Neil Hargreaves

@glotcha
48 Followers
149 Following
476 Posts
I design and code software for Apple platforms to make learning languages easier.
Languages๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡งN ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡นC2 ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ชC2 ๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ทC1 ๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ญC1 ๐Ÿ‡ป๐Ÿ‡ณB1 ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ทA2
#wwdc25 I really like the new iOS design especially input accessory views + I thought this design video was really inspiring https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/359 ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘
Design foundations from idea to interface - WWDC25 - Videos - Apple Developer

Great apps feel clear, intuitive, and effortless to use. In this session, you'll discover how app design can elevate functionality,...

Apple Developer
A couple of LLM prompt keywords I use all of the time for #LanguageLearning. 'word1 vs word2' for disambiguation of two similar words as in 'trot vs canter' and 'break down word1' seems to always give a good summary of how a word is built especially useful for #Vietnamese (my current odyssey) where so many words appear in pairs so 'break down cฦฐแปng ฤ‘iแป‡u'. This makes languages with less abundant reference works a lot more accessible than they were a few years ago.
#iOS guess what happens when you long press the text size control center control
In his CHM interview Bertrand Serlet talks a lot about the importance of API design and also details Apple's mythical API review process (an email distribution list). I wonder if it survived. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpIuIImN0YI AND some bonus links to people mentioned https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Vuillemin https://www.inria.fr/en/jean-marie-hullot-perforated-cards-iphone https://charlykleissner.com/my-story/silicon-valley/
Oral History of Bertrand Serlet

YouTube
I can live without bootable backups, but making a recoverable (via Migration Assistant) image of the data partition requires booting into recovery mode and the last time I tried failed anyway with some bizarre error. Not exactly great UX and then can you really trust your Time Machine backup... #macos (Maybe every WWDC keynote should have a slide important shit we fixed that the mass media doesn't care about.)
Anyone else notice how inconsistent hide sidebar keyboard shortcuts are in Apple's #macOS apps. It's different in every app, Safari, Reminders, Notes, Mail, Xcode.
one tip that I learned when OS X first came out that I suspect might be a little obscure but really useful, when command-tabbing through apps you can command-Q to quit the focussed app #macOS
A great interview with one of the great software minds involved in the creation of Mac and Newton. Highlights 1. "your fingers are smarter than you are" ie when designing go with how the software feels 2. "it's really hard to eat your young" sometimes you have to cannibalize your own inventions to move forward (or even to avoid obsolescence) this can take a few forms, from deleting a feature to restarting completely... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsaGx0loR3M
Newton (and Mac) OS Architect - Steve Capps

YouTube
Who else would have been a Mastodon user? Think different, think Mastodon. #mastodon
Hail Mary: In Bali to do a blood donation to my father. A- blood is proving otherwise hard to source in Denpasar. If you are here and A- or know people who are (likely tourists or expats as the blood type is uncommon here) and youโ€™d be willing to donate to help, please reach out. Thanks, folks.