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Episode 208: 206 iPS Build Special 1: Embeddinator 4000 with James Montemagno
iPS 206: Build Special 1: Embeddinator 4000 with James Montemagno This episode is live at the Microsoft Build 2017 in Seattle with Andrew Madsen and Jaim Zuber. We have James Montemagno from the Mobile Developers Tools Team at Microsoft. Tune in and learn more about Embeddinator 4000! [00:01:05] – Introduction to James Montemagno This is James Montemagno’s third time on iPhreaks. He is a Principal Program Manager on the Mobile Developers Tools Team. He is a long-time Xamarin developer for almost 6 years now. [00:01:55] – What is it that you wanted to talk to us about? The Embeddinator 4000 is an open-source project. It falls underneath the Mono open-source. It’s a Github organization so it’s not under Microsoft branding. It’s been around for a while but the team re-tooled it in a way that every single iOS, Android, Mac, Linux, and Windows developers is going to love. Their goal is to bring .NET to every developer. Developers still want to find a way of sharing code. There are a few ways to do it today. You can write a bunch of C++ but no one wants to do that. The Embeddinator has the ability to execute C# and .NET code anywhere. It enables every developer writing applications in any language to take a .NET library to write some business logic. And then, compile that through a tool into a native library that they can consume in Objective-C, Swift, Java, or C++ library. [00:04:20] – C# library, not Xamarin-based It’s not Xamarin-based so you don’t need the Xamarin toolkits. You could use Visual Studio 2017. It’s just a command line tool so you can run it on Mac or PC. You don’t need anything besides the ability to write a C# library. Run that into the Embeddinator, which would then give you a dynamic library if you’re just doing an Objective-C Mac OS app, or it would give you a framework for iOS. [00:07:20] – How do you take a C# / .NET library and give it an Objective-C interface? Each platform whether it’s Objective-C for Mac, for iOS, or Swift for iOS, will be able to create those specific libraries, which will go to their own tooling. Obviously, the syntax is different. There are some things in C# that don’t necessarily exist in Objective-C. So it has to be converted into a call block or maybe you’ll not write that type of code because you know you’re going to consume this library. All the code is open-source on the Github page. You can think of it that it is going to provide the native interfaces and then, kind of P/Invoking into the compiled-up run time or the machine code that’s there. [00:09:00] – Difference from Microsoft Windows Bridge for iOS That bridge application is focused on iOS applications, specifically, on games. These games are brought over into to a UWP application. On the other hand, Embeddinator is very powerful for companies which are literally doing the same thing over and over again. This also allows collaboration with other teams. If mobile developers are calling their mobile API, they could just have one shared mobile API that’s being called across each platform. The difference here is you’re not porting any application, you’re creating a common framework or a common element that’s going to be running natively on each platform. You’re first writing it in C#, and then, embedding it into each application. [00:12:05] – Libraries and frameworks available All of .NET is available to them. When they’re creating .NET libraries, Embeddinator supports almost everything in .NET 4.6, which is a large amount of .NET. It can be embedded into your applications. [00:13:15] – What else is brought in? What you’ll see inside of this framework is a bunch of registers and header files. The bindings that get created are all here. It will create the header files that will talk and communicate to that framework specifically. It's executing .NET code based on the device you’re running it on - ARM32, ARM64, i386, your simulators, x86, x64-bit. [00:14:40] – Is there a reason you’re not using frameworks on MAC OS? The team got a dynamic library that they’re working first but the plan is doing framework. They want to keep it simple and do frameworks everywhere. They’re also going to be adding Swift support, Java support for Android, C, C++, Linux support, and continuously putting it into more and more platforms. [00:23:35] – Development cycle The getting started is you have this library, run this command line, and then, drag and drop some files. That’s just day one. But you don’t want to do that over and over again. The command essentially says. “Run this Objective-C generation in this DLL. I want to create a framework. It’s iOS. Put it in this directory.” You have 2 IDE’s open. Visual Studio for Mac and Xcode. When you’re writing your C# code, you’d write that in Visual Studio. In each of the libraries, you can have a post-build step. When you hit compile, you can essentially run this command line. The output directory would be your Objective-C, iOS or Mac application. And then, it’s available immediately inside of Xcode. [00:25:10] – Debugging At this point, you’re not going to be debugging across Xcode. Think of it like you’re debugging another framework. Think of creating a library but then, create a unit test around it. You can test it. You can write a console application. You can write a Xamarin application that is a bunch of buttons that you click to test the Native functionality. [00:26:15] – How to integrate with Visual Studio? It’s not yet super integrated into Visual Studio, where you can right click and say Export to this. When you go to the Github page, there are walk-through tutorials – Getting Started with Mac OS, Getting Started with iOS, etc. There’s a download package that you have to install that will install all the Embeddinator and all of the requirements. It requires Mono, which is the .NET runtime on Mac. But when you install Visual Studio for Mac, it will bring it in. That’s all you really need. The Embeddinator 4000 is literally inside the /Library/Frameworks/Xamarin/.Embeddinator-4000. And then, you start executing some commands, which are documented. [00:27:50] – Microsoft announcement with regard to Embeddinator The Embeddinator is available. It’s part of the Mono project. Microsoft is actively working on it. Core members of the Xamarin team are