Ivan Mir
@ivmirx.bsky.social
🚧 building indie apps
🌻 caring for the land
☸️ trying to stay heedful
may all beings be happy~
🇨🇱 Valdivia, Chile
🐈⬛ https://QotoQot.com
🦣 https://mas.to/@ivmirx
🌻 caring for the land
☸️ trying to stay heedful
may all beings be happy~
🇨🇱 Valdivia, Chile
🐈⬛ https://QotoQot.com
🦣 https://mas.to/@ivmirx
Just remembered that long time ago our site had Google Analytics, then I switched to Plausible.
Nowadays we have *zero* tracking there and in our apps, aside from what the stores provide by default (installs, daily usage).
Not missing it – fewer stats to worry about.
Nowadays we have *zero* tracking there and in our apps, aside from what the stores provide by default (installs, daily usage).
Not missing it – fewer stats to worry about.
September 8, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Just remembered that long time ago our site had Google Analytics, then I switched to Plausible.
Nowadays we have *zero* tracking there and in our apps, aside from what the stores provide by default (installs, daily usage).
Not missing it – fewer stats to worry about.
Nowadays we have *zero* tracking there and in our apps, aside from what the stores provide by default (installs, daily usage).
Not missing it – fewer stats to worry about.
One more huge similarity: no articles!
It’s such a pain learning their usage for a non-articled language speaker, and most popular Western European languages have them.
It’s such a pain learning their usage for a non-articled language speaker, and most popular Western European languages have them.
I’m diving into the Pali language (both to learn it and to build an app for it), and it’s surprising how close it is to Russian grammatically
Despite 25 centuries of separation, it has almost the same set of cases, a similarly reduced number of tenses (esp. compared to EN or ES), and three genders
Despite 25 centuries of separation, it has almost the same set of cases, a similarly reduced number of tenses (esp. compared to EN or ES), and three genders
September 1, 2025 at 5:33 PM
One more huge similarity: no articles!
It’s such a pain learning their usage for a non-articled language speaker, and most popular Western European languages have them.
It’s such a pain learning their usage for a non-articled language speaker, and most popular Western European languages have them.
I’m diving into the Pali language (both to learn it and to build an app for it), and it’s surprising how close it is to Russian grammatically
Despite 25 centuries of separation, it has almost the same set of cases, a similarly reduced number of tenses (esp. compared to EN or ES), and three genders
Despite 25 centuries of separation, it has almost the same set of cases, a similarly reduced number of tenses (esp. compared to EN or ES), and three genders
August 31, 2025 at 2:12 AM
I’m diving into the Pali language (both to learn it and to build an app for it), and it’s surprising how close it is to Russian grammatically
Despite 25 centuries of separation, it has almost the same set of cases, a similarly reduced number of tenses (esp. compared to EN or ES), and three genders
Despite 25 centuries of separation, it has almost the same set of cases, a similarly reduced number of tenses (esp. compared to EN or ES), and three genders
When you're a developer, your side skill trees options are woodworking or gardening
My build went into gardening 🌻
My build went into gardening 🌻
August 26, 2025 at 4:32 PM
When you're a developer, your side skill trees options are woodworking or gardening
My build went into gardening 🌻
My build went into gardening 🌻
That feeling when somebody makes a post on the biggest Spanish-learning subreddit because your app just got an update 😍
But it's a big one: four months of non-stop work, including trying to write the best Spanish grammar guides ever. Now waiting for users' feedback to make them perfect!
But it's a big one: four months of non-stop work, including trying to write the best Spanish grammar guides ever. Now waiting for users' feedback to make them perfect!
August 26, 2025 at 5:14 AM
That feeling when somebody makes a post on the biggest Spanish-learning subreddit because your app just got an update 😍
But it's a big one: four months of non-stop work, including trying to write the best Spanish grammar guides ever. Now waiting for users' feedback to make them perfect!
But it's a big one: four months of non-stop work, including trying to write the best Spanish grammar guides ever. Now waiting for users' feedback to make them perfect!
So, I added a form to report mistakes and instantly got a support request through it 😶
Removing it now and replacing it with the regular email contact, so I can reply to users.
An account-less app is such a rarity nowadays that people don’t realize we have 0 info about them.
#iOSDev #IndieDev
Removing it now and replacing it with the regular email contact, so I can reply to users.
An account-less app is such a rarity nowadays that people don’t realize we have 0 info about them.
#iOSDev #IndieDev
August 23, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Got this vibecoded cross-platform screenshot automation working:
github.com/QotoQot/Snap...
