Learn Your Lines 3.0 is now available on the App Store. I began making the app my freshman year of college as a way to learn iOS development and 4 years later, it’s now the longest-running project of my life. I began work on this new version a in December 2016 with the goal of creating an app that was actually good. I’m not sure I fully succeeded in that, but it sure is a huge improvement.

What’s New

Dialogues Support

Last year, I wrote a series of blog posts discussing my approach to adding support for dialogues to the app. Looking back on those posts, I was laughably optimistic about how long it would take me, but it all worked out eventually.

New Visual Design

I spent a lot of energy redesigning the app to make it cleaner, friendlier, and more usable. My initial inspiration was iOS 11’s redesign of the App Store app. I really like the new design Apple is moving towards, with the big rounded buttons, drop shadows, and bouncing animations. Following suit, I did my best to incorporate some of these elements into Learn Your Lines. I’m pretty happy with the result.

A Million Other Things

I also did a lot of refactoring to modernize the app, taking advantage of new features in iOS and UIKit.

Making Stuff For People

I’m super proud of all the work I’ve done and all that I’ve learned since starting Learn Your Lines. My enjoyment making Learn Your Lines is what solidified my decision to study computer science in school. I wrote a post in 2016 about how I found making software for real people hugely motivating. The feeling continues to this day. I’m now an employed iOS developer at a software company, and when I think back to how I got where I am, it all started with Learn Your Lines.