I still can't give you a hint on what the program will do, because I think it will still take a while to complete (last features, icon design, testing, website redesign and better incorporation). I'm a little scared it this around, as every developer (well, every person with a business idea) has always a little bit of fear (justified or not) revealing his ideas before they are implemented. Living in the Apple world does not help in this sense, seeing how much secretive Apple is. As they say, though, "ideas are a dime a dozen", what counts is not the idea itself but how it will be made. But still this is an idea around which no app has been built till now, so I'm not feeling about revealing it until it is complete.
So now I'm finally free to go back adding functionality and innovations instead of rewriting existing ones. This gives me new excitement, because the idea of redoing what was already done was not very attractive, even if highly necessary, due to a heavy misconception at design time (I was doing it with another person and I learned a lesson: never took other's ideas for granted, but always question each one of them). I hope it will be a great app. So stay tuned to know more about its progress.
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Tuesday, 25 November 2008 03:25 |
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The code refactoring of MacZone Project is proceeding steadily. A lot of code has been stripped out and a lot will be. without losing any functionality and sometimes adding some more. This is a good thing, as any programmer can tell you, because less code means less errors to fix, less code to mantain and read, and so less boring work, giving space to features and creativity (I will give more precise data on this when I'm finished with refactoring). The app interface has been heavily redesigned, because it featured useless functionality due to poor planning in the design phase. But it has not come to completion (controls are still scattered around, they will converge toward their final positions when all elements will have been implemented and I will have a clearer view of it as a whole). I'm dealing with the last big features refactoring. I'm not telling I'm near the app completion, using previous metrics I can tell I'm at 70% of overall development (it helped the new MacBook I was finally able to get). After the refactoring phase, a long but necessary work, some more features need to be implemented. Then there will be icons design issues, testing, beta testing (more on this later) and also this website will undergo a (light or heavy, I don't know), redesign. Plus there is the need of a better corporation and economic definition (Italy is a vary bad country to make business). You will have to wait, and I know that waiting is not good, but I want to give life to a high quality application with a good user experience and support, and this takes time.
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