working on this tooling to make it a great experience. Give it a try. Essentially, it’s under development but it’s a v1-type of release for Mac, iOS, and Objective-C, Swift applications, etc. [00:31:15] – How large is Mono There is an advanced optimizer and linker so you’re not bringing in the entire Mono runtime or the entire .NET installation. The actual Mono runtime is extremely small. It’s usually in a few MB. But on different devices, there’s a difference in runtime because they’re executing code a little bit different. And it’s not as big as Swift. [00:32:30] – Microsoft as open-source supporter The Embeddinator project started under the Mono organization. The license should be under MIT license. It’s copyright Microsoft, technically. The project is also accepting external contributions. [00:34:45] – How to fix a bug When you go to the Embeddinator source code, it’s all just C# code. There’s probably going to be command line and build things. There’s documentation to getting started. For iOS developers, if you can read Swift, you can read C#. It’s still object-oriented, still, have classes and methods. Picks James Montemagno Coffeehouse Blunders podcast Chess.com Andrew Madson Merge Conflict podcast
Episode 207: 205 iPS Mac Store Problems
Mac Store Problems. On this episode of iPhreaks we have panelists Gui Rambo, Erica Sadun, Andrew Madsen, and Jaim Zuber. Check in to hear the crew talk about Mac store problems and a bit about the differences in developing Mac OS apps vs iOS apps. Gui Rambo gives us some insight about writing Mac OS apps from iOS apps and the panel digs into the potentials of Apple TV. Don’t miss this one. Gui How did you get started converting iOS apps to Mac? Gui talks about being a fan of Mac and being a Mac user and when the iPhone started having apps he didn’t have an iPhone so he started developing for Mac. Soon after he started developing for iOS as well. What are some examples of apps you’ve converted? He talks about the most famous being the WWDC app. He is in the process of working on it now. He talks about how the code is old and clunky, being that he wrote it on Swift 1. It was inspired by Apple’s WWDC app. Gui reversed engineered it and brought it to the mac. Instead of looking at source code Gui reversed engineered the application using HTTP proxies and looking at what API they were using. He found that it was mainly JSON hosted on AWS storage, and the app downloads them and parses them and that’s about it. Erica adds that the application has been a huge contribution to the development community and for WWDC attendees. Can you tell us about your design philosophy? Gui mentions that it depends on the app itself. Sometimes the iOS app is a companion to the main Mac application while other times it’s the opposite. In some cases apps are independent of each other. In most cases the iOS is just a remote version of the main Mac OS app. Sometimes the Mac OS app lacks. Gui likes to see both apps to be full of functionality. What apps are less featured on the Mac vs iOS? It’s most common that there is no Mac app at all. Using features of the iOS app in many cases will only have a web browser version for the Mac. In many cases this is happening because it’s harder to develop apps for the Mac OS. The frameworks are older, the foundation is the same, but taking a Mac OS app and making an iOS app isn’t easy or simple. What are your thoughts about developers and the decision of publishing outside the app store? Gui mentions that he sells an app called Browser Freedom that he sells online as well as in the app store. The application uses a set of rules to decide which browser it should open, along with other features. He decided to do both to find which would sell more. Despite that Apple takes 30% of sales from the app store, he is selling much more from the app store. Another consideration is if the application was made before sandboxing it may not work and may restrict some features you may want to add that won’t work. Applications for Mac OS must be sandboxed, making it so they are not allowed to write on the disk. A common issue that comes up for apps would be any application that has a built in file browser. In many ways Mac OS apps are more restrictive than iOS apps Is it fair that Mac developers are moving away from the Mac App Store? Gui talks about it being fair. If the Mac App Store is lacking features then it make sense for developers to move away. One thing that is missing is the Test Light system. The Test Light System is something that Apple provides for the iOS store that allows the developer to create a beta of applications via invites before the full release. The Mac App Store still does not have this feature. The app store lacks features more for the developer than it does for the user. Can you tell us more about upgrade pricing? Upgrade pricing has been an important price model since software exists. You pay for the application initially and then over time if you want to upgrade or add feature you pay some small price for that. Allowing for cashflow from existing customers. Some developers found ways around it by making new versions a completely new app on the store but it’s still very messy. Whats the theory behind Apple pushing subscriptions? Gui talks about how subscriptions have a different psychological effect on people. Having to pay for something monthly or annually is different from thinking about a single purchase. Many people are not willing to go through that sort of commitment. Apple isn’t in the business of selling software. Subscription as a pricing model isn’t necessarily part of the future that Apple intends to have. Their focus is to sell the hardware and would be just as happy to see applications for free. Is Apple not supporting upgrades part of Apple philosophy? Gui says that if you think about Apple’s philosophy, they always have thought of the users first. Apple would like to have their customers pay once for software but, Gui states that he thinks that there may be some technical issues that involves upgrade pricing to make that it available. Erica adds that it’s on the record that Apple has said that adding upgrades to the App Store would take major engineering. Gui adds that the Apple App Store is an old system that was designed based off of an older iTunes system and would be hard to implement changes on. What about discoverability. Gui