[ChrisMarshallNY]

I downloaded the app on my iPad, because someone told me it was the new hotness.

As soon as I started it, it was fixed to an iPhone window.

This was about a year ago. No apps should ever do that. It means the app is crap quality.

I nuked it, and forgot about it.

[jonas21]

There are plenty of good reasons to dislike Clubhouse, but the lack of an iPad UI on day one is not one of them. When you're building something new, you have to prioritize, and insisting on polish like this just helps to entrench the big players.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

That’s not what I’m talking about. It’s easy to write an iOS app that can adapt to an iPad. If it doesn’t, then that means that some kind of outdated hybrid system was used, or they hired the absolute cheapest coders they could find, that used fearfully primitive techniques (or both).

I’ve been writing iOS apps for many years, and have never written one that doesn’t immediately adapt to an iPad. Even my cruddiest, written-in-two-hours test harnesses run on iPads without that ghastly “2X” button. Heck, my very first ObjC “hello world” app adapted to iPads. It’s pretty much built into the SDK.

TBH, I’m not even sure how to get the 2X to appear.

But it’s not my app, or my money. I just didn’t want to waste my time on a bad app. I doubt that I’m the reason they face-planted.

[jonas21]

If you don't check the box that says you support the iPad when building your app, then it will run on the iPad at iPhone resolution, with the option to scale up 2x to fill the screen.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

Why on Earth would anyone do that?

If I want the app to only run on iPhone, then I’d sniff for it on startup, and present an alert (or, more likely, in my case, a screen), saying “iPhone only.” I own a couple of apps that do exactly that (not ones I wrote). There may be a way to provision the app, so it is not even made available on the App Store, for iPads. I don’t know. I’ve never done that. I think I have a couple of phone apps that have never even been made available for my iPads.

But an app like Clubhouse should run fine on iPad. I can’t think of any technical reason it shouldn’t run on iPad.

I have had dealings with extremely low-cost outsourcing shops, though, and they have a nasty habit of giving us exactly what we asked for; nothing more, nothing less. If the spec said “iPhone Only,” then I could see them turning that checkbox off, as it’s cheaper than writing a sniffer.

If someone does a bad job in one place (especially a highly visible place), then I generally assume that I am seeing the tip of the iceberg, and that they do a bad job, everywhere else. It’s been a fairly good assumption, in my experience.

I just feel that a “major buzz” app, like Clubhouse, should not present that iPhone resolution screen. It’s a perfect example of a brand-wrecking footgun.

[nebula8804]

I think Instagram does this to this very day? Your video is something not shared by all.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

I'm not sure that I'd hold up Instagram as an exemplar of good iOS apps. I've chatted with folks that worked on it.

[nebula8804]

Isn't it one of the most downloaded apps? Some would say that makes it a good app. I guess your definition can vary but my point is that your criteria clearly does not matter to a large number of users.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

> Some would say that makes it a good app.

It’s hard to argue with “It makes money!”.

As long as people are willing to pay for junk, then there will always be a firehose of junk.

It’s still junk, though; even if it wins.

Almost every project I write is filled with compromise; especially as it nears release, and I always have a powerful urge to rewrite it from scratch, but I don’t feel shame. It’s not junk. It represents a sincere effort to do great work.

That’s one reason that I’m so glad to be out of the rat race, and doing my own thing. I feel dirty, if I am knowingly writing junk. My work is a craft, and a labor of love. I get great personal satisfaction from it. Making money, and “beating the competition,” aren’t even minor factors.

You can’t shovel shit, without getting it on you.