Kotlin Multiplatform
It's exciting that I wrote my first tech blog for Touchlab last week. It's about integrating Kotlin/JS in existing KMM library. I have been exploring and working on it for the past few months as part of a project, so now I'm planning to write a series of in-depth blogs on specific topics around Kotlin/JS
The best part about it was the detailed feedback I got from my team internally before I published it. It feels great when someone takes out time from their work schedule, gives a sincere read to your blog draft, and provides honest feedback.
App Publishing
Publishing an app is not a very straightforward and easy task. On top of it, knowledge around various kinds of privacy and data requirements becomes critical as soon as your app gets somewhat popular.
It was interesting to learn that Area 120 by Google launched a new tool called Checks to help simplify privacy compliance and reduce the risk for mobile app developers. I haven't explored it in detail as I'm not involved with any app publishing these days, but worth checking out. Free tier seems very basic though.
Git
A few days ago we made a Git-related mistake but luckily recovered quickly. We noticed that we had accumulated several branches in our GitHub repo, so we decided to go to GitHub's branches tab and delete unwanted/stale branches. Unfortunately, by accident, we deleted one of the release branches.
We didn't have an up-to-date copy of the branch locally, so we couldn't just re-push it to remote. Luckily, it was just a couple of merges behind. We decided to push the older commit to remote first and then create new PRs that would replicate old PRs that went to the original release branch, so the timeline would match how it was before.
We learned the lesson to make sure that we mark our release branches protected on GitHub. That way, it won't allow deleting those protected branches from UI or via terminal. You can also add a pattern that matches with your release branch naming, so you don't have to manually protect new release branches in the future.
We all are experienced devs, but not immune from making simple human mistakes. It's in the best interest to use our tools properly. Some simple precautions can save a catastrophe from happening.
Android
Android Developers Backstage's episode 183 on Baseline Profiles was insightful.
Good discussion on topics around Android runtime, Jetpack Compose, and app performance. Do check it out if those areas interest you.
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