My run-tracking app, RaceRunner, has features focused on racing and training for races. One of these features is alternate methods of ending runs. Here is an example.

The typical way to stop a run in a run-tracking app is to tap a button. RaceRunner supports this. But because of the physical exertion involved in running a race, a runner is sometimes in no condition to unlock an iPhone and tap a button at the end of a race. Even unlocking can be tricky because sweat often prevents TouchID from working, so instead the passcode must be tapped. So RaceRunner supports two alternative ways of ending a run. First, a run can stop automatically after a certain distance. This is great for time trials or if the runner does not trust the race organizers’ distance measurement. (A time trial involves running a certain distance, typically a race distance, as fast as possible.) Second, a spectator can use RaceRunner to stop the runner’s run. Both of these alternate means of stopping have problems. The certain-distance method may result in a recorded time that differs from actual time. The spectator method requires a cooperative spectator with an iPhone. So I implemented a third method: Siri.

Having just released a new version of RaceRunner with Siri support, I thought I’d share some learnings and pedagogic resources for other developers interested in implementing Siri support.

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I make iOS apps as a means of supporting my family and as a creative outlet. On the creative side, I have released three apps in the past five years: Immigration, RaceRunner, and Conjugar. Like many side-project apps, mine have had small budgets for asset creation. But they have greatly benefitted from free and low-cost assets (FALCAs). In this post, I introduce five sources for these FALCAs: Coolors, icon websites, Google Images, Sound Jay, Incompetech, and Free App Store Preview Music.

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RaceRunner is a run-tracking app I wrote in Swift three years ago. This app got my foot back in the door as a professional software developer, and I continue to use it. Since RaceRunner’s release, I have periodically updated the code to support new versions of iOS.

I’ve heard some software developers say that they can’t bear to look at code they wrote a long time ago. There are aspects of RaceRunner that would not pass my own code review today. But rather than being embarrassed by or ashamed of how I wrote RaceRunner, I find that a review my old code illustrates my improvement as a software developer. This improvement elicits both pride in how far I have come in three years and excitement at how far I might go in the next.

The purpose of this blog post is to examine this improvement through the lens of one part of one source file in RaceRunner.

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