S03E26 – Sideways
Good morning 👋
I was excited last week about getting back on Appy Weather, but it was a slug. I’m currently working on the module that generates a summary for an hourly range, such as on the Later card in the current version’s Timeline. Unlike v1, I’m trying to avoid spaghetti code that makes maintenance and iteration a pain. The architecture needs to be both generic and extensible. And to meet these requirements, it feels like I need to keep coding. Every day consists of several unexpected detours that result in iteration that on reflection brings me closer to the final design but never feels that way during. Although I wasn’t happy at the end of any day this week, I knew I was at least one day closer to the finish. It wasn’t the progress I envisioned at the start of the day, but it was progress nevertheless. This was a reassuring consolation.
Being a 2.0, the engineering focus is primarily to facilitate a better UX. The summaries need to be smarter and therefore more helpful. For example, the app is now aware of the different times of day (overnight, morning, afternoon, evening, night), and that they each can be broken down to (early, mid, late). Weather in every phase is analysed, patterns detected, inconsistencies noted and a summary generated. As a proof of concept, I’ve nailed it. But I’m still not there yet when it comes to determining the best way to approach the analysis to return the best possible summary. This would an easier task if I didn’t need to factor in localisation, as the proposed string format needs to consider that the sequencing of information can be re-arranged. But with my experience, I realise that I’m usually closest to a breakthrough just when I can’t see a way out. In other words, I’m optimistic next week will bring it home.
Have a great Sunday!
Best,
Bardi