If you’re downloading a file with widely-recognized lossy compression, your user’s cellular provider may interfere with it. This has always been true of internet connections; I first ran into this with dialup years ago. But it went away for a while with broadband, is back with wireless. The simplest example is a JPEG. You may… Continue reading Wireless proxies may re-compress your files
Author: Steve
AFNetworking: a well managed open source project
Last week, I talked about Networking using NSURLConnection. In a future post, I’m going to talk about how to use AFNetworking. But first, I wanted to talk about why you should trust AFNetworking as a project in your project. I haven’t been using github for long. That said, AFNetworking is the best-managed git project I’ve… Continue reading AFNetworking: a well managed open source project
Using blocks to handle errors
In the past, I’ve talked about Using blocks to remove redundancy. But now I want to explain the pattern I’ve adopted since, which is my favorite block pattern of all. Even though it, too, is all about removing redundancy: handling errors. Although Objective-C supports exceptions, they’re not commonly used. A thrown exception is usually not… Continue reading Using blocks to handle errors
Networking using NSURLConnection
In a previous article, I mentioned how to handle 302/303 redirects to web services. But that’s a fairly advanced topic, and we should have built up to that. What I’m going to cover: The basics of networking using NSURLConnection, part of Apple’s Foundation framework. What I’m not going to cover: How to determine if a… Continue reading Networking using NSURLConnection
Don’t write new apps that target iOS 4
So you’re writing your first iPhone app. Welcome! But which version of iOS should you target? This is pretty simple. There’s very little reason not to write for iOS 5.0.
Automatic Reference Counting
If you’re an application developer: Yes, you should use Automatic Reference Counting (ARC).
Handling 302/303 redirects
If you try to POST to a web API using NSURLConnection that redirects you using a 302 or 303 redirect, you’ll fall over to a GET request. This is intentional, but you can override it.
Use a Build Phase to validate XML
My application includes some XML files that are used while running to map data from a web service. This has drastically simplified the code I needed to write to parse data from the web service, since I can describe how to decode all of the types of object the web service interacts with simply. If… Continue reading Use a Build Phase to validate XML
Creativity is not a product of thinking
Who I am is the sum of many parts. More than my mind wants me to believe. There’s a part of me that’s capable of problem solving, of creativity, of insight. My mind is the part of me that questions things. It’s my inner critic. It does most of the talking in my head. Mostly,… Continue reading Creativity is not a product of thinking
I’ve changed my mind about Xcode snapshots
In the recent past, I’ve mocked Xcode’s snapshots. They were sluggish and not especially reliable. I’d like to say they were inefficient, too, but the truth is that they were so slow and so unreliable I never bothered to find out. Recent versions of Xcode have been a lot better. I’m not sure when archives… Continue reading I’ve changed my mind about Xcode snapshots