Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

An app can be a home-cooked meal (2020)

robinsloan.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 53 posts

Re: An app can be a home-cooked meal (2020)

#41

Post by vineyardmike »

joshstrange wrote: post #5

I wonder how he handles TestFlight's 90-day limit before a build expires. I'd probably just setup a GitHub Action to run every 1-2 months (to give some buffer if something goes wrong) to push a "new" build. Sidenote, Lambda/DynamoDB/S3 (and maybe cloudfront) is a really nice little stack to work with for one-off projects like this. I've used it a couple times now for small seasonal/burst-y projects and it's always be…

Instead of complicating it, you can just plug your iPhone into your mac. That version lasts a year.

Re: An app can be a home-cooked meal (2020)

#42

Post by vineyardmike »

gaterin wrote: post #14
mariodiana wrote: post #11

> In a better world, I would have built this in a day, using some kind of modern, flexible HyperCard for iOS. > > In our actual world, I built it in about a week, and roughly half of that time was spent wrestling with different flavors of code-signing and identity provisioning and I don’t even know what. Are you listening, Apple?

A common person isn't able to do what the author did, meaning they'll have to reach for the app store. Conveniently, Apple gets a cut of sales on the app store. The conflicts of interest are clear.

The author is “a common person” though? They’re a fiction writer who doesn’t and hasn’t worked professionally as a software developer. that was the point. They’re “home chefs” not professional.

Re: An app can be a home-cooked meal (2020)

#44

Post by dbecks »

rchaud wrote: post #8

Would be interested to know how long such an app could exist on the App Store. Apple is not fond of apps that are rarely updated.

One of my "home-cooked" apps has been in the App Store for 12 years now!

It's never really gotten much traction, and I mostly maintain it for me and my friends.

I love to make small incremental updates to it. Really fun experience overall!

Re: An app can be a home-cooked meal (2020)

#45

Post by mcculley »

vineyardmike wrote: post #41
joshstrange wrote: post #5

I wonder how he handles TestFlight's 90-day limit before a build expires. I'd probably just setup a GitHub Action to run every 1-2 months (to give some buffer if something goes wrong) to push a "new" build. Sidenote, Lambda/DynamoDB/S3 (and maybe cloudfront) is a really nice little stack to work with for one-off projects like this. I've used it a couple times now for small seasonal/burst-y projects and it's always be…

Instead of complicating it, you can just plug your iPhone into your mac. That version lasts a year.

But that doesn't work for the use case described in the article, right? You wouldn't want everyone in your family to have to install form your machine.

Re: An app can be a home-cooked meal (2020)

#46

Post by vineyardmike »

mcculley wrote: post #45
vineyardmike wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of complicating it, you can just plug your iPhone into your mac. That version lasts a year.

But that doesn't work for the use case described in the article, right? You wouldn't want everyone in your family to have to install form your machine.

Why not? It’s 4 people. If they’re geographically spread out, then it could be an issue, but many families even spread out likely see each other once a year.

Re: An app can be a home-cooked meal (2020)

#47

Post by marssaxman »

trblw wrote: post #13
horsawlarway wrote: post #10

Really resonates with my recent experiences. I want off the software equivalent of the fast food menu - crap designed to bring in the most revenue for the least expense, user health and preferences be damned. I've already started replacing a lot of the "as a service" software I used with self-hosted equivalents. The next one I really want to hit is "family chat" since Apple is still making a mess of it for folks with…

> family chat Please build this! I have a large family with a mix of android and ios users, ages 18 to 80. We end up using long running text message threads as an ad-hoc social network, with people posting pictures, links, updates, comments, etc., and things get disorganized because discussions are not threaded. I would love "reddit for families" -- for lack of a better description. Threaded discussion with easy "pos…

My family has been using GroupMe this way for many years.

Re: An app can be a home-cooked meal (2020)

#48

Post by trblw »

marssaxman wrote: post #47
trblw wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> family chat Please build this! I have a large family with a mix of android and ios users, ages 18 to 80. We end up using long running text message threads as an ad-hoc social network, with people posting pictures, links, updates, comments, etc., and things get disorganized because discussions are not threaded. I would love "reddit for families" -- for lack of a better description. Threaded discussion with easy "pos…

My family has been using GroupMe this way for many years.

Thank you for the recommendation! Looks interesting and I will definitely check it out.

Re: An app can be a home-cooked meal (2020)

#49

Post by trblw »

InitialBP wrote: post #37
trblw wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> family chat Please build this! I have a large family with a mix of android and ios users, ages 18 to 80. We end up using long running text message threads as an ad-hoc social network, with people posting pictures, links, updates, comments, etc., and things get disorganized because discussions are not threaded. I would love "reddit for families" -- for lack of a better description. Threaded discussion with easy "pos…

Just to play devils advocate, what if you just made a private subreddit for your family? While I also struggle with the android/apple divide in my family I feel like getting them all to agree to use an existing social platform would be exceptionally difficult, but it would be orders of magnitude easier than getting them to use a custom or relatively unknown app for comms unless it did something really special or nove…

> ... what if you just made a private subreddit for your family?

Yes, I have toyed with this idea, it is after all almost exactly what I'm looking for. But ultimately rejected it for the reasons @horsawlarway stated. I guess I just don't trust Reddit.

Re: An app can be a home-cooked meal (2020)

#50

Post by mcculley »

vineyardmike wrote: post #46
mcculley wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that doesn't work for the use case described in the article, right? You wouldn't want everyone in your family to have to install form your machine.

Why not? It’s 4 people. If they’re geographically spread out, then it could be an issue, but many families even spread out likely see each other once a year.

For every update, you would have to connect them to your machine.
Post reply on HN