talks about developers deciding to develop for iOS just due to the greater number of people using iOS and mobile being the future. He adds that you can make plenty of money making Mac OS apps as long as it’s well done and polish and if you’re giving a niche market something it really needs. Apps don’t get famous like they do for iOS. You have to find your market and make sure it’s niche enough. There are often too many apps of the same category that do similar things. Ugly apps that make it and word of mouth marketing. Gui talks about how the icon can be a game changer if it’s not good. Apple users tend to find how polished an app is to be vital to if they use that. Erica adds that there are some cases where ugly apps make it, but generally because they have great features and tend to get traction by word of mouth, specifically for Mac applications. iOS tends to push apps in places like spotlight, while on Mac OS, applications aren’t pushed nearly as much, needing word of mouth to get traction. There are many tools that become very popular despite lacking a polished graphic UI, some being command line tools. These tools make it because they actually solve a problem. If someone is trying to sell something in the Mac App Store, what else is there to consider? Erica adds that integration between the hardware for application becoming something that people expect. The Mac application has become almost a bonus to the iOS app, and people tend to look for their iOS apps to have versions on the other platforms. Gui adds that he would like to have applications on the Mac like Youtube. He wishes that Apple would make it easier to make iOS counterpart Mac applications. There are many apps that could be imported without that much work. The underlining framework can sometimes be very similar. What about the Apple TV? The exception may be Apple TV. It tends to mainly work for content consumption but allows for things like games. Gui adds that he tried coming up with an Apple TV app but couldn’t manage to think of one that would work. Eric mentions that Apple TV could work really well with applications revolved around parties, where it doesn’t necessarily need interaction but has some sort of features that work well while the owner has company. She also mentions that Apple TV could use a check ins feature, where the TV connects more with the Health Kit or todo reminders or personal coaching features. She suggests it could be a great win for Apple. Gui adds that the Apple TV would also do well with multiple user support where people in the room can all use it together in ways at once. Everyone bounces ideas back and forth about ways to use Apple TV for things like biometrics and other ways Apple TV could tap into integration with other Apple platforms. Apple TV adds a potential to get users away from the computer. Picks Gui Watch WWDC sessions on WWDC App Simpholders Erica The Rithmatist Brandon Sanderson Andrew The Living Computer Museum in Seattle Jaim Blog post on the four major frameworks of Swift
Episode 206: 204 iPS Underpass with Jeff Johnson
Underpass with Jeff Johnson On today's episode, Jaim Zuber, Andrew Madsen, and Guilherme Rambo talk about Underpass with Jeff Johnson. Jeff is a Mac and iOS developer with more than a decade of experience as a software engineer. He recently released an app for Mac and iOS called Underpass. Tune in to learn about it! What is Underpass? As Jeff puts it, Underpass enables encrypted chat and file transfer between two devices. The data you transfer is encrypted from end to end. It does not even rely on any third party. You also don't have to login to a server. The app allows you to communicate directly on any network. Inspiration Kicks Off When Apple made the change from iTunes to the iCloud as the preferred way of setting up iOS devices, a lot of the functionality was removed. The iTunes features were removed and if you're like Jeff and don't rely on the cloud, this could be a bit frustrating. Jeff wanted an easier way to bring data from his Mac to his iPhone. This was his motivation to write the app but it's grown from there. Writing Your Own Code Jeff could not use the higher level API or S-URL connection because they deal with existing center protocols. He had to go down to a lower level core foundation API, CS Stream. Jeff had a lot of experience with this level when he was a lead developer at Airfoil so it wasn't too difficult for him. Jeff did not write his own encryption, he used Common Crypto. It offers the same functions on Mac and iOS on one shared code base. Jeff warns against trying to write your own crypto. You'll have problems with export compliance and you'll have to go through a compliance application process. Objective-C Versus Swift Jeff used Objective-C versus Swift in new projects. The compilers are there, they aren't going to be removed, they are always going to work and the language is not changing. In the podcast, Jeff discusses why it's a good idea to wait a while longer before switching to Swift due to it's changing nature. To learn why Jeff decided to build Underpass's UI entirely in code download and listen to Underpass with Jeff Johnson. What are your thoughts about Underpass with Jeff Johnson? Leave us a rating and review if you enjoyed the show. We would love to hear from you! Picks: Jaim: The Trans album by Neil Young Gui: Apple Watch, Hacking with watchOS book Jeff: Manifold: Time by Stephen Baxter Andrew: Neil Young Unplugged album, Techmoan on YouTube
Episode 205: 203 iPS 100 Day UI Challenge with Mark Moeykens
Are you up for the 100 Day UI Challenge with Mark Moeykens? Mark has been developing since 1996, and works mostly on backend and UI. He got into iPhone development few years ago. Recently, he took up a challenge to get better at UI. Tune in to know how you too can join! “All the information you see on the UI don't have the same value. Some of them are more important than the other pieces, and you want them to stand out more.” -Mark Moeykens
Episode 204: 202 iPS Swift TDD with Jon Reid
Today on iPhreaks Show, Andrew and Guillherme discuss Swift TDD with Jon Reid. Jon is the author of Quality Coding blog, and has been doing test-driven development for some time. He appeared as guest in episode 116, where he talked about TDD and testing. Tune in for more classic insights about it and about why you should not take Apple sample code literally!
