NetScore, the past and future

I really want to document the process of taking NetScore as it is now and updating it so it can stay around for a few more years.

The codebase is Swift, but very early Swift. The majority of the UI Components are all hard coded. No Interface Builder or SwiftUI or anything here.

It’s currently set to run on iOS 12 and later. We are currently up to iOS 17.5, with iOS 18 announced just last week at the Apple WWDC. That’s approximately 5 years. It actually speaks magnitudes to how well the app was written by the original developer. After all this time it still runs fine with minimal changes.

Saying that though, my plan is to bring it into the present. There are so many amazing features that have been released in iOS 13 through iOS 17 and soon iOS 18. I really want to take advantage of them.

Looking at the usage stats that Apple gathers, the majority of NetScore users are on iOS 16 and later. A handful of people are still on iOS 15 which in a way worries me a little haha. My plan for now though is to target iOS 16 as the minimum. So we would move from iOS 12 minimum to iOS 16 minimum. It opens up a LOT of features and benefits.

I’ve also started on a user interface update. The current interface is good. It has served the app very well for the years it has been available but I want to add some polish and a bit flare.

The plan here is to keep me accountable. I enjoy writing and this gives me a reason to write. I also need things to write about though so the will motivate me to chip away at development.

Welcome along for the ride.