I jumped the gun

Okay, maybe it was a bad idea to start such an ambitious project without first learning to program for iOS.

The ETA has been delayed even further by my hubris.

Hiatus

Just checking in, the development is going on hiatus due to me discovering exactly how difficult objective-c really is. I will be taking several courses online and irl, reading several books, and then I'll get back to this later.

Objective C != Simple English

Okay, I have decided to put together an app to submit spotter reports, including location and conditions. I was hoping to put together an app that would take into account location and have you enter conditions, and it would send to server where I was assuming that the Spotter Network would process them.

But no.

In fact, I quote from the SpotterNetwork website:

Developer Zone

---

• ...I want to support SN event reporting in my application

Great! It couldn't be easier.

All you need to do is provide some type of user interface such as a right-click or button-press that opens a browser window to:

http://www.spotternetwork.org/report.php?lat=[lat]&lon=[lon]

You provide the [lat] and [lon] (eg: lat=38.94&lon=-101.48) off of the users current position or where they click on a map, or any of a number of methods.

That's it! Now wasn't that easy?

I had an idea for something that could be updated over time and gain more features, but it seems that the Spotter Network disagrees with that idea.

We'll see about that.

Introduction, Announcement, and Disclaimer

Well, first of all, my name is Henry Goodwin.

I've noticed that there is currently no app available for reporting storm activity to the Spotter Network. I aim to fix that. The purpose for this blog is to document the development process, along with my twitter account (@ClariNerd617). I will happily accept comments, advice, and suggestions. Whether the suggestions are implemented depends on something very important.

I am a beginner. No, seriously, I just started learning earlier this week. I cannot promise that the first version of the app will function perfectly, nor look beautiful. I will change that over time.

In fact, I don't have a name for the app yet, I'm still brainstorming, so I guess that's the first step. I will welcome suggestions, of course.

Note to the devs for RadarScope: I have already contacted you guys, and I know you guys aren't actually working on such functionality for your app despite it having Spotter Network functionality. If any of you would like to assist me in my endeavors, any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

Edit: This blog will be updated sporadically, and will only involve major events. Watch my twitter feed @ClariNerd617 for more frequent updates.