Mike suggested a couple minutes ago that this would be the perfect blog post title for his latest little mistake learning experience. It was a pretty novice problem but one of the many simple perils which must be overcome when learning the ins and outs of iPhone development.
So, you all know about that application we worked frantically on last night and this afternoon? You know, the one we blogged about here? Well, all was going fine and dandy until we got back from our Chipotle lunch break.
After fiddling around with some file stuff, Mike broke his code and couldn't get a nearly done application to launch on the iPhone simulator. Mike tried relentlessly to search the code for problems but couldn't come up with anything that would produce the errors he was seeing. After about 3-4 hours of solid work to make this app, he was rather devastated. We spent about 20 minutes discussing back-up options while scouring the internet for tips and tricks from iPhone developer help sites.
Laugh at this if you want, but our saving grace in this sticky scenario delivered itself in the form of an "iPhone Application Development for Dummies" book which Mike bought at Barnes and Noble yesterday.
This book has more than doubled it's value over the last day or so, with Mike finding a whole bunch of useful information inside it's yellow bindings. If you're looking to make an iPhone app, definitely drop a few bucks on this book.Through his reading, he learned of a software feature called Snapshot where code is saved your current state. It's really easy to perform, all you do is perform a File>Make Snapshot and you'll see any changes made from your last Snapshot. You're also given the option to revert back to any old state with the click of a mouse.
It's a nifty little "must-know" feature and something Mike plans to use often as he rewrites the entire application he messed up over the next day or so. Luckily for him, he already wrote pretty much the entire app and now knows exactly what he's doing.Have something to say about this post? Click here to join the conversation.