Eytan’s Workspace
Before beginning this week’s interview, I’d just like to thank everyone for the great response we got to our first interview a few weeks ago. The feedback we got was great and we have an amazing lineup that we can’t wait to show you.
This week I spoke to Eytan Schulman. He is from the New York area but presently lives in Tel Aviv. Eytan has been doing iOS development since 2010.
I understand you attended WWDC 2014. Do you mind sharing your experience?
I attended WWDC ’14 through a Student Scholarship. It was an amazing experience. The opportunity to be surrounded by so many other developers my age (and hanging out with developers in general) was extraordinary. Being able to speak to Apple engineers about new technologies was incredible. Of course, most memorable are the long lasting friendships I made. WWDC was overall amazing.
Your Twitter bio says you know Objective-C and Swift. Has learning Swift been different from the learning process of Objective-C?
Learning Swift was not difficult for me, since I already know the basic methods in Cocoa/Cocoa Touch. I learned to program when I learned Objective-C, Swift is just another language. It was much easier because of my prior knowledge.
The apps you create are largely based off of historical events. Do you enjoy History classes at school? What is it that has led you to develop in that genre?
I do enjoy History studying at school, but my main drive for developing my history applications is my father. My father (who happens to be an Apple developer and has been since 1982), is also a historian. 20 years ago he developed CD ROMs on the same subjects I ported into iOS apps.
Why do you do what you do? What is it that makes you prefer writing lines of code on a computer instead of things other teenagers do?
I write code because I love it. The feeling of satisfaction I get when code compiles and works the way I expect it will is incredible. I do also play video games – so theres that 😛
I also see you’re working on an app called Continuity Keypad. What’s it like using new technologies for the first time?
Continuity Keypad is an application I’ve developed together with Harrison Weinerman. The new APIs in OS X Yosemite are great. They have been reasonably easy to learn, thanks to the clear documentation. Apple did a great job of documenting their latest APIs.
Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
If I had to say anything else to share it would be for people to try out coding– just start and do it. Coding may be difficult at first (and trust me, it was for me), but there are an infinite number of resources online to teach you and you can do it. You just have to be persistent. I bet once you succeed you will really enjoy it!
A big thank you to Eytan for joining us this week! If you’d like to contact him or see his work, check his website or follow him on Twitter!
As always, feel free to contact Kaleb if you’d like to be featured. Posts come out Thursday mornings every two weeks.