http://sound-of-silence.com Matt Reagan's Website http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20180806 In this post we explore two advanced SpriteKit techniques (for both iOS and macOS): fragment shaders and geometry deformations. Demo Swift code available on GitHub. Read More Matt Reagan http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20180806 http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20180801 This post will demonstrate a simple technique for exploding a single 2D sprite into smaller pieces and includes example Swift code. Read More Matt Reagan http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20180801 http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20170306 Xcode provides sound-based breakpoints which can be a useful debugging tool, but the default sounds are somewhat limited. This post introduces a custom collection of Xcode breakpoint sounds and also some tips on using them. Read More Matt Reagan http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20170306 http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20170205 Recently I wanted to create an effect in Apple's SpriteKit in which text nodes would disintegrate. In this post I'll describe how the effect was implemented and some of the earlier approaches which didn't pan out. Read More Matt Reagan http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20170205 http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20161108 This article explores an example implementation of deformable, morphable 3D terrain using Apple's SceneKit framework with custom geometry. Read More Matt Reagan http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20161108 http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20161103 Xcode's Quick Look debug tool adds a convenient way to inspect objects while debugging your apps. However, not all objects will be listed in Xcode's debug area. Here's how you can Quick Look any memory address. Read More Matt Reagan http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20161103 http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20161101 If you're presenting a modal window on macOS while using AFNetworking, you might be surprised when your requests vanish into thin air. No timeouts, no errors - no result at all. Read More Matt Reagan http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20161101 http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20161025 I've now had the opportunity of being a full-time remote engineer for nearly 3 years. This post summarizes some of the challenges I've encountered, and related strategies for them. Read More Matt Reagan http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20161025 http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20161016 GIFPop is a simple and free animated GIF editor for the Mac, written in Swift. It is a minimal UI wrapper for gifsicle. Read More Matt Reagan http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20161016 http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20160404 Recently I wanted to test the time to first byte of a REST web service. As it turns out, curl works really well for this using the -w flag. Read More Matt Reagan http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20160404 http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20160324 Many tasks in Xcode can be quite time consuming: cleaning & rebuilding, UI testing, unit testing. Wouldn't it be convenient if you could step away and have Xcode send you a text message when it finished? This tutorial will walk you through a simple setup for automated Xcode text messages. Read More Matt Reagan http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20160324 http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20160215 With Xcode 7, Apple has added integrated support for automated UI testing. I recently tried adding UI test cases to an app and what I thought would be a relatively simple task of recording some clicks and keystrokes and tossing in a few asserts quickly became a multi-day tumble down a rabbit hole of bugs, Xcode quirks, and headaches. This article will introduce some basic UI testing concepts, as well as offer tips for common issues you're likely to encounter (generally applicable to both OS X and iOS testing). Read More Matt Reagan http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20160215 http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20150923 Yesterday I came across an interesting AppKit issue, reproducible in OS X 10.10 (but this has been around since at least 10.7). On the Mac, most users expect a control-click to behave identically to a right-click, and display a contextual menu. Read More Matt Reagan http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20150923 http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20150922 I finally gave in to temptation and bought a camera to mount on my helmet. I bought the "latest and greatest", the Go Pro Hero 4 Session. For purchases of this sort I'm typically quite methodical: reading reviews, comparing models, etc. I regret not doing that in this case, because my experience with the Hero 4 Session was ultimately a disappointment. Read More Matt Reagan http://sound-of-silence.com/?article=20150922