Jon Brown - Developer, entrepreneur, and Apple technologist

App Development: I started tinkering with web development in 1998 in college, and was hooked from there. Learned HTML, JS, CSS, and PHP as my core stack and then moved into Python, Obj-C and then Swift.
Industry: App Development
Duration: 3 Years
Topic: App, Web, Desktop App, iOS and Widget Development

When learning how to develop, for me it was a slow progression of just figuring out how things worked. I didn't go to school for a BS, I was enrolled in a BA of Graphic Design and so I was obsessed with the look, feel and utility of programs which is what drew me to Apple products as far back as the 90s.

I dabbled early on with Tripod, a Lycos free hosting website solution similar to Geocities but way cooler. Initially I created websites like that with free online builders before getting into the code and learning HTML and CSS. Javascript would come naturally, interestingly enough I was also drawn to Flash and became an expert in Actionscript which at the time was very similar to Javascript but in the Flash UI.

From there I continued to build sites and then when I was hired at Food & Water Watch, was able to go to the Big Nerd Ranch where I learned how to program in Objective C and created my first ever iOS app for the organization called the Smart Seafood Guide where we called out the fish that were good to eat and those that were on the "Dirty Dozen" list of fish to avoid for bad fishing practices.

During that time Apple was phasing out their Dashboard Widgets and I was learning how to convert the code I had invested in and built out macOS apps as an outlet to continue the work and thus BeFit for Mac was born. It took the utility from my 2 widgets, Calorie Counter, and the database of foods Calorie Tracker to create a one stop app to track food intake and measure that against your desired BMI over time.

Having an app to accompany the BeFit app on the phone was important and thats what I developed next releasing BeFit Tracker for iOS giving you the same functionality in addition however the ability to add custom foods by scanning the barcode of any on the shelf product.

Dashboard Widgets Designed and Developed 2006-2010

What lessons have I learned while developing widgets?

"It was quite the experience. One thing I loved was the community, and you would think, a group of people, who are huge fans of dashboard widgets was a small community but what I learned is no matter what you love you can build community around that thing no matter how niche. "

macOS Applications Designed and Developed 2006-2023

What lessons have I learned while developing Mac Apps?

"Mac Apps are a challenge. While they have a suggested UI and set of rules, they really are a lot more open to creative input then any other kind of app. You really can create your own interface elements, solve UI problems you really do have creative reign. Its a lot harder to program for in my view because of that but with storyboards and some of those standards brought by Swift its a lot easier. "

iOS Applications Designed and Developed 2018-2023

What lessons have I learned while developing iOS Apps?

"I feel like Apple really invested in making iOS app development easy. That and shifting to Swift for me made it much easier to embrace. The ecosystem for adding in third party plugins like CocoaPods, and Carthage also made it easy for me to ship new features faster. Apple adopting that plugin method as well it really opened up the doors to rapid development. "