nofltr Developer Diary

[rainless]

(I guess I can put this here... No one's going to read it.)

I was already pretty far along in the development when when my friend Gary suggested I do it in something like Unity so that I'd only have to make the app once. This was only a few years ago (though I guess it's going to be more like 7 years ago soon...) and the term "Native Application" wasn't in common usage yet. Back then, by and large, ALL apps were "native applications." If Flutter was around back then... I hadn't heard of it. I only knew about Unity because I'd done a little work on some of Gary's games.

Like most things me-related... nofltr began with a sense of outrage. The reason why Instagram is so heavily censored is because the guy that founded it wasn't a real photographer. In order to have nudity (which is just as essential a core component of photography as it is for painting and sculpture) on iOS and Androids app stores... he'd have had to have made Instagram 17 and older. And he didn't want to miss out on all that teenager money. So the decision to censor Instagram, from the beginning, was purely financial. He didn't care about the art of photography. (As the world would find out a little later... he didn't care about ANYTHING. When he sold-out to Mark Zuckerberg for A BILLION DOLLARS... he threw an $18,000 party... but didn't give his small staff of 10-20 people a dime.

At least that's the way I remember it.

So I was constantly angered at the detriment this caused to an entire generation of photographers. But, on a professional level, I was even more disappointed at Instagram on a technical level. They had aimed low and hit a jackpot. There will almost certainly never be an iPad version of Instagram because of the little square photos and the low resolutions that it started with.

To put it short... I was one of the thousands of know-it-alls that figured I could do it better.

After I got sick with yet another mystery illness on New Years Eve 2017... I opened my MacBook and started doing it better.

Commencing the Android version in Java was a no-brainer. I'd had it in mind, for a few years at that point, to make an Android app for Sony mirrorless cameras, and though I'd stopped and started it a few times, I could never find the time.

Now, sick in bed with nothing else to do, I just ripped the guts out of my Sony app and began turning it into nofltr.

This didn't come from nowhere... I'd been programming all my life going back to the old BBS days. I was one of the first independent people to make apps for iPhone and I even taught a course in mobile development at the University of Barcelona. (My employment history is... to say the least... colorful.)

I worked maybe 12... 16... sometimes 18 hours a day in the beginning. I was typing as if it was the last thing I was ever going to be able to do... because if might have been.

In the Winter of 2017... I didn't have any health insurance, then someone identity-thefted my American Express card and racked up a huge bill. American Express then cancelled me for dubious reasons... and then I fell horribly ill.

Through all that... I kept typing. I remember the first time the photos loaded in the GridView for nofltr. I remember the intense battle to get the Messaging system to work. I remember how many layers deep you needed to think in order to even construct a message system.

"Oh it's just a text box..." but then there has to be a reply. And when you write to someone, from your phone, they have to know... instantly... on their phone... that they've received a message. How is that possible? And THEN... after that.., you have to...

I always kept up with the latest Android version. The latest SDK. The latest version of the IDE that would later be called Android Studio. This became important later on for understanding major changes, revisions and deprecations.

I wasn't gonna be like the Instagram guy... I was doing it for REAL.

 

[rainless]

There was already a prototype iPhone version of nofltr. I'd done a version in Objective-C as I'd gotten deeper into programming the iPhone version. I kind of dreamed of working on both of them simultaneously... but for a variety of life reasons (having been identity-thefted, American Express cancelling my card, various breakups and health problems...) I never got around to continuing the Objective-C version. Matter of fact... once it was stable... I never touched it again.

So the decision to scrap the whole thing and reprogram it, from absolutely nothing, in Swift... was a PAINFUL one. I wanted an app that was much lighter and faster than the objective c version had been. This meant that absolutely nothing would be carried over. It also meant that I'd need to really dedicate myself to making it happen.

To this end... The very first thing that I did after leaving Germany and moving to the South of France was to rent myself an office where I could work on the iPhone version full time. I needed that freedom for myself and from my surroundings. It was an ideal locale because they gave me the keys and said I could come and go as I pleased. If I wanted to go there at two in the morning and work all night... I could.

I was not a master of Swift like I had been of Objective-C. I'd taught both... but I really didn't know enough Swift to pull off what I'd managed to accomplish in the Android version.

I was going to have to learn very, VERY fast.

 

[rainless]

Two BIG developments since my last post (WOW... way back in February):

1. Sometime last year Google announced that every developer was going to have to somehow verify their identity and the identity of their business. To do so they teamed-up with a company called Dunn and Bradstreet... whom I'm convinced are a pair of twelve year olds operating out of their parent's basement in Rhode Island. They got absolutely everything wrong about my business... consistently. Most consistently the spelling and where it's located.

On top of that... the whole thing was completely redundant as... AFTER you go through the whole, pathetic, STUPID process of verifying your business to twelve year olds who can't legally have a business without a parent or guardian... then you have to verify your business AGAIN with Google themselves... which kinda defeats the purpose of verifying it with Dunn and Bradstreet to begin with.

Nevertheless... I've finally verified my business with everyone... Google as accepted... and I'm good on dumb **** until at least next year.

2. The app, nofltr, is FINALLy now available on both iPhone and Android. It was an extremely long time coming (especially on iPhone). You would thing this would be the end of six years of particularly hard labor... but it's only the beginning. Now I actually have to build up the brand and the business. I've got a lot of work to do on the website... and I might also fight Mark Zuckerberg in the MMA. (SIGN THE DAMNED MATCH, DANA!)

Getting the iOS version approved was the same hurdles and hoops I remember from my older apps: Submitted the first time... app was rejected because it allegedly crashed. Changed absolutely nothing and submitted it again... App was accepted.

Go figure.

Nothing was ever easy with any of this.

Time for Round 3.