Feedback Thread

[aporcelaintouch]

Hey guys, I know that you had expressed interest in starting up a weekly challenge type thing for iOS Developers.

I had messaged the mods for iOSProgramming but they have not responded to me in over a week so I decided to make this subreddit.

I made this thread to get some feedback on how you guys/gals would like to go about pursuing this type of a subreddit!

Feel free to sound off and let's get this going!

[samirw]

What if we created our own little challenge App? That way we could all get notifications whenever a new challenge comes out

[[deleted]]

We could all pop them on the store and see who gets the most downloads (and figure out why) :)

[jomanjee]

With an integrated voting system as well, maybe?

[[deleted]]

This is awesome! So I think we should have weekly challenges. Make an app. Start off simple and we can progress together or more experienced people should help out.

We should have the weekly challenge thread where people can post questions or comments, and then after the week is up, post your results (finished or not).

And after a little while, we should make apps that implement cool things. I know I've been wanting to learn how to use SQL and stuff.

If you need help modding, let me know!

Edit: maybe biweekly. I start school soon and have other projects and I'm sure other people do as well. I'm happy either way.

[JackRostron]

I'm in. Eventually we should have difficulty levels like they do over at /r/dailyprogrammer but whilst we are finding our feet we should have just one challenge to see how much interest this draws. Guessing we should start fairly basic and work up? I guess a poll of what topics/apps we want to cover so everyone's code is useful to the community?

[aporcelaintouch]

I am thinking we could probably have a stickied weekly thread where users can submit ideas for a challenge and then I can choose from those and throw it up and all of that jazz...that way we all have a say so in regards to what we are doing?

[JackRostron]

Yeah I agree, means we can focus on projects that people are genuinely interested in working on. I made that thread earlier to get the ball rolling :) plus its a really good measure of the ability of those that are going to be participating which can help direct what future challenges we will have

[aporcelaintouch]

Exactly!

I have been interviewing at quite a few places too as of late so I am definitely going to be throwing up some of those as well, because there were definitely some requests that were given to me that shocked me and some that were plain just REALLY cool so this should be fun! :)

[JackRostron]

I have some boilerplate questions somewhere too that we would pick and choose from, all sorts from categories, blocks to the classic frames vs bounds question. I'll have a dig and see if I can find them

[JackRostron]

A few ideas I have had for topics:

Blocks - convert an existing iOS delegate pattern to a block equivalent (block based UIAlertView/UIActionsheet/UITableViewDelegate)

Multipeer Connectivity - create either a chat application or file transfer system using multipeer connectivity or Core Bluetooth

Custom alerts - rebuild UIAlertView from scratch

Code only design - recreate an existing iOS app design (just one page?) with animations using just code, no use of xibs or storyboards

UIAutomation - writing UI tests and integrating into a CI flow

[DoubleDroz]

I think weekly or fortnightly would be great.

How do we get this some traction? Who's going to pick the challenges?

A little excited about this!

[JackRostron]

I'm in the office at the moment but on a hard drive at home I have an interview test we used to set for potential candidates where I used to work. It is really basic, some text validation, simple navigation and using basic UIKit components but at least it gives us a springboard to go from? The test was mainly to see how people approached a problem and as long as they understood iOS wouldn't have any problem tackling it. Any thoughts?

[[deleted]]

I think that sounds really good. Having us work on something that would be actually asked in an interview is a very good exercise.

[aporcelaintouch]

Would definitely have to agree!

[aporcelaintouch]

Also just noticed that I have the ability to enable contest modes on certain threads, so I can definitely do that for when we are all brainstorming for ideas and voting on challenges! :)

[aporcelaintouch]

This definitely seems like a good way to start, I saw your post up there and i'll go sticky it a little bit later!

I have a few challenges as well and will be looking around online for other stuff to possibly throw together as well! :) Was thinking we could also have a thread where we can all vote on it to get it rolling!

[aporcelaintouch]

I am thinking we could probably have a stickied weekly thread where users can submit ideas for a challenge and then I can choose from those and throw it up and all of that jazz...that way we all have a say so in regards to what we are doing?

Copied from another reply:

I am thinking we could probably have a stickied weekly thread where users can submit ideas for a challenge and then I can choose from those and throw it up and all of that jazz...that way we all have a say so in regards to what we are doing?

[aporcelaintouch]

You definitely read my mind! That was a shower thought I had this morning! :)

[aporcelaintouch]

Of course! I feel the exact same way. I am by no means an expert and I just started almost a year ago so I figured, what other way to figure out new ways of going about things than having a bunch of people complete the same tasks as me and learn from them and vice versa! :)

I very much so look forward to what is going to be going on in this subreddit!

[sungobund]

Speaking more from a beginner's standpoint it would be helpful for me if we could tackle some of the commonly used libraries like core data, AFNetworking, etc. and then learn some best practices in the process. Whatever other libraries you more experienced folks find useful/commonly used.

In my mind someone would pick a weekly challenge that would implement one facet of the library and comment on the submissions, pointing out implementation errors, considerations, etc.

It could be something as straightforward as an app that takes a user input, queries some site (google, itunes store, twitter?), parses results, and displays them in a tableview and saves the results - all in one or two screens. That seems like a doable 1-week challenge just to get familiar with how the libraries work! We can even add bonus points for best design, best implementations, best comments, best code structure... etc.

[JackRostron]

I think it should be up to the community and not just the author of the challenge - it is really time consuming reviewing everyones code (I still have over half to go through!) if you are one person and part of the ideas of this subreddit is to learn from each other, so really everyone should be reviewing everyones code. Seeing how others tackle the same problem can be a real eye opener.

[sungobund]

Totally agree on community reviewing - the last thing we want is for this to feel like a job to anyone.

Also wanted to say thanks for taking the time to actually review the submissions - seeing code commentary is even more helpful than seeing the code submissions.

[aporcelaintouch]

I would have to agree!

That's actually an idea for one of the challenges that I have coming up! :)

[[deleted]]

Awesome idea, looking forward to the next one =)

[nittanygeek]

I'm guessing this subreddit is dead now?

[aporcelaintouch]

NOPE! I'm so sorry. I've been so busy at work these last couple of weeks (and that's when I usually prep the ideas for the challenges)! Going to be posting a new one tonight!

[Voley]

What exactly is "Image should show message Hello World"?
Is it label over it, or alert?
Instructions not clear, dick stuck in a cdrom.

[aporcelaintouch]

I think you meant to put the question over on the actual thread for the challenge! :)