Day 49 - GitHub Search Tricks & SwiftUI Dates Challenge
Wednesday, March 2, 2022
Today, I learned how to search GitHub more effectively. I learned how to filter to a particular username’s repositories, as well as search for a string within all of the files ending in a certain extension. For example, I searched for all occurrences of Date within my GitHub repos with the following query:
user:<userName> extension:swift <searchTerm> in:file
user:agholson extension:swift Date in:file
This reference provides more examples on how you can search. I love how they word that they will ignore certain keywords:
Also, was grateful for the challenge from @alexbard here in his date’s app. I ended up writing the code for the middle list of dates (full repo here):
How are the views on your site? I often journal and post excellent READMEs with detailed notes in my repo, but I doubt anyone’s looking at them. However, regardless for me, it’s great to have them hosted via GitHub for free. I can do super-fast global searches across all my repos looking inside every Swift file for code I used in the past. It’s very helpful for things I did months ago.
This is great! I’m going to take a look at one of your posts now to get a feel for your writing style. We have similar outlooks. I love the positivity!
You should create a separate post in the Community section to point others towards your blog too!
Today, I worked on a little challenge on my own on how to create a re-useable View with yes/ no questions side by side. So you can pass in a list of questions, then it will automatically create yes/ no buttons for each of them.
Originally I just put the posts on my previous personal blog site (but that’s more about my running, writing, senseless reviews about TV shows/audios, etc) that hasn’t been updated for a while. I didn’t want to fire off a load of “code” posts on there and confuse the heck out of everything!
I don’t generally get many views, but I don’t go chasing them much either. I don’t want to get sidetracked with what I think people might want to read, when all I’m doing right now is just jotting down my thoughts. Sometimes I’ll end a lesson frustrated, or get buried in a challenge that I don’t want to do, and so I use the blog to “let off steam”, but other (rare) days, something will spark. I post it “warts 'n all” so I can look back on it and see how I’ve struggled.
I did that (without blog) when I went through a weight-loss/health phase (which transition to my running) and there were many occasions when I wanted to throw the towel in but, looking back on what I’d achieved is what kept me going. I’m using this approach with coding.
I may change when I use GitHub more (at present, I’m only using it as part of the lessons). I know I want to investigate how Git/GitHub can help with my story-writing (I’ll need to find some time for that). So, maybe some time down the road I’ll end up doing what you’re doing and using it constructively.
Glad you posted all the code in its own separate blog!
Yeah, I’m the same way. Oftentimes, it’s better to just get something out. I stopped posting regularly myself on here, yet kept coding away… Going to be posting more things, more often for now on.
Interesting! I wonder indeed how Git could come in handy with story-writing… Not sure if it would help, or simply make things more complicated. It would definitely give you an accurate record of changes over time though! Beyond that I’m curious how it could help.
Unfortunately, I haven’t posted in a while here! It’s been more than 12 days at least. So for now on, I will post regularly, and stop myself from coding before ensuring I posted something from my previous wrap-up.
I’ve been working on a project on how to use JSON more to generate View code similarly to the way done in the Learning App in the Foundations course. I ran into a few snags with that, but am hoping to push through. The community here is great for answering any questions you might run into! I’m super grateful for @roosterboy taking the time to help out and answer any questions. It’s excellent coders like him that make me aspire to do better!
I’m primarily thinking that it’ll be a central repository that’ll allow me to work on the words from different machines (I do this through the cloud at the moment, but I’m always looking for alternatives).
And, secondarily, to keep track of edits and changes I make - both whilst writing (I’m a twit for editing as I write!) and also, later, when in the “editing phase”. I’ve often had occasion to lift great chunks of words out of a story when it isn’t going the way I envisaged, then using those words elsewhere later. It’d be great to have both “versions” of the story available at some later stage to see what I did, and why, and whether it would have been better to stick with the first version.
Day 52 iOS Design- M1L4 Challenge - Continuing Work on iOS Design
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
Continued the design challenge to create a sun rising behind the globe-like design. After not watching the design course for an extended period of time, it was much more difficult! Using custom iOS shapes does not come naturally to me, so I had to look across some of my older repos/ READMEs in order to understand what was going on.
Ah, yes! This is one area, where Git could come in handy. As long as you commit everything to the main branch, you’ll keep all of the different versions as they change over time. However, if there’s one section you’re toying with, then it’s often better to keep that as its own feature branch. Then, you can just jump to it at a later date. I do this with coding projects already, where you start working on a feature, but don’t finish it. I can at a later date switch to that branch, and still have all the work I did previously.
Thanks to the great advice of @roosterboy, I started to check out the official [Swift forums/ learn from what people post there:
Along with reading/ following more people in the Swift community on Twitter. That’s one of the best resources to see what people are doing that’s new/ exciting in the language.
It’s been a long time, since I last posted. I got caught up in a leadership class I’m attending, and any of my free time, I used it in a side job developing iPhone apps Going forward, I plan to study Swift one hour for every two hours I bill, or work on a separate volunteered project. This way, I will continue my learning path. I want to get into the habit of coding daily again, and finally have the time to do so!
Today, I got through most of the Custom TabViews, the first lesson in module two in the design course. I really appreciate this design course, because I find I struggle the most with SwiftUI designs/ Views. I’m great at coding logic/ methods, but Views can sometimes throw me off. Meanwhile, design plays such a huge part in the success or failure of apps, so it is critical to get these right: https://learn.codewithchris.com/courses/take/design/lessons/26070057-lesson-2-custom-tab-bars
Welcome back! Maybe the two of us can keep each other accountable to our goals through our journal. I fully understand how life takes over despite wanting to learn how to do this.
Happy to report that I finished this design lesson! I studied iOS development for about hour and a half today. I find that I will often go down little rabbit holes/ chase down things that bother me. This takes away from the actual time I spend on the lessons, which explains why I’ve spent two Saturdays on the same long 30-minute video.
I’m always impressed by Chris’s tutorials/ how he makes everything look effortless. I can’t wait to get to his level one day.
After a hiatus of a few weeks, I’m back at it once again. This time with an amazing lesson on how to create cards in the design course. Cards are one of my favorite design elements, so I’m thrilled that Chris teaches how to make these. Instead, of making the Disney+/ Rajan movie poster, I ended up photo-shopping my pet into a scene, and using him in the card!! Made it much more personal
Coded/ photo-shopped for an hour and fifteen minutes today.
Going forward, I plan to study Swift one hour for every two hours I bill, or work on a separate volunteered project. This way, I will continue my learning path. I want to get into the habit of coding daily again, and finally have the time to do so!
I only finished another lesson. it’s slow-going for me 
