Impressionism and Software Development

12/08/2016 by Leave a Comment

A few thoughts this week. After getting to know Apple’s CoreAudio and AudioUnits for a bit, I decided to take a step back and have a second look at AVFoundation. AVFoundation is supposed to be easier to deal with, but my initial learning of it, it didn’t seem as powerful. I may have been mistaken about that. I have to say that giving AVFoundation and the AVAudio Classes a second lookg was a smart move. It definitely seems to be more powerful then I originally thought, and easier to use. I have a feeling it is probably going to be the level I do the audio work for the project. It is not that I would not want to become a CoreAudio wizard, but seriously working with CoreAudio is like living in the Upside Down.

I am also thinking I am also going to start using XCode 8 beta, so when Apple releases the next everything in a month or so it isn’t a shock to relearn everything. Plus, after checking out the beta, I have to say the Documentation for Apple’s API is presented much better. Sure, there is a lot they could still add, but it is an improvement to how it is presented in XCode 7.

Finally, I have to say something about the fact the iPhone 7 is not going to have a headphone jack. I am not exactly happy with this, but then again I am not surprised. This the pretty typical of the changes [curveballs] that has been thrown my way in trying to develop for Apple. The problem is that the Structure Sensor needs the Lightning port, and I use the headphone port on my iPhone 6 for the audio. I need both ports for this project to work.

Now, I have no pressing interest to get this working on iPhone 7, so I am not too bothered by it. My guess is that the iPhone 6 models will probably be available for a while well, and they are just about perfect for this project. Still, I am hoping some third party company comes out with a Lightning port splitter. I am sure there are a lot of people like me which still use the AUX audio port for listening to their iPhones in their cars and recharge their phones with the Lightning port at the same time.

That is all for now.

Filed under CS-610-Masters-Project, SEAR-RL-2

About ForeverTangent
Was a Masters of Computer Science Student at the University of Kentucky. Previous Masters of Entertainment Technology from Carnegie Mellon. Before that Graduated from Berklee College of Music. I have worked for Public Radio and the Video Games industry. Most of my interests now are UI and Accessibility Issues for Technology.

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