Erica Sadun of The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook
I am honored to continue my developer interview series with Erica Sadun who is probably best known among iPhone developers for her much needed article against the NDA. She is also the author of The iPhone Developer’s Cookbook: Building Applications with the iPhone SDK (Developer’s Library)
What was your inspiration for writing this book? What sets it apart from other iPhone books?
I always try to write the book that I would have wanted to read. I’m a huge fan of re-usable code snippets that really show how one single concept can be executed. And that’s what I hope I brought to this book, things to make developers more productive right away.
When did you start learning the iPhone SDK? Were you also part of the jailbroken developer community?
I was involved in the Jailbreak development arena, from the first days of NightWatch’s ARM compiler. My first apps “do Shell” and “tapp” allows users to run command-line utilities from the iPhone GUI.
Interesting, so you’ve really been in there from the start! How did you see the official release of the iPhone SDK change the dynamics of iPhone development?
The official SDK did a lot to formalize the libraries and get them into a form that was ready for a wider audience of developers; earlier firmware was still very raw. I’m a big SDK fan, and yet at the same time I get frustrated by the limitations Apple has chosen to set on what devs can and cannot do.
What was your most successful iPhone app? How have you seen your apps have an effect on your personal branding?
There have been a lot (and I mean a lot! dozens!) of apps. It’s hard to put my finger on just one.
Well, I personally think Converter Pro (20-Dec-2009, editor’s note: no longer available) is the most useful, although Moo can be quite fun. I also notice that all of your apps are free. What role do you see free apps playing in the App Store?
For now, free apps relieve me of at least some of the bother of dealing with unhappy customers. I’m seriously not trying to make a statement here. I just don’t have time to build a proper business and give people the support they deserve. With free software, when someone complains you can just suggest that they demand a full refund.
Nice answer. Personally, I’ve only had one refund and it was nice because Apple dealt with it and I wasn’t even involved in the process. So, besides giving away software, what else can we expect to see from you soon relating to the iPhone?
I’m writing over at Ars Technica now as well as my ongoing O’Reilly Inside iPhone commitment.
Thank you very much for your time and interesting interview. I can’t wait to get a copy of your book when it arrives in Germany!