But now I also need to automate Figma templates for the new App Store feature where you can have 35(!!) different Custom Product Pages
Three languages = up to 2,100 screenshots 😵💫
#AppDev #iOSDev
github.com/QotoQot/Snap...
But now I also need to automate Figma templates for the new App Store feature where you can have 35(!!) different Custom Product Pages
Three languages = up to 2,100 screenshots 😵💫
#AppDev #iOSDev
GitHub - QotoQot/Snappium: Screenshot automation for iOS and Android apps via Appium
Screenshot automation for iOS and Android apps via Appium - QotoQot/Snappium
github.com
August 22, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Got this vibecoded cross-platform screenshot automation working:
github.com/QotoQot/Snap...
But now I also need to automate Figma templates for the new App Store feature where you can have 35(!!) different Custom Product Pages
Three languages = up to 2,100 screenshots 😵💫
#AppDev #iOSDev
github.com/QotoQot/Snap...
But now I also need to automate Figma templates for the new App Store feature where you can have 35(!!) different Custom Product Pages
Three languages = up to 2,100 screenshots 😵💫
#AppDev #iOSDev
Finally beta-testing an update for ConjuGato, four months in the making
Pretty burnt out – The Last 20%™ got me this time 🫠
But I'm sure I now have one of the best Spanish grammar formalizations in the world
Pretty burnt out – The Last 20%™ got me this time 🫠
But I'm sure I now have one of the best Spanish grammar formalizations in the world
August 19, 2025 at 5:39 AM
Finally beta-testing an update for ConjuGato, four months in the making
Pretty burnt out – The Last 20%™ got me this time 🫠
But I'm sure I now have one of the best Spanish grammar formalizations in the world
Pretty burnt out – The Last 20%™ got me this time 🫠
But I'm sure I now have one of the best Spanish grammar formalizations in the world
Good news for contrarians: cultivating heedfulness, equanimity, and goodwill toward others is more counter-cultural than ever
August 8, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Good news for contrarians: cultivating heedfulness, equanimity, and goodwill toward others is more counter-cultural than ever
Rarely mentioned, but LLMs allow indies to quickly level up our infrastructure.
I’ve been diving into Appium for the next release and what an impressive software, especially Appium Inspector which beats Xcode’s clunky AX Inspector.
Never had time/energy to automate QA before.
I’ve been diving into Appium for the next release and what an impressive software, especially Appium Inspector which beats Xcode’s clunky AX Inspector.
Never had time/energy to automate QA before.
August 5, 2025 at 5:24 AM
Rarely mentioned, but LLMs allow indies to quickly level up our infrastructure.
I’ve been diving into Appium for the next release and what an impressive software, especially Appium Inspector which beats Xcode’s clunky AX Inspector.
Never had time/energy to automate QA before.
I’ve been diving into Appium for the next release and what an impressive software, especially Appium Inspector which beats Xcode’s clunky AX Inspector.
Never had time/energy to automate QA before.
This is not quite healthy of course and I have trouble finding time for doing anything else, but sometimes one just needs to lock in 😤
We're so back 💫
(in 2017 I wrote "How I got to 200 productive hours a month" which got over 150k reads, but I was almost 10 years younger lol)
Tracked, of course, with qotoqot.com/qbserve/
(in 2017 I wrote "How I got to 200 productive hours a month" which got over 150k reads, but I was almost 10 years younger lol)
Tracked, of course, with qotoqot.com/qbserve/
August 2, 2025 at 4:30 PM
This is not quite healthy of course and I have trouble finding time for doing anything else, but sometimes one just needs to lock in 😤
We're so back 💫
(in 2017 I wrote "How I got to 200 productive hours a month" which got over 150k reads, but I was almost 10 years younger lol)
Tracked, of course, with qotoqot.com/qbserve/
(in 2017 I wrote "How I got to 200 productive hours a month" which got over 150k reads, but I was almost 10 years younger lol)
Tracked, of course, with qotoqot.com/qbserve/
August 2, 2025 at 4:15 PM
We're so back 💫
(in 2017 I wrote "How I got to 200 productive hours a month" which got over 150k reads, but I was almost 10 years younger lol)
Tracked, of course, with qotoqot.com/qbserve/
(in 2017 I wrote "How I got to 200 productive hours a month" which got over 150k reads, but I was almost 10 years younger lol)
Tracked, of course, with qotoqot.com/qbserve/
That feeling of wanting to share some abstract thoughts about life/tech/society, but knowing that there're so many nuances that I'll risk misinterpretation & explaining myself for hours
No no, I'm just a friendly techbro slapping together apps with the latest slop machine
Good, safe mask to wear 👹
No no, I'm just a friendly techbro slapping together apps with the latest slop machine
Good, safe mask to wear 👹
August 1, 2025 at 5:29 AM
That feeling of wanting to share some abstract thoughts about life/tech/society, but knowing that there're so many nuances that I'll risk misinterpretation & explaining myself for hours
No no, I'm just a friendly techbro slapping together apps with the latest slop machine
Good, safe mask to wear 👹
No no, I'm just a friendly techbro slapping together apps with the latest slop machine
Good, safe mask to wear 👹
So, I tried fully declarative UIs for a day… it's a hot mess tbh
The staircase of everything looks bad and it's hard to parse, hard to debug and, more importantly, hard for LLM to write. Even o3 struggled, let alone Claude.