Episode 203: 201 iPS Japan, Sequences & Collections with Soroush Khanlou
On today's episode, Jaim, Erica, and Andrew discuss Japan, Sequences & Collections with Soroush Khanlou. Soroush is an iOs developer from New York City. He served as one of the speakers in try! Swift Conference in Japan. Also, he is a blogger and the co-host of a popular software engineering podcast titled Fatal Error. Tune in!
Episode 202: 200 iPS Into the Wayback Machine with NeXTSTEP
Andrew just bought a NextCube so the iPhreaks thought they'd talk about the NextStep platform and how it still influences iOS and Mac development. Tune in!
Episode 201: 199 iPS SourceKit and SourceKitten with JP Simard
On today's episode, Jaim talks about Sourcekit and SourceKitten with JP Simard. JP has been working with Realm for about three years. He appeared as guest on episode 104. Listen to this exciting episode on Apple's SourceKit and learn how SourceKitten can make your work easier!
Episode 200: 198 iPS When Your App Becomes a Company with Matt Ronge
On today's episode, Jaim and Erika discuss When Your App Becomes a Company with Matt Ronge. Matt is the cofounder of Astropad, a drawing app that works well on an iPad. He has appeared as guest in episode 113, where he talked about launching an app. Tune in and learn how they developed Astropad and how it evolved into a company!
Episode 199: 197 iPS Visual Studio for Mac with Omar Khan
On today's episode, Andrew Madsen and Jaim Zuber discuss Visual Studio for Mac with Omar Khan. Omar runs the product marketing team for their developer tools at Microsoft. There has been a lot of talk about the exciting new release. A preview is now available for developers. Tune in to learn more about it!
Episode 198: 196 iPS Unity for iOS with Martin Grider
On today's episode, Jaim, Andrew, and Gee discuss Unity for iOS with Martin Grider. Martin is the owner and lead developer of Abstract Puzzle, LLC. He is lately into iOS freelancing and has a blog at chesstris.com. Stay tuned to learn more about what is new with iOS and what Martin currently enjoys doing!
Episode 197: 195 iPS Keith Ballinger
On today's episode, Jaim and Andrew discuss with Keith Ballinger. Keith is the Director of PM in Microsoft's Mobile Development Tools Division, and currently focuses on the different cloud services from mobile developers. He's also had a series of startups before he came to the company. Stay tuned to learn about his projects, which include Microsoft's Visual Studio Mobile Center!
Episode 196: 194 iPS Linea with Dustin Bruzenak and Troy Gaul from Iconfactory
On today's episode, Jaim and Guilherme discuss Linea with Dustin Bruzenak and Troy Gaul from Iconfactory. Dustin is a programmer and consultant at Iconfactory, while Troy is the primary developer for Linea. Both have been in the industry for many years. Tune in to their exciting talk about developing and releasing the incredibly simple drawing app!
Episode 195: 193 iPS Take Manhattan III Kasey Uhlenhuth
On today's episode, Andrew and Jaim discuss Take Manhattan III with Kasey Uhlenhuth. Kasey hails from Louisville, Kentucky. She is a program manager of .NET and the visual studio team at Microsoft, specifically on Roslin. Stay tuned to learn more about what she is up to as well as her expertise in programming.
Episode 194: 192 iPS Core Data
On today's episode, Andrew and Jaim discuss Core Data. Core Data is now easy to use as a result of the recent changes in Xcode 8 and iOS 10. Learn what it is and understand how you can get the most out of it.