Ledger Release

After some time in review, Ledger has finally made it into the App Store.  You can find the product demonstration at www.ledgerapp.com.  Let me know what you think.

Ledger Pre-announcement

Now that the icon has been completed, all that remains is some final testing before Ledger will be published to the AppStore.  Ledger is designed as an electronic ledger and general journal.  It will require some basic accounting knowledge, but should be a very efficient application for anyone with the necessary background.  Attached are some pictures of the application for your enjoyment:

Backup to WebDAV will not be included in the first release, but is being strongly considered for 1.1.  For now, the account balances and/or journal entries can be emailed as a CSV for use in Excel or Numbers.

Please let me know if you have any thoughts and/or feature requests.

iPhone acceptance and other surprises

Running an application for the first time on an iPhone/iPod touch is truly rewarding. After months of testing in a simulator, it’s great to finally be able to build for the real device.

I spent some time with UITextFields today and thought I should share my discovery. Apparently controls that track touch movements don’t work quite right when embedded in a UIScrollView. The solution: disable scrolling on the enclosing view when making the control first responder (or right away if scrolling is not necessary). I found the solution in the UICatalog example after scanning over the source code 5 or 6 times.

iPhone acceptances

I have just been accepted into the iPhone Developer Program. Maybe my wife will let me buy my iPhone now . Stay tuned for some screenshots and screencasts of my first iPhone application.

Also, check out another application I developed with two other colleagues. I am currently working on both Hourly 1.1 and Hourly 2.0. See it at: www.hourlyapp.com

Accounting applications designed by programmers

I am now finished my first iPhone application and am getting anxious to make the official announcement.  That said, doing so before being accepted into the developer program probably isn’t the best idea.  Hint: it’s an accounting application designed with double-entry accounting theory as the foundation.

It always makes me question an accounting application’s initial design when a developer announces that the next version will support split transactions or the ability to transfer funds between accounts.  I can guarantee you that these systems were not designed by accountants.  Double-entry accounting theory gives you a data model that will let you record any and every type of transaction you will ever need.  The ideal data model in my opinion includes (at least) Line Items, Accounts and Transactions.  Each Line Item belongs to one Account and one Transaction.  Accounts and Transactions each have many Line Items.  

This complexity added by double-entry (as opposed to single-entry) accounting can be quite easily hidden from the user.  That said, this is one instance where there may be benefit in educating rather than accommodating the user…

Note: this post should make a little more sense when my announcement and the accompanying screenshots and videos are posted.  Stay tuned.

International iPhone acceptances

TUAW posted yesterday that UK developers have started receiving acceptance letters for the iPhone developer program. Hopefully Canada and the rest of the world won’t be far off. I know that a developer key and some info about syncing data with desktop systems would give me that extra push to finish my accounting application.

Cocoa Development Resources

In case anyone is looking to begin programming for the Mac or iPhone, you can find my favourite resources below.

Online resources:

• www.cocoabuilder.com
• www.cocoablogs.com
• www.cocoadev.com
• www.cocoadevcentral.com
• stevenf.com
• www.theocacao.com
• www.wilshipley.com

Books:

• Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X
• Core Animation for OS X

If anyone else has recommendations, please feel free to comment.

The iPhone SDK Effect

The day the iPhone SDK was unveiled, my head was filled with development ideas.  I was not the only one with ambitions.  Everywhere I look I see new developers (new in the never-before-programmed sense) who downloaded the SDK and have begun their work.  

When I began programming for the Mac, I spent months reading books and online tutorials, not to mention the guides and class documentation included with Xcode.  By the time I started writing my first Mac application meant for the public, I had composed thousands of lines of code for the platform.  While I still consider myself new to programming, I do consider myself competent.  Many of the developers posting to online support forums are using their iPhone applications as learning grounds for programming.  The problem rises from the intent to publish these applications.  In my opinion, development should be approached with both caution and care.

I suspect that most who have published an application understands the importance of an NDA.  As a result, well known authors and programmers are withholding advice about iPhone development and those without the experience and respect are providing it. 

To any new programmers:

Please take the time to read and learn before starting your first application.  As you should not trust everything you read on wikipedia, be cautious about the advice you get on forums.  Your work has an effect on the success of the platform.  If resources cannot be found now, wait until they are available before spending your time in Xcode.  There is plenty of published knowledge about Mac development that can be converted into iPhone experience.  If you have time to spare until June, pick up a copy of Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X.