Surely there're benefits for lots of async code, but it's not my case.
The staircase of everything looks bad and it's hard to parse, hard to debug and, more importantly, hard for LLM to write. Even o3 struggled, let alone Claude.
Surely there're benefits for lots of async code, but it's not my case.
July 30, 2025 at 7:32 AM
So, I tried fully declarative UIs for a day… it's a hot mess tbh
The staircase of everything looks bad and it's hard to parse, hard to debug and, more importantly, hard for LLM to write. Even o3 struggled, let alone Claude.
Surely there're benefits for lots of async code, but it's not my case.
The staircase of everything looks bad and it's hard to parse, hard to debug and, more importantly, hard for LLM to write. Even o3 struggled, let alone Claude.
Surely there're benefits for lots of async code, but it's not my case.
I'm still love the website design we had around 2010, back when we were a small gamedev studio.
Then the adaptive minimalism era arrived, so QotoQot.cоm ended up nowhere near as pretty. But when we finally find time for a redesign, I’m totally bringing back that cheerful vibe.
#gamedev #indie
Then the adaptive minimalism era arrived, so QotoQot.cоm ended up nowhere near as pretty. But when we finally find time for a redesign, I’m totally bringing back that cheerful vibe.
#gamedev #indie
July 28, 2025 at 5:57 PM
One of my favorite Spanish idioms is "cacarear el huevo", which literally means "to cluck about the egg" 🐔
It's close to "tooting your own horn", but does not necessarily imply bragging and can also be used positively.
"Hay que cacarear el huevo" ≈ one should make sure their efforts are noticed 🥚
It's close to "tooting your own horn", but does not necessarily imply bragging and can also be used positively.
"Hay que cacarear el huevo" ≈ one should make sure their efforts are noticed 🥚
July 16, 2025 at 2:11 AM
One of my favorite Spanish idioms is "cacarear el huevo", which literally means "to cluck about the egg" 🐔
It's close to "tooting your own horn", but does not necessarily imply bragging and can also be used positively.
"Hay que cacarear el huevo" ≈ one should make sure their efforts are noticed 🥚
It's close to "tooting your own horn", but does not necessarily imply bragging and can also be used positively.
"Hay que cacarear el huevo" ≈ one should make sure their efforts are noticed 🥚
Finally set up text substitutions for:
-> to →
and
<- to ←
Earlier I already had ^^2 for ² and ^^3 for ³
Any other useful substitutions you have on #macos?
-> to →
and
<- to ←
Earlier I already had ^^2 for ² and ^^3 for ³
Any other useful substitutions you have on #macos?
July 15, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Finally set up text substitutions for:
-> to →
and
<- to ←
Earlier I already had ^^2 for ² and ^^3 for ³
Any other useful substitutions you have on #macos?
-> to →
and
<- to ←
Earlier I already had ^^2 for ² and ^^3 for ³
Any other useful substitutions you have on #macos?
Wow, just saw a thread about C# with commenters still saying in 2025 that it's only for Windows, it's niche for MS stuff, etc. 🫠
I've been developing in C# exclusively on Mac since 2013, and .NET has been open-source for over a decade and deployed on Linux a lot!
#dotnet #csharp
I've been developing in C# exclusively on Mac since 2013, and .NET has been open-source for over a decade and deployed on Linux a lot!
#dotnet #csharp
July 15, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Inter is such a great font for mobile dev: it’s quite close to Roboto, so Roboto becomes a condensed Inter.
It’s even closer to SF Pro, although a bit more spacious, which makes it great for long body texts on iOS, where SF Pro can feel a bit too interface'ish.
rsms.me/inter/
#AndroidDev #iOSDev
It’s even closer to SF Pro, although a bit more spacious, which makes it great for long body texts on iOS, where SF Pro can feel a bit too interface'ish.
rsms.me/inter/
#AndroidDev #iOSDev
Inter font family
Inter is a typeface family
rsms.me
July 12, 2025 at 2:33 AM
Inter is such a great font for mobile dev: it’s quite close to Roboto, so Roboto becomes a condensed Inter.
