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How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

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Re: How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

#161

Post by zimpenfish »

closeparen wrote: post #122
cwyers wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, nothing in the quote suggests that programmers can't submit items to Radar, that they can't lobby for them to be assigned a high priority, etc. Pretty much every software project beyond a certain scale uses an issue tracker of some sort.

If you need to lobby for permission to work on something broadly within the scope of what you're paid to work on, you aren't being treated like a professional. An issue tracker is a communication tool for use in the context of a largely self-directed activity. The only role at my company where your day-to-day activity is dictated to you by the tickets on your screen is customer support. On my team, if you're only wor…

> On my team, if you're only working the asks handed down from above and not proactively taking initiative to make things better, you're barely pulling your weight.

The problem with a lot of engineers is that "make things better" often doesn't translate into "keeps customers happy and money coming in".

I could work on making our internal software "better" for the next two years but it wouldn't bring in enough money from customers to justify paying me to do it. And I'm smart enough to know that I have zero idea about what will make things "better" for the actual customers.

Re: How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

#162

Post by epistasis »

fbdjskajxb wrote: post #105
epistasis wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It funny, while rare bugs are part of the problem, fundamental design is a problem that confronts me much more. The epidemic spread of animations that reduce functionality and responsiveness are pretty unforgivable. This is something that affects all users that try to interact with their phones, and I'm getting pretty sick of modal switches between "accepts touch input" and "doesn't accept input" when there are no vi…

In the settings under Accessibility there is “Reduce Motion”, which takes away most of the animations.

Thats not quite correct; it replaces swooping movement with fades. However the same design problems I mentioned persist.

Re: How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

#163

Post by scarface74 »

bsaul wrote: post #157
scarface74 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you had a picture as the background of your screen in 2010, you needed different images for different screen resolutions - 1 and 2x for the 3.5 inch iPhone and 1x for the 9.7" inch iPad. Then the iPhone 5 came out with a different ratio - you couldn't just stretch the image and make it look decently. Then two years later you had the 6 and 6+ phones with different ratios. Then different ratios for split screen iP…

Skeuomorphic doesn’t mean using background images, it’s just a matter of trying to have GUI elements look and behave like physical objects would. You can do that using textures.

Pictures of both the podcast and iBooks apps in iOS 5.

https://gigaom-com.cdn.ampproject.org/ii/w680/s/gigaom.com/w...

How would they look if you squished it for 25%, 50% or 75% split screen view on the iPad? How would it look on the iPad Pros? In landscape? In portrait?

Re: How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

#164

Post by vlozko »

closeparen wrote: post #86
throwaway7187 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perfect time for the ol' throwaway... I'm a former iOS EPM (not speaking for Apple, obviously, since I don't work there anymore), and although the Reddit commenter got the atmosphere of constant crisis right, he/she is misplacing the blame and misunderstanding the power dynamic. EPMs at Apple essentially have zero power over engineers' workload. They take the list of stuff the engineering managers said they want to g…

We use the bug tracker for coordination and collaboration. If you have a customer-affecting bug or a stakeholder-facing feature you’ll use the relevant task to discuss it, but we certainly don’t let the bug tracker dictate how engineers spend their time. That sounds like hell.

That's the norm in any medium to large sized engineering organization. PMs set out what needs to be worked on and want to know the progress on these tickets. How is that unreasonable? Maybe it would help if you referred to it as a sprint board rather than a bug tracker?

Re: How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

#165

Post by zimpenfish »

AlphaSite wrote: post #57
dingo_bat wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think Microsoft has a code quality problem at all. On the contrary I'm hard pressed to point at any recent Microsoft software and say it's bug ridden or low quality or badly designed. From iOS to Android to Windows, Microsoft software is excellent.

I (and most people I know) have had various issues in major widows 10 upgrades.

+1 here. The last update stopped a whole bunch of games from running and has caused Minecraft's FPS to chop like there's no tomorrow.

Re: How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

#167

Post by vlozko »

closeparen wrote: post #122
cwyers wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, nothing in the quote suggests that programmers can't submit items to Radar, that they can't lobby for them to be assigned a high priority, etc. Pretty much every software project beyond a certain scale uses an issue tracker of some sort.

If you need to lobby for permission to work on something broadly within the scope of what you're paid to work on, you aren't being treated like a professional. An issue tracker is a communication tool for use in the context of a largely self-directed activity. The only role at my company where your day-to-day activity is dictated to you by the tickets on your screen is customer support. On my team, if you're only wor…

If engineers really ran a company, progress will often slow down. For example, if you're surrounded but a lot of young talent, the phrase that you just constantly hear is "refactor". Not as many developers enjoy bug hunting as they do new feature development. I suspect that those of us who've been in the field long enough end up growing a much greater appreciation for PMs and they decisions they make make than when they first start out. Or maybe I've been fortunate to work with really great PMs?

Re: How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

#168

Post by bsaul »

scarface74 wrote: post #163
bsaul wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Skeuomorphic doesn’t mean using background images, it’s just a matter of trying to have GUI elements look and behave like physical objects would. You can do that using textures.

Pictures of both the podcast and iBooks apps in iOS 5. https://gigaom-com.cdn.ampproject.org/ii/w680/s/gigaom.com/w... How would they look if you squished it for 25%, 50% or 75% split screen view on the iPad? How would it look on the iPad Pros? In landscape? In portrait?

Usually what you're doing in those cases is that part of the image are stretchable and other parts are fixed. It's a technic that's been used for rounded buttons for ages, and can be applied to pretty much anything. That's also part of xcode (unless it's been removed).

But generally, you can easily have those kinds of design work with any kind of screen dimensions. It won't look completely similar from one size to another, but still look realistic (bigger screen -> bigger objects, or more space between objects).

Re: How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software

#169

Post by richardwhiuk »

throwaway7187 wrote: post #63
askafriend wrote: post #7

This comment from a former employee on the iOS team provides some more context around the software quality issues. I think this is the more interesting point around which we should have this discussion. https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/7x0eif/how_apple_pla...

Perfect time for the ol' throwaway... I'm a former iOS EPM (not speaking for Apple, obviously, since I don't work there anymore), and although the Reddit commenter got the atmosphere of constant crisis right, he/she is misplacing the blame and misunderstanding the power dynamic. EPMs at Apple essentially have zero power over engineers' workload. They take the list of stuff the engineering managers said they want to g…

> Then they proceed to drive the team as hard as necessary to make sure that they actually deliver what they said they were going to deliver.

Sounds like really healthy practice

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