Goodbye, Weightrack

March 25, 2021

Last December I received an email from Apple informing me that my very first app Weightrack would require an update by March to remain in the App Store, because it was built with an old iOS SDK that could not be signed anymore.

While in the past I’ve been able to let go other apps, this one stayed in the back of my mind the whole time…

Weightrack, quite obviously if you look at what it does and how it does it, never saw big download numbers, totaling just 7.130 downloads since August 2014, with IAP sales barely surpassing 100 $ total; it’s a rudimental app, with basic functionality and a user interface I try really hard to be proud of but seriously, no…

Still, a couple months ago I spent a good part of a weekend trying to bring it to the latest screen sizes and SDK. I quickly realised it would be possible to keep it somewhat alive, thanks mostly to the fact it’s an Objective-C project, but my code was as bad as you can imagine, so I kept post-poning additional work on it.

I felt and feel some kind of obligation, because Weightrack not only is my first app, but it’s my first Xcode project and the thing I used to teach myself to program absolutely from zero, only with the help of Google and of some excellent Lynda.com courses… In those months of exciting development I learned about object oriented programming, Objective-C, Xcode, debugging, a bit about iCloud sync and integrating third party libraries, and possibly the most valuable thing, it taught me about shipping and submitting an app.

I actually still remember quite vividly popping a Corona, with my feet in the pool and enjoyining a warm August night, just after submitting it for review… I had no expectations of downloads, but was quite proud of having made it to the final line. It felt amazing and I am glad I took a moment to celebrate that first step. 😊

Back to reality, I am thankful because without those months of development I would not be here today, and yet I must admit it would be irrational, and utterly self-referential and nostalgic, to sink more time on Weightrack in 2021, so I’m letting it go when this month wraps.

If you want to see how basic my first attempt at iOS development was, and marvel at some really bright colors, I guess you have a few more days to download it for free and benevolently smile at it…