2014

Back from a long vacation. Then I resumed my office work. A lot of things to do so I neglected this blog for a while. 2013 went in smoke. Not a very nice year, but not too tough either. However, one year I was not very fond of. I am looking back to some stakes I set one year ago.

So it’s time for self-evaluation.

To bring my Objective-C knowledge to an expert level

Probably not a SMART objective. Although I had some progress, I should’ve defined what “expert” means. Thus, I cannot assess whether I reached this objective or not. But, again, not a failure either. So let’s settle for a 60% completion.

To improve my skills in C and C++

Definitely achieved. I know much more now than one year ago. 100%

To start exploring C# and programming for windows

This became more and more important due to some tasks at office that I need to complete; I managed quite good in this area. Finalised an app in C#, on my Toshiba PC, not too complex but functional. Thus a full “100% achieved” for this.

To finish reading all books I have purchased so far for my kindle, including essays, history and other stuff (not only programming);

Hm. That was major. And too ambitious. The problem is that I should have written down a list of books that I want to finish, not all of them. Meanwhile I bought several other so it became impossible to track this objective. Although not a failure (I have read many books in 2013), impossible to assert. Lesson learned: write a list and stick to that list. 😉

Some other important things were to pull myself together and bring at least one new post on this blog weekly, on a major topic. A TOTAL FAILURE ! Remember my goals:

• To write a tutorial on cocoa delegates → started; never finished.
• To write an article on memory management → started; never finished.
• To start a series on using C++ with XCode projects → started; never finished.
• To write an article on using Apple Instruments for application profiling and performance–tuning → started; never finished.
• To start a “Code Snippets and Hints” series, with small articles on very narrow topics; like, for example, to provide snippets of attributedSubstringFromRange: or other classes instance methods; see below. that’s an older idea I had while reading apple documentation, for each instance method to write an example  → started; some articles posted; not a complete failure. 😀
• To start a series on class clusters → never started; never finished.

On the other hand, I’ve wrote several other posts, so, somehow, this is balanced. Lesson learned: never commit to a certain publishing agenda. Due to my job and some other distractions, plans remain plans. Without a very solid push and commitment, it is almost impossible to stick to the objectives.

So, what’s for 2014 ? Plain answer: nothing; let me get back to all my draft posts, to all requests I got by email, to my personal projects and let me keep this as it should be: a place to get relaxation, not to feel that I have a [another] job.

Wish you a great 2014 !

AP