Little Go

The newest bugfix release 0.9.2 for Little Go has finally been released on the App Store last night. It took a bit longer than originally expected because I didn't manage to submit the binary before Apple closed their iTunes Connect service for the Christmas holiday.

0.9.2 addresses a number of crashing and memory leak issues which should help to further increase stability. As good as this sounds, I am not yet done with bugfixing because I have received reports for a new type of crash. Also I have become aware of a few changes in iOS 6 that make it necessary to revise the strategy for releasing memory when the app receives a memory warning. I don't know yet if I am going to roll these things out in another bugfix release (0.9.3), or if I will incorporate them into the next feature release. The decision largely depends on the feedback I get for 0.9.2.

The bugfix release 0.9.1 has just gone live on the App Store this morning. It fixes another glitch in the Ko detection routine (the same function I already muddled with for 0.8.1). Get the newest sources from GitHub.

Unfortunately 0.9.2 is already in the works: The new crash reporting feature in 0.9.0 has led to over 80 crashes being reported in only a few days. As sad as it is to see that the app I am sweating over is not as perfect as I would have liked it to be, it is still a good thing to see those bugs finally coming out into the open so that I can squash them. It also proves that adding both a crash reporting and a general in-app bug reporting feature in 0.9.0 was well worth the effort. If I ever start another iOS app project I will certainly launch the app with both of these QA features already in place.

The bugtracker for Little Go has now moved to GitHub. From now on everybody who has a GitHub account will be able to submit new issues without emailing me first. The few tickets that are still open on the old tracker will be duplicated on GitHub and closed on the old tracker.

Little Go 0.9.0 has just been released to the App Store. The source code for the new version is available directly from GitHub.

The main feature of the release is that there are three new profile settings that provide much improved control over the computer player's playing strength. The other major focus has been on QA stuff: You can now choose to send a crash report if the app crashes, and you can send a bug report with attached diagnostics information at any time. Last but not least there have also been a number of bugfixes; the most important improvement probably is that the game is now saved after each move instead of only when the app is suspended. A crash should now be merely annoying instead of causing catastrophic data loss.

The Little Go source code repository has moved to GitHub. I will remove the old repository on git.herzbube.ch in the next couple of days.

I recently stumbled upon Trello, a cool new service that provides simple task-oriented project organization. As an experiment, I have added a Trello board for Little Go and put most of the roadmap features and TODO ideas up on that board. Have a look and let me know what you think about it.

A couple of days ago Little Go 0.8.1 has been released to the App Store, and today I have put up the source tar ball on the project page. Even though the new version has only 2 new things it's definitely worth the upgrade: You'll get an important bugfix and a new spiffy app icon (contributed by Daniel Máslo).

Today Little Go 0.8.0 (project page) has been released to the App Store. This version introduces iPad support, including hi-res icons for the retina display of the iPad 3. The user interface remains largely unchanged, though, and has not been adapted to take advantage of the larger screen estate available on the iPad. I will try to think of something for one of the next versions, but the focus for 0.9.0 will clearly be on improved control over the computer player's playing strength. I'm a casual player, and Fuego consistently beats me with infuriating non-chalance - I must do something about this ☺.

Today Little Go 0.7 has finally been released on the App Store. Although the app was initially rejected by Apple's review team, I was quickly able to point out why the reason given was clearly wrong. Although I am happy that the app is in the store now, I am still a bit peeved at how arbitrary the rejection seemed to be - it almost looked as if the reviewer hadn't even bothered to launch the app a single time. Fixing a genuine bug would have been OK, but seeing 10 months of work being casually dismissed with a copy & pasted statement is a bit hard to swallow...

Anyway, the 0.7 release of Little Go adds no new features, but fixes a couple of serious bugs. Other than that, the main work that has been done is the addition of artwork such as an application icon, and in-game icons for the tab bar and the toolbar on the game view. As usual you can grab the sources from the project page.

Despite the original plan to focus on stability, a few things that could also be seen as features have managed to creep into the new beta release of Little Go. Of course, if you ask me I will say that those feature-like things in reality are bugfixes ☺ that were necessary to make Little Go ready for the App Store. Care for an example? A stone is now displayed immediately when you touch the board with your fingertip - a great improvement in my opinion! Also the mess with GTP engine settings has been finally cleared up, and... wait, why am I writing this? Check out the project page and see for yourself...