Monday, November 30, 2009

Static Iphone libraries.

As I started to work with Xcode I started to get utility routines that I would like to use across multiple projects. The first 'solution' is to just copy those into the new application. From a software engineering standpoint this is not bad, it is very bad.

I found a VERY useful post at
http://blog.stormyprods.com/2008/11/using-static-libraries-with-iphone-sdk.html

This provides in great detail how to establish a static library which can then be linked into your applications. Any routine that will be used in more than one application should be in a static library.

A useful idea: Sight Words Lists Unlimited

The next idea, which I will probably publish first is a simple flash card application. My daughter and son are learning how to read. In addition to learning phonics, they also need to learn sight words. I've spent a lot of time creating flash cards, and going over them.

In addition my daughter will often have a specific set of 8 sight words to learn for that week. She needs to learn those for this weeks test, but we also need to go over the older sight words so that she continues to gain mastery over them.



There are multiple sight word applications in the store, but most of them suffer from limitations that I can bypass.



Exiting Limitations on many sight word applications


  1. A lot of the applications only support 100 or fewer of the sight words, divided into groups, and which have to be purchased separately.

  2. The applications only allow you to use the pregenerated sight words.

  3. The ability to limit the words you go over to a specific set is not present, or is not easy to use.

The following are the features of the sight words application I would like to develop.


Minimum Feature List (in priority order)


  1. It should include all of the common sight words, both from the Dolch and Fry sight word lists with out of the box spoken versions of all those words.
  2. It should support the ability to add additional words to the list.
  3. It should support the ability to record your own version of the words using the iPhone.
  4. It should support the ability to create and manage sub lists of the total word set.

Additional nice to have features

  1. The ability to designate individual words to be successfully identified or not, and to remove the successfully identified ones from the current pool.
  2. The ability to change fonts and colors.
  3. The ability to restore the DB back to its original state.
  4. Games where a word is pronounced and select a sight word from individual choices. The faster the word is selected the higher the score.
  5. Better graphics and colors