My Coding History: AKA a long way to announce a new version of wwrite
I'm not the best developer in the world, not by a long shot. I don't have much formal training. I've been doing HTML/CSS coding since around 1997. I took a VB/C++ class in high school, and it was the sole reason I didn't graduate in January. I didn't really continue taking programming classes in college, but I didn't stop programming. In 2001 or so, started working with "classic" Active Server Pages to be able to read Microsoft Access databases, that was around 2002/2003.
In 2004/2005 I changed to PHP to be able to begin customizing a blogging platform to my liking. Which, now that I think about it, it's been just over nine and a half years since I first started blogging. I've been doing PHP/MySQL/HTML/CSS/Javascript ever since. My biggest web-based programming project is actually an inventory/ticketing system for work. That started back in 2007 when we needed a way to keep track of all of our technology. It has grown to include more items than that. Almost every single aspect of the site is custom and works to the needs of my job. Sadly, that's not my primary responsibility at work, even though it should be.
I say I'm not the best coder for a reason. For instance, it took me over a year to just understand the basic concepts of Objective-C and to begin writing code with it. Most good programmers should be able to pick up the language within a month or so. Having done procedural programming for so long, and limiting my use of object-oriented items, with the inventory/ticketing system, the aspect of sending messages to objects just eluded me. I sat and read books, let those sink in, read some more, and let that sink in, and it finally didn't really start to click until a year later, around March of 2010.
My first "real" project with Objective-C was the original release of wwrite 1.0.0, I had hoped to keep releasing new versions that kept pace with new features. Sadly, this hasn't happened. I did start off strong, continually adding versions. Each version added new features, re-worked things a bit, but it didn't last. I got distracted by other things and easily discouraged when things aren't working properly; (sadly, that's a common theme in some, if not most, of my endeavors). The only motivation I had to re-write wwrite was the release of iOS 7 and its complete visual redesign. Instead of just adding updating the app for iOS 7, I opted to do a re-write to make everything easier on myself later on. This culminated in version 2.0.0. The re-working with 2.0.0 made it much easier for 2.1.0. Before we get into wwrite 2.1.0, let's take a quick look at the history of wwrite.
wwrite's History
wwrite has been a project I've been plugging away at, off and on, for the last four year. It was originally released on April 4th, 2010, one day after the release of the original iPad back on April 3rd, 2010. It would've been released on April 3rd, but I wanted to run it on an iPad first, just to make sure everything was working. This was a smart move since some bug was present on the device but not within the simulator. This is why I always test on a device before releasing. Since the initial release I've slowly added features. The last release 2.0.0 was back on October 10th, 2013. As mentioned above, version 2.0.0 was a complete re-write that made the code more manageable and would make adding features a lot easier.
The original concept behind wwrite was to make an app that provided a text editor that incorporated templates. Back in 2010 I was still writing my Daily Run Down articles. That was my inspiration for the application. wwrite 2.0.0 was a somewhat ambitious undertaking, particularly when it came to re-writing a significant portion of the codebase. wwrite 2.1.0 was even more so, but more on that in a bit.
In December of 2010 I opted to release an ad-supported version of my app, because I knew some people would not pay $1.99 for a text app. The app is called wwriteFree. Until version 1.6.0, the free version has had feature parity with the paid version. However, with the 2.0.0 version, I never could get the iAd banner to work well with my "Master-Detail" views. wwriteFree still sits at version 1.6.0 until I can figure out the iAd banner issues. Once I do, it will probably be the same feature parity as the latest version of wwrite. I have contemplated on having two different versions of the app, with wwriteFree being slightly behind wwrite, but I haven't decided if I want to take this approach or not. I'll have to sit and ruminate on this for a while.
In September of 2010, I decided to release an iPhone Edition of the app, using iOS 4.2. wwrite - iPhone Edition was initially released as version 1.4.0. It had feature parity with wwrite. wwrite - iPhone Edition version 1.6.0 was released on March 23, 2011. Which is where it still stands. To give you some perspective as to how "old" that is. wwrite - iPhone Edition 1.6.0 does not support the iPhone 5, which was released in 2012, nor does it support Retina-level graphics which were released with the iPhone 4 in July of 2011. Just to give some perspective on that.
Ever since I finished and submitted wwrite 2.0.0, there have been certain features I wanted to add. Some of them would be simple to implement, other would be more difficult. The balancing act of ambition versus time, versus ability always comes into play. The balance can sometimes be too much to effectively manage. Sometimes you have a great idea but cannot execute it. Other times you can execute the great idea, but just don't have the time. It's all a delicate balance.
A couple weeks ago, sometime around April 15th or so, in anticipation of iOS 8 being unveiled at Apple's World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2014, I started working on wwrite 2.1.0. wwrite 2.1.0 includes a bunch of new features, all of which are documented here. The biggest features are the ability to archive more than just the files, emailing of archives, and the ability to have more than five templates. All of these were features I had actually been planning on putting in 2.0.0, but just never did, again, due to time constraints.
wwrite 2.1.0
All of that is just a long-winded way of saying that wwrite 2.1.0 is now available. wwrite 2.1.0 is 33% large than wwrite 2.0.0, which I didn't realize until I submitted the app. It sits at just around 1MB, up from 632K for wwrite 2.0.0. The biggest change to wwrite 2.1.0 is a brand new file format. It now separates the file contents from its meta data. This sounds like a "no duh" item, but it actually took a lot to accomplish.
wwrite has not been a huge money maker for me. I don't think I will ever recouped my costs of creation. If I were to estimate the total time spent writing code for all three of my apps, I would have to estimate it to around 600 or so hours. Of which, a good 7.5%, or about 45 hours (for those who don't want to do the calculation), were just in the last couple of weeks to get wwrite 2.1.0 released. It sounds like a lot of time, and it is. When you're app is only $0.99 or $1.99, it takes a significant number of sales to recuperate your costs. Even at minimum wage, 600 hours would come to approximately $4500. I'm no where near that amount in sales. I'm lucky if I'm even at 10% of that amount, total in four years.
Other thoughts
Regardless of the amount of time, I'm at somewhat of a cross-roads. Do I continue to put forth the effort of adding features to the app when I know I'll never see a return on the investment. Do I do this just to say I have an app in the app store? I know I'll continue to have an iOS developer account since I do want to be able to get the latest versions of iOS ahead of public release. But I'm not sure if I'll continue to update the apps. If I ever do figure out how best to get the iAd banner to work correctly the "Master-Detail" for the wwriteFree, I may release that.
To quote Steve Jobs, "You cannot connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect the dots looking backward". And I know this is to be true. Maybe all of this work will just be a springboard for me to become a developer full-time at some point. I do not know. Maybe it will ultimately just prove to be an exercise in futility. I know not all developers aspire to have a breakout hit like Angry Birds, Flappy Birds, or any other moderately popular game, but some success is always welcome. Maybe it will come one day, but only time can, and will, tell.
You can download wwrite , wwriteFree, and wwrite - iPhone Edition in the iTunes App Store.
If apps aren't your thing, I also have some e-books as well. All of their information is located here.