It’s even closer to SF Pro, although a bit more spacious, which makes it great for long body texts on iOS, where SF Pro can feel a bit too interface'ish.
rsms.me/inter/
#AndroidDev #iOSDev
It’s even closer to SF Pro, although a bit more spacious, which makes it great for long body texts on iOS, where SF Pro can feel a bit too interface'ish.
rsms.me/inter/
#AndroidDev #iOSDev
Reposted by Ivan Mir
📰 deliberate intentional practice
deliberate intentional practice
Something I've been wondering about for a really long time is essentially why do people say AI doesn't work for them? What do they actually mean when they say that?
From which identity are they coming from? Are they coming from the perspective of an engineer with a job title and sharing their experiences in a particular company, in that particular codebase? Or are they coming from the perspective that they've tried at home and it hasn't worked for them there?
Now this distinction is really imp
ghuntley.com
June 4, 2025 at 9:33 AM
📰 deliberate intentional practice
My weekend project:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ FivestaRSS: a small service that pulls your app’s reviews from the App Store and Google Play into an RSS feed.
You can then connect the feed to Slack, Discord, or anywhere else that supports RSS.
github.com/QotoQot/Five...
#IndieDev #MobileDev #iOSDev #AndroidDev
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ FivestaRSS: a small service that pulls your app’s reviews from the App Store and Google Play into an RSS feed.
You can then connect the feed to Slack, Discord, or anywhere else that supports RSS.
github.com/QotoQot/Five...
#IndieDev #MobileDev #iOSDev #AndroidDev
GitHub - QotoQot/FivestaRSS: RSS feed of your app's reviews in App Store and Google Play
RSS feed of your app's reviews in App Store and Google Play - QotoQot/FivestaRSS
github.com
June 30, 2025 at 8:02 PM
My weekend project:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ FivestaRSS: a small service that pulls your app’s reviews from the App Store and Google Play into an RSS feed.
You can then connect the feed to Slack, Discord, or anywhere else that supports RSS.
github.com/QotoQot/Five...
#IndieDev #MobileDev #iOSDev #AndroidDev
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ FivestaRSS: a small service that pulls your app’s reviews from the App Store and Google Play into an RSS feed.
You can then connect the feed to Slack, Discord, or anywhere else that supports RSS.
github.com/QotoQot/Five...
#IndieDev #MobileDev #iOSDev #AndroidDev
Apparently, the only affordable options for small-team chat with calls and screen sharing are:
• MS Teams ($4/user/mo)
• Chanty ($3/user/mo)
• Discord (free)
Teams feels too bloated, and Chanty is too obscure. Discord also has a benefit of always-on voice channels instead of calls.
#IndieDev
• MS Teams ($4/user/mo)
• Chanty ($3/user/mo)
• Discord (free)
Teams feels too bloated, and Chanty is too obscure. Discord also has a benefit of always-on voice channels instead of calls.
#IndieDev
June 28, 2025 at 6:43 AM
Apparently, the only affordable options for small-team chat with calls and screen sharing are:
• MS Teams ($4/user/mo)
• Chanty ($3/user/mo)
• Discord (free)
Teams feels too bloated, and Chanty is too obscure. Discord also has a benefit of always-on voice channels instead of calls.
#IndieDev
• MS Teams ($4/user/mo)
• Chanty ($3/user/mo)
• Discord (free)
Teams feels too bloated, and Chanty is too obscure. Discord also has a benefit of always-on voice channels instead of calls.
#IndieDev
Stumbled into a tough issue and finally got inspired to start a dev blog.
Yup, 2025 might be a bit late, but better than never…
qotoqot.com/tech/ios-bin...
#DotNet #CSharp #iOSDev
Yup, 2025 might be a bit late, but better than never…
qotoqot.com/tech/ios-bin...
#DotNet #CSharp #iOSDev
Binding to native iOS frameworks in .NET 9
Step-by-step guide to creating C# bindings to native iOS frameworks
qotoqot.com
June 24, 2025 at 3:34 AM
Stumbled into a tough issue and finally got inspired to start a dev blog.
Yup, 2025 might be a bit late, but better than never…
qotoqot.com/tech/ios-bin...
#DotNet #CSharp #iOSDev
Yup, 2025 might be a bit late, but better than never…
qotoqot.com/tech/ios-bin...
#DotNet #CSharp #iOSDev
