So this afternoon I sat down to update an iOS app using Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 and and Xamarin. Connecting too my MacBook Air I was informed that I needed too update the Xamarin iOS library and Xamarin could do it if I wanted. So I let it. And then it sits there after having downloaded the library install file to the Mac and says something went wrong and it couldn’t be installed. Great.

I look up the problem. Seems that there might have been a problem with the download. Looking on the Internet this seems to be a common problem and some solved it by using a link and going their PC and downloading the library, putting it on a USB drive and sneaker netting it to the Mac. But another suggestion was to update Visual Studio on the Mac which I have installed because I found just having Xamarin for remote builds didn’t work as advertised.

So I updated Visual Studio 2019 to the latest version. Fine and a new iOS library for Xamarin was also installed. Except that VS on my Windows machine complained it couldn’t use that update. Huh? The VS on my PC is the latest version too. Anyone at Microsoft ever heard of synchronizing releases? This is the problem when you get rid of supervisors whose job is to see those things happen.

See the library update installed on the Mac was TOO NEW! The PC VS wanted a previous version. So I downloaded that version to my Linux box which was quick. Then I wondered why use a USB stick. I should just be able to move it across my local network. Yup, that opened another can of worms including file sharing setting on the Mac, yada yada yada.

To shorten the story I did wind up just putting it on a USB stick, plugging it into the Mac, copying to the desk top and clicking on it. Seems the install went okay (which it did).

So back to VS on Windows. Again Xamarin runs and now complains that Xcode needs to be updated to version 12.1. Great. Of course as many Apple developers will tell you the process of downloading a developer app doesn’t work too well on the App Store. You get to watch it stall out after a while. Yeah, the solution is to get the link at the developer section and download from there. Which worked though Apple’s servers are still a lot slower than Microsoft’s.

So right now hours later the update of Xcode is installing. All this to build the iOS app with two line changes so that it only runs in Light mode. Seems newer iPhone users want to run dark mode and were getting nothing but a dark screen in my app. I don’t seem to recall Apple who is pretty good about telling us what things to update saying we needed to do this. Also changing an app to run in dark mode is no trivial thing especially since my app does some custom charts and graphics. So to at least one customer I informed them to change back to light mode at least when running the app. But for two lines of code that won’t be a problem for any other customers.

Now, tomorrow to see what other surprises and gotchas will stall what should be a quick and easy update. Sometimes we spend more time dealing with our tools than writing our apps.

Most all of my programming work over the years has been at home. The only office work I did was in the 1990s and there I was managing projects and programming teams. But when I was hired to work in-house for the company I had done contract work I was hired as a technical director and not as a programmer. One of my first tasks turn out to be bringing some programmers who worked at home in-house. They were having problems doing remote work and one was remarked how happy he was to be brought into the office.

Working at home isn’t easy for some. It takes certain discipline. But there are a few tricks for it. When I worked at home I always took care of any errands, exercise, etc at the start of the day. This way none of these things like grocery shopping or going for my walk didn’t hang over my head as a distraction while I tried to work.

Now, this might be more difficult for someone in a family situation but another trick is to know when to end the day before you burn out. It is counter productive to push yourself beyond your limits. So folks with families I knew who worked at home set it up so they were done in time to spend the evening with their family.

Of course you probably need to let managers know about schedule and they will need to adjust for it finding you are not available at 9 AM but try anytime after 1 PM. One other thing about doing this given some of the commutes people face these days is you will be fresh when you start work and not worn out from a morning commute. That leads to more productivity.