On a whim I made a simple app for interpreting NFPA 704 signs, also known as fire diamonds. Frankly, unless you’re like really into safety or fun UIs, then you’re better off reading the poster on your break room wall. That said, it’s up on the App Store for a buck if you happen to be in the small audience of folks who might find it handy.

Two years ago I dove into native app development on Apple devices. It’s been an adventure, but it feels like I’m finding a rhythm. Den v1.9.2 is the best release yet. The big news is that I’ve finally solved the image handling issues. I have no idea how I missed the plethora of open source libraries out there, or why I went down the road of handling image download/scaling/caching myself, but I do apologize. Now Den uses Kingfisher for images and works much better for it.

Looking to the future of the project. I feel like Apple has broken me down and built me back up like a drill sargent might crack a new recruit. Now having a grip on the basics, I’m ready to dive into more exciting feature development. Trends powered by natural language processing, AI powered recommendations, and a browser extension are a few of the larger features in the works.

In summary, Den has been a bigger effort than I originally anticipated, but along the way I’ve also come to understand the unexpected depth and detail that goes into native apps. Development is continuing on a more chill path now that the core app experience is in a good spot.