I took an extended break from the software industry. For one of those years, I was an IT guy. For eight of those years, I was a lawyer. I haven’t hitherto mentioned this period on my blog, one mercenary goal of which is to enhance my iOS-developer brand. But I value the skills I acquired during these years because they remain useful. This post describes two examples.
Science is about revealing objective truth, for example the orbit of Earth around the Sun or the ultimate interchangeability of matter and energy. Kurt Krebsbach has argued that “computer science”, despite having the word “science” in its name, is not a science. If Krebsbach is right, what is software development, which I define, for the purposes of this post, as the practical application of computer science? I view software development as a form of creative expression, often fun, that sometimes has the side-effect of creating a useful artifact, a piece of software. This post posits that norms and style are important in software development, as in English-prose composition, another form of creative expression.
I recently modified one of my apps, Conjugar, to use SwiftUI rather than UIKit for its settings screen. I hereby present, for the reader’s edification and enjoyment, some observations and learnings from this process. I cover: