S02E12 – ALL in
Last week on Third Culture Letters
Bardi is about to restart work on the iOS version of Appy Weather when Apple announce iOS 14 widgets must be written in a UI framework unsupported by the tech stack he’s used to build Appy Weather.
Good morning 👋
Recently I had a whole day to myself after my wife and kid went to a friend’s for a sleepover. Pizza ordered, I was ready to dive into Swift. Instant chemistry. No awkward silences. This wasn’t your typical first date. Things were settled. When you know, you just know. Ironically, shortly afterwards, the Xamarin team announce it’s now possible to incorporate Swift UI widgets into our Xamarin apps. Sorry, we were on a break.
I might be way off, but I actually think there’s a remote possibility that I may be able to finish the app sooner in Swift, despite needing to restart from scratch, than if I were to continue my work using Xamarin. Throw in how I can have a presence on iPad and Watch without a significant effort, then it becomes a no contest. That said, there is one big negative to going down this path and that’s the fact the Android version for all intents and purposes becomes another app – no code will be shared between the two platforms i.e. any changes in one need to be duplicated in another. This will be painful but I’m confident I can make it work without causing one platform to suffer neglect.
In general, Appy Weather’s codebase is mature enough that for the app to go where I want it to, it’s perhaps wise that it gets a re-write first. So, I’m looking at the iOS version’s development being used as a springboard to re-write the Android version in parallel almost (negative = positive). Can’t wait to get started.
Have a great Sunday!
Best,
Bardi