SpriteKit: Shaders and Geometry
In this post we explore two advanced SpriteKit techniques (for both iOS and macOS): fragment shaders and geometry deformations. Demo Swift code available on GitHub.
Sound of Silence
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SpriteKit Shatter Effect
This post will demonstrate a simple technique for exploding a single 2D sprite into smaller pieces and includes example Swift code.
Audible Xcode Breakpoints
Xcode provides sound-based breakpoints which can be a useful debugging tool, but the default sounds are somewhat limited. This post introduces a custom collection of Xcode breakpoint sounds and also some tips on using them.
SpriteKit Text Disintegration
Recently I wanted to create an effect in Apple's SpriteKit in which text nodes would disintegrate. In this post I'll describe how the effect was implemented and some of the earlier approaches which didn't pan out.
SceneKit: Deformable Terrain
This article explores an example implementation of deformable, morphable 3D terrain using Apple's SceneKit framework with custom geometry.
Xcode: Quick Look Anything
Xcode's Quick Look debug tool adds a convenient way to inspect objects while debugging your apps. However, not all objects will be listed in Xcode's debug area. Here's how you can Quick Look any memory address.
Modal Windows with AFNetworking
If you're presenting a modal window on macOS while using AFNetworking, you might be surprised when your requests vanish into thin air. No timeouts, no errors - no result at all.
Working From Home Is Hard
I've now had the opportunity of being a full-time remote engineer for nearly 3 years. This post summarizes some of the challenges I've encountered, and related strategies for them.
Introducing: GIFPop! v0.9
GIFPop is a simple and free animated GIF editor for the Mac, written in Swift. It is a minimal UI wrapper for gifsicle.
Web Service Speed Tests with curl
Recently I wanted to test the time to first byte of a REST web service. As it turns out, curl works really well for this using the -w flag.
Text Messages from Xcode
Many tasks in Xcode can be quite time consuming: cleaning & rebuilding, UI testing, unit testing. Wouldn't it be convenient if you could step away and have Xcode send you a text message when it finished? This tutorial will walk you through a simple setup for automated Xcode text messages.
Xcode 7 UI Testing Tips and Gotchas
With Xcode 7, Apple has added integrated support for automated UI testing. I recently tried adding UI test cases to an app and what I thought would be a relatively simple task of recording some clicks and keystrokes and tossing in a few asserts quickly became a multi-day tumble down a rabbit hole of bugs, Xcode quirks, and headaches. This article will introduce some basic UI testing concepts, as…
NSView control-click quirks
Yesterday I came across an interesting AppKit issue, reproducible in OS X 10.10 (but this has been around since at least 10.7). On the Mac, most users expect a control-click to behave identically to a right-click, and display a contextual menu.
Hands on with the GoPro Hero 4 Session
I finally gave in to temptation and bought a camera to mount on my helmet. I bought the "latest and greatest", the Go Pro Hero 4 Session. For purchases of this sort I'm typically quite methodical: reading reviews, comparing models, etc. I regret not doing that in this case, because my experience with the Hero 4 Session was ultimately a disappointment.