I would like to continue improving and adding to TouchCode, but my time is finite and I’m unable to work on it as much as I would like. So when I do work on TouchCode, I appreciate that other people rely on the code and as such I make it a priority to fix bugs before adding new features or components. Other contributors to TouchCode have helped a lot. A lot of bugs and memory leaks have been found and fixed. This is all great. But it is obvious that TouchCode needs more work, it especially needs more unit tests and documentation. To help make time available to improve this I’ve decided to ask TouchCode users for donations via PayPal.

• You do NOT need to donate to use TouchCode (the code is still Open Source under very permissive licenses).
• TouchCode will always remain Open Source. Donations will not change that.
• Donations will be set aside and will allow me to spend more time working on TouchCode – especially the less sexy fun of TouchCode. I will not be using the funds to buy a new MacBook Pro (however tempting that may be).
• Donations will be made with no strings attached. I will not be adding feature X to component Y just because you’ve donated to the project. However if you have an urgent need for something in TouchCode (output support in NSXMLDocument perhaps?) contact me and we can talk.
• No donation too small, no donation too big. Every donation appreciated.

And here’s the PayPal donate button:

I make my living by writing iPhone and Mac OS X for hire. I’ve been doing this for a while with some level of success. But ever since the iPhone SDK was announced earlier this year I’ve been getting many, many more work enquiries than I could possibly handle. I’ve often referred enquiries to friends who I have either worked with in the past or whose work I respect. But this ad-hoc system doesn’t scale very well.

The Solution:

To try and make this informal referral approach work I’ve set up a private invite only Google Group called “iPhone Software Professionals”. Currently this group is made up of a handful (more than 10 less than 1000) software developers who specialise in iPhone development (although I’d say all are equally capable on Mac OS X). The group is made up of either people I have worked with personally (and would love to work with again) or people whose work has generated such a reputation that I would have no problem recommending them to a potential client.

The list is currently made up of software developers but I would like to open it open it up to any independent professional involved in the production of iPhone software. This includes, but is not limited to usability experts, graphic designers, quality assurance experts and so on.

The group will probably remain quite small, with new members invited and referred only by current members. There is no commission or finder’s fee involved, the group is just an informal group of professionals forwarding work that would otherwise be rejected.

Looking for an iPhone Software Professional?

So if you have some iPhone software that needs to be written then I think I might be able to find someone to help you out. I might be able to help you myself, but if I have more work than I can handle (which currently is very likely) I’ll forward your request to the group. Either way contact me directly at iphoneswpro@toxicsoftware.com and I’ll try make sure your software gets written.

Update

Please do not request an invite directly via Google Groups. See http://toxicsoftware.com/iphoneswpro/ for information on how to join the group. Essentially it helps if you or your work is known and respected by myself or other members of the group. You can use the email address to send a request directly to me.

If you’re not invited into the group please do not take it personally. I’m trying to keep a good balance between job leads posted to the group and freelancers able to consume the job leads. If the balance is good (or there are too few job leads) we will not be adding new developers to the group.