How Apple Plans to Root Out Bugs, Revamp iPhone Software • Hacker News Board

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

#171

Post by gurkendoktor » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 1:25 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #109

PakG1 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're not receiving criticism, you don't matter.

"There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses" - Bjarne Stroustrup I've found that quote to apply to everything. Familiarity breads contempt, even just from boredom, or wanting to shift blame for the monotony of the task you're using the tool for. For example I think Excel is a great piece of software, but I know someone who spends all day every day in it doing dull b…

I agree that this kind of criticism exists. However, that doesn't mean that all criticism is invalid, or that a large amount of criticism is necessarily a marker of success.

Some software examples: Internet Explorer has not been winning the browser wars for a decade. I've deleted Skype after its interface had been sufficiently ruined, and I don't know anyone who still uses it for business. When iTunes got too annoying, I left its ecosystem for Spotify. It's not looking good for Siri in the battle for the smart home. Speaking of programming languages, I complain a lot about Swift, don't use it, and am moving in the general direction of IntelliJ IDEs.

Excel and C++ got lucky, they will be hard to replace.

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

#172

Post by lloeki » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 1:26 PM UTC

cageface wrote: post #156

lloeki wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> form over function Properly designed animations are function: they give a sense of place and help in creating a navigation hierarchy instead of having things pop into and out of existence. > iOS is just littered with gratuitous animations that needlessly slow down the interface Their gratuitousness is evaluated by you by the "slowdown" they bring. The only slowdown they bring me is when they're not interruptible/co…

Unless I'm literally trying to race the beam, by the time I move my finger from the home button to a position over the screen the animation has completed. My brain can't identify the icon I want to tap while the animation is in progress. I have to wait for it to finish then parse the screen for my target. You just type which triggers the animation yet merrily continue as the animation proceeds while you are already i…

> My brain can't identify the icon I want to tap while the animation is in progress. I have to wait for it to finish then parse the screen for my target.

Interesting. I sure don't parse each icon precisely as it moves but the colors and layout allow me to intuitively have my bearings and know which page I'm on and then it's muscle memory. I can see it being an issue though.

> I have to wait for the animation to complete, then figure out if I want to tap any of the suggestions or keep typing.

Oh my bad, I thought you were talking about the autocorrection bubble that has the word come down on but this is really about the predictive words above the keyboard. I turned them off entirely because I basically never used them and it seems to make the keyboard itself terribly slow after some time as it computes suggestions.

> As for 3D touch I always forget it even exists because it has zero affordance.

So are keyboard shortcuts, 3D Touch is not a requirement for using the phone but it allows one to be more efficient without cluttering the interface. Also, you typically don't forget that you can scroll or pinch to zoom on an image or map or whatever, it's kind of the same deal.

Oh one more I just can't live without now: force pressing on the keyboard turns it into a touchpad for the caret, and re-forcing it starts a selection.

> It increases the manufacturing cost of the device for very little user benefit for the typical user.

When I saw it demo'd I thought "what a gimmick", yet now it gives me so much value that any device without it feels gimped to me.

> I think it also forced Apple's hand on FaceID

Woud you care to elaborate?

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

#173

Post by neolefty » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 1:42 PM UTC

rowyourboat wrote: post #140

closeparen wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

So, you guys are all developers and product managers rolled into one? How do you decided what gets worked on?

By broadening your vision. As an engineer, it's easy for me to focus only on technical details. So I make an effort to see beyond that -- what is our org's broader goal; what are our industry's issues? It's not always easy, and sometimes I'm overwhelmed, but it helps build a common vision, which can be the foundation for teamwork across disciplines.

