Mathieu Tozer's Dev Blog

-Reached a milestone for words by implementing lookup for words in dict protocol dictionaries.
-Learnt first hand the perils of incorrect memory management in Cocoa Objective-C.
-Identified limitations and features that need to be implemented beyond the basics that I have working.
-Realised yet again that I should be using the software day to day in order to determine which features are most crucial to the software.
-Found a project which is trying to bring XML to the dict protocol, something which would be desirable in words.
-Considered supporting the protocol in the future.
-Began thinking again about a more advanced grouping system for Words, and laying out an initial design, and conceiving of a proposed framework for the system.
-Started a new sub project separate from the Words project called “Groups” in which to implement the grouping system in isolation.
-Reached a 'kind of working' state for groups, where smart and manual groups were displayed in the same window.
-Jubilantly discovered a power outlet in the spot in building 75 where I'd been lurking for the past few days.
-Doubted myself for diverting from the sample code provided by Apple for implementing smart groups with Core data, as I felt it was convoluted and that there “must be a simpler way”. (It turned out after speaking with the Core Data engineers that this was perfectly fine).
-Wrote the project description for the subject web page, and the project is made officially my final year Project
-Made use of online mailing list forums to solve issues successfully.
-Gained confidence that the group framework I was building was one that will work, although I worried about scalability.
-The ugly emotional side of software development reared its head this week, and I steel myself against times in the future when things just don't work and loose confidence.
-Began Version 2 of Words specification document.
-Noted change from previous heavy UI design to 'under the hood' implementation, back to UI again for the specification document.