App Development Archives - Kyle Matthew Oliver

App Development: Day 6

January 12, 2013January 20, 2013 Kyle 1 Comment

It’s been a short but gratifying day here. Got some good feedback from members of the community and am looking forward to finishing the functionality of the app in the coming days. But the interface is done, or very nearly done (pending some final decisions about how one should remind oneself to pray). With any luck, you’ll be able to download “RH Prayer” from the app store in the coming weeks (months?–I’ve heard it’s tough to get final approval). Since I haven’t done a very good job of describing it in these posts, let me just say it’s sort of the app-equivalent of the “Rule of Life and Weekly Prayer Cycle” pamphlets that float around this place. But there are some interactive twists, and the interface should remind you faith formation folks of Westerhoff’s stages of faith (very loosely)–the gradual process by which our connections strengthen, commitments deepen, etc.

I’ve gotta say, training to write software with a real test problem while embedded within the community you’re writing for is an incredible experience. Technically, it gave me the space I needed (i.e., not “at the office”) to be immersed in a programming language and development paradigm that was new to me. Missionally, it gave some focus to the app, so that it could solve a real problem that I could get feedback on “in situ” (inviting people to engage more fully in the prayer life of this intercessing community). Spiritually, it provided me with a community of gracious hosts who kept me motivated and from going too deep into the “programmer’s cave” (Richmond Hill: thank you, thank you, thank you. You all are the best.)

I feel like the Spirit has been up to something really wonderful in all this, and I feel grateful to be a part of it. Stay tuned for info on where this app, and our faith formation app development efforts in the Center for the Ministry of Teaching, go in the months ahead. In the meantime…screenshots! (These were taken on the iOS simulator for Mac, but I can see the same thing on my phone, which is just too cool.)

Dynamic prayer list by day according to the community's cycle of prayer — Dynamic prayer list by day according to the community’s cycle of prayer

Prayer schedule for joining the community in person

Place to set a prayer reminder--like the bells that ring here — Place to set a prayer reminder–like the bells that ring here

Invitation to live into the Richmond Hill rule of life

Invitation to volunteer in one of the community's programs — Invitation to volunteer in one of the community’s programs

It’s with a somewhat heavy heart that I leave this wonderful religious community, but I’m sure this won’t be my last trip.

See you in the app store (I hope!).

App Development: Day 5

January 12, 2013January 20, 2013 Kyle

Yesterday things shifted a bit. I can feel my priorities changing as my time here draws to an end. I’m out of free-ranging learning mode (building skills for future app development) and into a place where I hope to have a glossy prototype to show the folks here before I leave, to see if they’re interested in me adding the last bit of functionality and putting it in the app store.

Yesterday was also another slower day after the late night previously. I got to take in the local watering hole with my buddy Andrew and enjoy some excellent key lime pie. Look for one last update before I leave this evening!

App development: Day 4

January 11, 2013January 20, 2013 Kyle

I continue to break what might be the most important rule in this place. Let me explain.

You see, what we’re interested in, eventually, in the CMT is a rule of life app (more on why an app might be an appropriate companion to a rule of life in another post). So it seemed like a natural fit, when I was looking for a quiet place to spend a week learning how to write code for the iPhone, to live for a week in a community with a robust and well-integrated rule.

Indeed it has been, more so than I could imagine. People at Richmond Hill have been generous with their thoughts on community life, keeping a rule, making technology personal and local, etc. It’s been great fun and great learning, and I’m so fortunate to be working in such a nurturing environment.

The problem is that I’m not very good at working in the environment, at least on its own terms. For me, programming is a very immersive activity; it doesn’t lend itself well to well-defined blocks of time–which is how all work has to happen in this quasi-monastery. Even though the prayer bells can be my salvation (it’s always good to walk away from your code for a bit), I tend to greet them with hostility, because they’re almost always interrupting either my work or my sleep. I’m driven by urgency (the shortness of this precious time away) and joy (it’s so much fun to get things working in my app) to keep going: fix one more bug, add one more feature. But the rhythm of the rule at Richmond Hill chimes ever onward as well.

I’m certainly not alone in my computer programming habits; this is how many of us tend to work, and it’s part of the joy and frustration of this particular charism. But I can’t help but wonder, as I fight the fatigue of a late night of programming in my retreat room, what spiritual practices I’ll need to help support further app development when I’m outside the walls of this quasi-monastery and will have plenty more interruptions than thrice-daily prayer bells.

So even though I’ve struggled against the rule of stabilitas (stability) while I’ve been here, I hope my time in this community will help me take some of that spirit back with me.

App Development: Day 3

January 10, 2013January 20, 2013 Kyle

Yesterday was a harder day. The programming details were less fun, more picky. A small victory was that I got the toy app I’ve been working on loaded onto my iPhone for the first time. That’s a cool feeling. On the other hand, the program crashed for the first time yesterday as well (map views are tricky, it turns out).

I worked something like 14 hours on Tuesday (on the joy of progress and the adrenaline of being able to work uninterrupted), and yesterday that caught up with me. I went out in the evening to walk around the Carytown neighborhood, which is a cool place. Had a nice conversation with a Thai bartender who’s been here 15 years after three in Northern Virginia. He likes it better here, and I understand why. Feels more like cities in the Midwest: a little slower, more manageable, less traffic-ridden.

On the whole, it was a messier day, and I’m glad to be working at a place that acknowledges the messiness of our faith so well. I loved this picture of the Wednesday morning mass vessels in the community dishwasher. You could do worse for an icon of this place.

App Development: Day 2

January 9, 2013January 20, 2013 Kyle 1 Comment

Day 2 went (or at least ended) well enough that I feel like I can let the cat out of the bag and start making these posts public.

On the technical front: I was up late, but I made a lot of progress learning Xcode, the development environment Apple provides for writing iOS apps. What’s so cool is how easy Xcode makes it to get prototypes up and running. Maybe tonight I’ll have some screenshots to share.

On the missional front: I had a great conversation with members of the community here. Ben Campbell, the pastoral director, reminded me that one of the themes of Richmond Hill‘s proclamation is that the church as we so often know it has a real spiritual problem regarding locality. We talk a lot of general, eternal, universal truth but not nearly enough particular, immediate, and local truth (e.g., “People know more about Afghanistan than they know about the housing project down the street”). So we had some cool ideas about how prayer and spirituality apps can take on local scope (for you computer programmers: pun intended).

Loving what I’m doing here, and grateful for the hospitality and mission of this place.

App Development: Day 1

January 7, 2013January 20, 2013 Kyle

It feels good to be working on a spirituality app in the prayerful and purposeful confines of Richmond Hill. This convent-turned-ecumenical-community with a continuing vocation to pray for and work in the city is one of those gems representing the very best of what the church can be. The community Eucharist tonight doubled as a commissioning service for alums of Richmond Hill’s spiritual direction and healing prayer training programs. These wise souls are now, as I understand it, considered adjunct staff members of Richmond Hill, helping empower the community’s ministry of spiritual transformation. It was a pleasure to be among them, and I took the proceedings as a reassuring sign that I’m in the right place and doing the right work.

Another lovely bit of convergence: pastoral director Ben Campbell’s Epiphany sermon was about the “open-source messiah.” He’s a stirring preacher. The highlight for me: “You have to be pretty grounded in the Spirit to give a baby the gift of myrrh, the dark spice of death; and you have to be pretty grounded to receive it as a gift.” It was something like that, and it brought me up short indeed (not unlike a “creche to cross” sermon I heard recently).