This past year proved to be a shift away from the standard set of Mac and iOS projects, but a return to what started my path to programming: games. I began my exploratory research into reverse engineering Sierra On-Line's AGI game engine last year, which led to me porting Qt AGI Studio to the Mac, which was then used to create King's Quest 1 - Redux. Working on these projects has rekindled my love of not only playing classic adventure games, but having a chance to work on them. This is something I plan on continuing in some form or another over the next year.
On the more traditional front, two versions of EdenList for iOS were released this year. With the advent of Catalyst, I might even develop a new version of the Mac version of EdenList — an app which hasn't been updated since the iOS version was first released in 2010. Or, then again, maybe I won't. These are merely ideas at this time which I'm contemplating.
2019 was a rare year in which Permanent Eraser did not see an update, since I had originally planned on rebuilding the app from the ground up for the next major version. Unfortunately, the app is having issues with macOS Catalina, so I am in the process of working on Permanent Eraser 2.9 to fix these issues with the latest version of macOS.
macOS Catalina rang the death knell for older 32-bit apps and frameworks, which means 33 RPM will no longer work on the latest version of macOS. I am still contemplating on whether or not to rewrite 33 RPM to be able to work on Catalina, and perhaps even iOS, but there are other projects which are taking precedence at this point.
One of these other projects includes something I've been working on for over 23 years — a novel. Before I got into computer programming, I was into creative writing. I wrote short stories, poems, and even completed a full length novel. The work I am currently working on is finally nearing the completion of its first draft. I have surpassed 100,000 words, which is an average length of a novel, and now I am in the process of finishing off putting the final bits and pieces to form the initial draft. If this was software, I would consider it the alpha build. The basic form is there, but it still requires the extra polish and fixes before it is ready.
Looking to 2020, I plan on completing the first draft of my novel, Permanent Eraser 2.9, and several game-related projects. Aside from those, time will always tell.