Or more specifically, “Wrote an app for Android; Bought my first Mac; Wrote another app for iOS and Android.”
App development is a time-consuming, minutely detailed process, and there is little time for pause.
| Mar 29 | First Flutter mobile app approved for Closed Testing in the Google Play Store. |
| Apr 22 | First interview for a Flutter Developer position (knowingly premature—but a part of learning). Walked through an hour-long presentation of my app development. In the end, they asked twice about iOS development, but I’ve never owned a Mac. |
| May 14 | My first Mac arrives—a refurbished 16″ MBP direct from Apple. |
| Jul 30 | Second reminder app approved and marked as “Ready for Sale” in the Apple App Store (although it’s free). |
| Aug 1 | Second reminder app approved for Closed Testing in the Google Play Store. |
| Aug 4 | First app released to Google Play Store. Second app released to both app stores (store links provided below). |
Simple Reminders
As referenced in my Hello Suite and Architectural Challenges posts, I began work on what I hope to be a collection of simple reminder apps (free, and ad-free).
As a part of that collection, each reminder app has its own reminder purpose. However, the purpose of the apps themselves was not the point of creating the apps. Although they may well prove useful to someone, the selection of the reminder topics were for simplicity, so time could be spent focused more on the continued learnings of Flutter, and the design of the overall ‘shared app’ strategy.
Pilot App
The pilot app for the collection is named Hungry on Hand. Its primary ‘reminder purpose’ is to help folks keep track of snacks or beverages they have on hand. The simplicity of this app’s purpose served to get me through the architectural hurdles I faced, while at the same time tying it to my own custom-built back-end API.
This first app was also designed and built with the concept of it housing a shell that would be used as a core for the other apps in the collection (e.g., no hard-coding, and everything should be modular).
Second Pilot
The second reminder app took me to whole new levels of learning with Flutter, as I faced many more challenges and a lot of lightbulbs. For example, this app added a 3rd-level screen, which required a new approach to a variety of design considerations such as better navigation control.
I learned a variety of iOS styles, Cupertino-specific widgets, and lessons. One such lesson is to not use Drawers. Another is to not use the CupertinoPageScaffold if you plan on using a SnackBar (as the bounty I put up on Stack Overflow helped me to understand).
First Mac
I currently have no opinions as of yet between my career-long relationship with Windows, and my newfound knowledge of the Mac.
I can say that relearning keystrokes was not at the top of my list of things to be learning, which I resolved with the help of two different software setups (I can elaborate if anyone is curious). With those in place, I’ve gotten into a good flow in working between my dated MSI and my new MBP, and so far they’ve worked fairly well together. Currently, the Mac does everything WRT coding and builds, and the MSI is used for everything else.
App Availability
- Hungry on Hand: Google Play Store
- B4-I-Go: Google Play Store | Apple App Store
Next Up!
The third app in the reminder collection will be used as a base for me to learn more about Firebase, and maybe BLoC (if applicable). I aim for it to be complete within two months, and although I will be pushing for less than one, I suppose it could take three—I have no idea how many more learning challenges I may encounter.
My aim and hope is to eventually be able to help find solutions and create productive apps for a small to medium-sized company.
Until then, another app awaits creation, and I’ve got a database to design and more methodologies to learn!
Happy coding!
– Keith | https://keithdc.com
Keith D Commiskey
https://keithdc.com