Korean Letters iOS Upgrade
Korean Letters 1.1.0 is released - first upgrade in 5 years.
As Apple started publishing iOS 11 earlier than they said, I started getting complaints last week. New iPad Pro owners seemed to get iOS 11, and Korean Letters was one of the apps they wanted to run!
iOS 11 does not support 32 bit apps, and Korean Letters 1.0.8 is 32 bit app. Since Korean Letters last release in March 2012, the world has changed and it was more than 32 -> 64 bit conversion. I didn't convert Objective C code into Swift (any new test code was written in Swift) but I had to convert pixel-defined layout to Auto Layout. As iOS expanded its device resolutions, iOS layout development experience became somewhat similar to Android's, except that I ended up liking it more than Android's, or CSS. It gives me the sense of "full control". When it doesn't work, I could understand why, as opposed to searching for tips and tricks on the web. Why should this be a happy surprise, you ask? Well... maybe I am not so good at Android nor CSS.
Instead of trying to figure out easy way out, I should have read Apple's documentation about Auto Layout thoroughly. Once I did that, everything made sense and I was able to put constraints programmatically.
Fastlane was quite helpful. During development, it helped making sure all the devices' layout will look good. During publication, I used it to create all the screenshots I needed for various screen sizes. I didn't (and didn't have any need to) explore full-blown continuous integration & deployment but what I went through was easy and all command-line driven, so quite promising.
Deployment changes made in XCode was the best. 5 years ago, it was unnecessarily painful and confusing to deal with provisioning profile and certificate. Now XCode manages it all, and even better, a lot more things were checked automatically and I got an immediate feedback.
There is one change that I might make sometime soon: current sound respects "mute" switch, but about once a quarter, I get a question email about "no sound". You have mute switch on to mute phone rings, but still can listen to music and so you expect Korean Letters to make sound. All the (very few) 1 star reviewers seemed to have had that problem. At least now I can reply to those people on the review and let them know. So many changes!