It has been six month since my last post. I always promised myself to write more often but never really found a good time to do so. Anyway, they say it is better late than never. Since PlayXiangqi.com was introduced last year (June 2009), the free service now has all 1.0 versions for three different environments: Desktop, Web, and Mobile (iPhone) - all open source on Google Code The latest release of the iPhone app, namely HOXChess-1.0, which was just released two days ago, is particularly interesting. Even with a small limited screen size of 320 x 480 pixels, I was able to pack more features into it than the other two desktop and web clients. Somehow, I feel that developing for mobile environments really fits me well. My deep background in C/C++ and my particular interests in Linux in the last 10 years really help me to pickup iPhone development skills quickly. To be fair, deep down to the lowest level, every software, small or big, is just a bunch of bits and bytes. Nothing is really complicated. We just have to learn to how to organize and not let them go out of control. Also, I have seen people emphasize too much on programming languages or frameworks that they sometimes forget to focus on developing the features that benefits the end users. Despite the availability of many high-level languages like Java, C#, Python, ActionScript 3.0,... Apple has been able to deliver the best end-user products with purely C and Objective-C. Who says C is only good for low-level and embedded devices?
Continued with my last August post, so far I am pretty happy with SliceHost.com. While relying on general-purpose, web-oriented hosting sites like HostMonster.com certainly saves money ($7 vs. $20), having the flexibility and reliability of a full Linux OS (even though it is virtual) brings me a peace of mind and allows me to focus on tackling the real problems.
Given the older iPhone app NevoChess got 20k downloads in 10 weeks, I am wondering what the new improved version HOXChess could do...
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