What I learned from making iPhone and Mac apps

In 2008, I started learning how to program in Objective-C, the de facto way to code iPhone apps at the time.

At the time, I had been writing code years earlier using programming languages like Adobe ActionScript to program autorun CD/DVDs. But I couldn't master Objective-C.

Objective-C was popularised by Steve Jobs' NeXT, Inc. after being forced out of Apple in 1985.

I remember reading an eBook. I think it was a manual that Apple made available to developers through its website. Objective-C, unlike other languages inspired by the programming C language, was counter-intuitive.

It was kinda like being forced to drive in the right lane after having driving in the left lane for years.

It's horrific, to say the least—my mind shutdown.

With my tail between my legs, I gave up. This one was just one of the many times I was humbled by dear life.

And continued with whatever I was doing at the time, building websites in Joomla or making music—if memory serves.

A year later, I forfeited a lovely vacation to take on Objective-C. And this time, I mastered it. It gave rise to my first steps towards online domination.

That, however, is not the lesson. A few years later, while learning how to program and leverage the latest technologies that Apple had just announced for iOS and macOS, I learned something profound.

One word…

…intend!

It is essential to be purposeful in writing code. This makes it easier to understand what you intended to achieve when you wrote a piece of code. As entrepreneurs, it is easy to get lost sometimes in doing things but not really doing it for the right reasons.

It is vital to always reflect on whatever it is that you are doing. Whatever you are doing, start with the end that you have in mind and reverse engineer your way back to where you are.

Is what you are doing right now helping you reach your end goal?

Check out my apps here.

#programming #intend #swift #stalinkay #apps