I've always been curious about phone apps and what the development and release process was. Finding out meant either getting an Android phone so that I could test how it felt to use my own app in a real phone (because my family is well within in the walled garden of the Apple ecosystem) or procuring an Apple product that would allow me to explore this, which I've never owned.

Finally I decided a couple months back to go down the garden path. (Can you blame me; how else would my own family get to try it? You know what, don't answer that.) So I rolled up my sleeves and set about learning the development process, learning about XCode, about Swift, about SwiftUI and I have to say… it has not entirely been the romantic effort I dreamt it to be.

It does not help that the documentation and training I procured is focused on the older Swift paradigm and that I am trying to adhere to the new SwiftUI paradigm that Apple is moving to. Declarative programming is not something I have run into before and I am genuinely struggling to think in the way I am being asked to. It's discouraging and frustrating and has completely upended my expectations of what this process would be. However I am determined to conquer my frustrations and doubts and intend to release my app despite the foundation upon which it is built.

I hope to take you along with me.