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

#174

Post by paddyoloughlin » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 1:50 PM UTC

lloeki wrote: post #144

cageface wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Animations are one of the reasons I use Android. iOS is just littered with gratuitous animations that needlessly slow down the interface. My two least favorite are the home screen zoom-in effect you get every time you unlock the device and the animated text on typing autocomplete suggestions. And you can't disable either of these without disabling system animations entirety. This stuff is symptomatic of Apple's love…

> form over function Properly designed animations are function: they give a sense of place and help in creating a navigation hierarchy instead of having things pop into and out of existence. > iOS is just littered with gratuitous animations that needlessly slow down the interface Their gratuitousness is evaluated by you by the "slowdown" they bring. The only slowdown they bring me is when they're not interruptible/co…

My issue with 3D Touch is that there doesn't appear to be any language for when you can use it or what it will do if you can.

90% of the time, I forget it's there.

A specific case of where it was a problem for me is that tapping the lockscreen icon for the flashlight does nothing. I thought it was broken for a week till I accidentally discovered that you had to force push it.

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

#175

Post by avar » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 1:54 PM UTC

bri3d wrote: post #94

ndesaulniers wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

plain emailed diffs? this isn't LKML

There have existed teams at every company I have ever worked for who argue that this is the Very Best Way (tm) to develop code. It allows for the True Gatekeepers to keep their hold over the perceived software quality and quickly routs any sort of outside interest from modifying the project in any way the True Gatekeepers don't desire. In entirely broken organizations this is an effective way to allow 2-3 good develo…

Git itself is developed this way, so saying it could be fixed by "real revision control" is silly. Maybe you worked with someone who misused this model, but there's good reason Git and Linux use it.

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

#176

Post by perseusprime11 » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 1:57 PM UTC

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...

Interesting comment. I thought Project Managers are a thing in the past. Looks like it is alive and kicking and taken on a new life at Apple.

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

#177

Post by mathattack » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 2:11 PM UTC

runjake wrote: post #23

pjmlp wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given what he pushed for with Windows 8, and killing WP 7 alongside XNA, I am not so sure.

If you keep up with Sinofsky's writings, it seems like he's learned a lot of tough lessons from making some pretty big mistakes and come out the better for it.

Yes. I enjoy his blog and twitter postings, but somehow his book didn't come alive for me.

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

#178

Post by rowyourboat » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 2:19 PM UTC

neolefty wrote: post #173

rowyourboat wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, you guys are all developers and product managers rolled into one? How do you decided what gets worked on?

By broadening your vision. As an engineer, it's easy for me to focus only on technical details. So I make an effort to see beyond that -- what is our org's broader goal; what are our industry's issues? It's not always easy, and sometimes I'm overwhelmed, but it helps build a common vision, which can be the foundation for teamwork across disciplines.

What I meant was: How do other parts of the organization know what's being worked on? How do marketing, sales, product management influence the decision making process? GP made it sound as if engineering on its own decides what improvement to work on next. How does that work in the context of the larger organization?

Taking the bigger picture into account when designing a solution is simply good engineering practice. I don't think that's what the GP was talking about.

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

#179

Post by EADGBE » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 2:28 PM UTC

As boring at it sounds, this is probably more important that most people think. The "just works" mentality of iOS/Apple products is the key factor for keeping it in our family ecosystem.

Just last night, I tried my damnedest to print an IRS PDF form online. Printer's on, wifi is the same as my Thinkpad, printer is visible to laptop, etc. Nothing worked. Print was "offline" for the print queue. Just pulled out my phone, searched for the form name, opened the pdf and hit "Print" from the share screen. It's always worked, and did perfectly again. That's the greatest thing about it.

I didn't want to debug. I do enough of that shit at work.

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

#180

Post by Aaargh20318 » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 2:39 PM UTC

dingaling wrote: post #155

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android has a lot of gratuitous animations as well. To give an example, the Clock app on my Pixel animates the tab icons, which I find dumb and annoying. At least macOS gives you the option to disable gratuitous animations with their accessibility settings. I'm hoping eventually Android will wise up and follows their lead.

> I'm hoping eventually Android will wise up and follows their lead. Settings -> Developer Options -> Drawing There are various settings there for animation styles and speeds, including 0 speed ( none ).

Developer options are not visible to regular users, you have to put the device into developer mode which comes with it's own set of drawbacks.