Okay, I really do understand the plight. Honestly I do. I mean, I get it! Strings in Swift are not randomly accessible collections of bytes like they are in C or 16-bit words like they are in Objective-C or Java. In Swift a String is a collection of grapheme clusters. So, why not allow you … Continue reading Thoughts on Strings in Swift
Commentary
How the VIC/64 Serial Port Works
By Jim Butterfield Originally published in Compute! July 1983 (page 178) The Serial bus connects VIC or Commodore 64 to its major peripherals, especially disk and tape. The workings of this interface have been a source of bafflement to most of us. We know that it's somehow related to the IEEE-488 bus which is used … Continue reading How the VIC/64 Serial Port Works
Pi1541 Pi-Hat
So, one of my other hobbies are retro-computers. Specifically the Commodore 128. I had this computer as a kid and it still holds a strong place in my heart. I recently acquired a Commodore 128DCR on eBay and have been playing with it again. But as with all things retro, there is a strong community … Continue reading Pi1541 Pi-Hat
My Hobbies
Taking a look at my activity on GitHub shows that, outside of my day job, I didn't do Jack from June until November last year. 😳 No wonder I was so cranky. All work and no play makes me very restless!
Documentation 😳
I've started using Jazzy to generate documentation for my Swift and Objective-C projects. If you do development on the macOS platform then I highly recommend using Jazzy. It's by far the easiest to use. Here's a sample: Rubicon â–º Extensions â–º String â–º split(on:limit:)
Swift – First Impressions
After playing with Swift a bit here are my first impressions of the language. There is definitely a lot to like about it! There's also a few things that annoy me. 😎 But first I'll start out with a giving you a 1,000 foot overview of the language itself. Syntax aside, Swift and Objective-C 2.0 (as … Continue reading Swift – First Impressions
Taking the Swift Plunge
Okay... So... I think I'm finally ready to take the plunge and start learning the Swift Programming Language in earnest. I've been watching it and starting with version 5 there is finally enough there for me to get excited about. But this isn't going to be easy for me. Not like it was when I … Continue reading Taking the Swift Plunge
Objective-C and Exceptions
The formatting really didn't copy over well. Â Read the actual page here:Â https://github.com/GalenRhodes/LockSpeedTest/blob/master/README.md -fobjc-arc-exceptions My current use of this is to test if there was any overhead involved with using the clang -fobjc-arc-exceptions flag to ensure that memory isn't leaked when exceptions are thrown in Objective-C. Basically I compiled this test without -fobjc-arc-exceptions and ran it … Continue reading Objective-C and Exceptions
It’s All About the Tools Baby!
I originally posted this on LikedIn back in June, 2017. My high school shop teachers use to drill it into me and my fellow students every day. At least once every day I'd hear one of my shop teachers tell someone in the class, "Use the right tool for the job!" Usually this happened just … Continue reading It’s All About the Tools Baby!
Thoughts on GNUstep
For those that don't know GNUstep is a project that started many years ago to help bring Objective-C to the masses using operating systems other than Mac OS X macOS. Â Actually, Objective-C already existed on any platform that had access to the GCC compiler suite but what GNUstep sought to do was bring the primary … Continue reading Thoughts on GNUstep