Not quite sure how this works, but here goes!

This is my first attempt at running a blog, so we’ll see how it works out.  Basically this came about when the coronavirus and Apple’s App Store reviewers temporally aligned.  Yes, having been locked out of Malaysia (temporarily I hope), and having nothing better to do than write apps for Mac and iPhone/iPad.

So my first project during the lockdown was Icon Composer.  A natty little app for the Mac.  Anyone who has ever tried to write an app using Xcode will recall tearing their hair out when they haver to build numerous icons of very specific sizes.  It’s an unnecessary pain in the butt, but there’s no way around it.  Anyway, there are a host of apps that take an image and resize it for this very purpose, but there didn’t seem to be any that let you compose multiple images into one canvass, with some editing capabilities thrown in.  Yes, you can use Photoshop, but that’s very expensive and way too complicated for the job in hand, and you still need one of those sizing apps afterwards.  Then there’s GraphicConverter – very, very nice app, but not that easy to use because it does so much.

Anyway, having identified a niche, I went ahead and wrote the code in Swift.  A bonus was I got to teach myself some basic HTML in the process.  It all worked pretty well, so I submitted it for App Store review.  Rejected!  Three reasons; first, my icons were a touch risque.  I used manga characters because they’re cute (call me Kruger!) but the prudes at Apple decided that they were offensive.  Yeah, I know, pretty Victorian.  Second reason was technical – I didn’t implement some required window functionality. Easily fixed.  Finally and most relevant, I used my Google Blogger url for my privacy policy page, and the reviewers quite rightly pointed out that the user would have to be signed up with Google to see it.  Rookie mistake.

I scratched my head, and realised that I would need to have my own website.  A quick search threw up WordPress, who would provide a domain name of my choice (https://davesoft.net), host my website, and provide me with all the tools to build a spiff interface.  All this for three years – £72.  Pretty damn reasonable I reckon.

So here I am.  I’ve chosen my theme, written. a few pages, and linked everything up.  But using the tools, the idea of hosting a blog comes up time and again, so I thought I would give it a try.  This is my first attempt.  Let’s see how it goes…