I started DevFright in 2013. I was new to programming at that time. I had done a class in the mid-90s learning Pascal, but that only scratched the surface. I dabbled a bit with PHP on some WordPress installs that I had, but it wasn’t until 2012 that I started being more serious about programming. I began with iTunes-U content from Stanford, and in 2013 I started writing about what I was learning.

I created DevFright to write about what I was learning about creating iPhone apps. I had been learning Objective-C and felt I could share my learning.

Most of my work until late 2019 was with Objective-C and Swift. That year, I became more involved with PHP, using a custom framework to create an API. Shortly after that, I worked in Lumen and then switched to Laravel.

Things changed again when I began working in Python with a few friends so that we could learn the language together. We built the beginnings of a chess game and tried to engineer it so that the classes and relationships between them made sense. It was a great few months spending a few hours together each week.

In 2021 I began moving more to using Python with some JS and TS as well. I helped build an API that used Python and FastAPI. The team changed, and suddenly we discussed building something more reliable, perhaps using native code to create a separate iPhone and Android app rather than a PWA that was causing grief.

We decided to switch to C# and .NET using MAUI, which was still in beta then.

Surprisingly to me, I like C#. It has been great to work with. I am still very new at using it

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I have written a handful of tutorials about SwiftUI, but since it was announced in 2019, I’ve done very little with it. At the end of 2019, I stepped away from iOS dev work and, for several months, worked with PHP, a custom framework, and the Laravel and Lumen frameworks to do some backend work.

In late 2020, I took a break due to an injury. In 2021, I did some work in JavaScript, VueJS, and Python and then moved on to C# in 2022. Mobile dev is where I prefer to work. Although I do some mobile dev work in .NET MAUI, it isn’t quite the same experience as a full native experience, in my opinion, although MAUI is good. I might write about that over on my dev site.

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It’s been a while since I added tutorials to DevFright, but now that I have some work completed, it is time to get working again and creating some great and helpful tutorials for you. Due to that big announcement a bit ago at WWDC 2014, I have decided that I’ll now focus on providing Swift tutorials rather than continue the focus on Objective-C. I have thought about a mixture of both, but settled on just Swift as this is where Apple is now focussing on the coming months and years and it makes sense to switch over ready for when iOS 8 launches in a few months time.

If you have any specific tutorials you want to see, drop a note in the comments below and I’ll do my best to accommodate.

Now that the iPad is a few years old and people are using them more in day to day work, a common question asked in forums is that of being able to develop apps for the iPad on the iPad. The problem with this is that Apple has no plans that I know of to launch Xcode for the iPad. The reason for this is likely to be related to how tightly integrated the frameworks are with Mac OS X.

To develop for iOS devices while on the go typically requires that you have a MacBook running OS X along with Xcode installed. For some of us, we prefer to carry just an iPad around due to the impressive battery life, instant on and smaller form factor which all make it ideal to throw in a bag.

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