🎸 2025 Music #6
"Catalyst" by New Found Glory
16 July 2025
I'm Neil, and I’m a software developer in the UK. I mostly work with iOS, and occasionally write about it too, along with various other things.
Check out my blog posts here, or read more about my current setup. And here’s my now page, with everything I’m up to these days. You can find me in more places around the web on my links page.
If you like my writing, please consider buying me a coffee to show your support. Thanks!
Latest posts
SwiftUI Map breaks UINavigationBar Appearance
In Running Track, I have a screen that shows details about a run, including a map of the route. I’ve been rewriting parts of the app in SwiftUI recently, and that screen has given me a headache!
Styling Globally With UINavigationBarAppearance
To have a consistent look across the app, I set
UINavigationBarAppearanceon launch. This gives me a standard background colour, tint colour and title font.static func setNavigationBarAppearance() { let appearance = UINavigationBarAppearance() appearance.configureWithOpaqueBackground() appearance.backgroundColor = UIColor(.primaryColor) appearance.tintColor = UIColor(.darkBackgroundText) appearance.titleTextAttributes = [ .foregroundColor: UIColor(.darkBackgroundText), .font: RTTextStyle.display4.font ] appearance.largeTitleTextAttributes = [ .foregroundColor: UIColor(.darkBackgroundText), .font: RTTextStyle.display2.font ] UINavigationBar.appearance().standardAppearance = appearance UINavigationBar.appearance().scrollEdgeAppearance = appearance }There’s no equivalent of this in SwiftUI. No way to set navigation bar style globally. (I don’t know why not.)
The Problem in SwiftUI
For some reason, if you have a SwiftUI
Mapin your UI, it will override any globalUINavigationBarAppearanceyou set. When theMapis in myView, it sets the navigation bar to the default style, a white background in light mode and a dark one in dark mode. (This applies whether you useNavigationStackorNavigationView.)That means you can’t use
UINavigationBarAppearanceto style the navigation bar on that screen.Solutions
There are two fixes for this, and both involve giving up on
UINavigationBarAppearanceand moving to the SwiftUI method of styling individual views explicitly: 1. Style this navigation bar explicitly, and leave the rest toUINavigationBarAppearance. 2. Get rid ofUINavigationBarAppearanceand explicitly style every view that lives in aNavigationStack.You can style a navigation bar in SwiftUI with modifiers, but you have to apply them to each view individually:
someView .toolbarBackground(Color(.primary), for: .navigationBar) .toolbarBackground(.visible, for: .navigationBar) // otherwise it's hidden until you scroll .toolbarColorScheme(.dark, for: .navigationBar) // a hack to get white text and button tintsMy Solution
I’m not able to go with the first solution, modifying only the
Viewcontaining the map, because SwiftUI doesn’t give the same control over navigation bar styling that UIKit does.For example, I change the text colour and font in my
UINavigationBarAppearancesetup. But can’t change these in SwiftUI’s navigation bar. So I can’t have an exception just for the screen containing the map, without it looking different to the rest of the app. I need to completely change my navigation bar style.So I’ve had to go nuclear and get rid of
UINavigationBarAppearance.I created a modifier to reduce some of the repetition, but I have to set it on every
Viewthat's presented in aNavigationStack:struct NavigationBarStyle: ViewModifier { func body(content: Content) -> some View { content .toolbarBackground(Color(.primary), for: .navigationBar) // otherwise it's hidden until you scroll .toolbarBackground(.visible, for: .navigationBar) // a hack to get white text and button tints .toolbarColorScheme(.dark, for: .navigationBar) } } extension View { func navigationBarStyle() -> some View { self.modifier(NavigationBarStyle()) } }If anyone has a better solution to this, let me know!
(Note: This issue is specific to rendering a
Map, so if you're not using aMapin your UI you may not need to worry about this.)If you liked this article, please consider buying me a coffee to support my writing.
18 June 2025🎸 2025 Music #5
"Lechuza" by Fenix TX11 June 2025📚 2025 Reading #4
"Changer" by Matt Gemmell1 June 2025🎸 2025 Music #4
"Destruction by Definition" by The Suicide Machines21 May 2025🎸 2025 Music #3
"Everything Sucks" by Descendents20 May 2025About The Confession
I started writing a novel in 2021, and spent a long time writing background, allowing me to shape the world, and also just to get some practice writing. This has been on pause for the last few months, but I’ve picked it up again recently, and decided I wanted to share some of the “other” writing.
The Confession is the first piece of fiction I’ve ever shared, outwith creative writing projects in high school.
It’s about some people who live in the world I'm building, before the main events of the novel. The narrator is (probably) the main character of the novel. He and Thomas are part of the community that is the setting of the novel. The Watchtower is a focal point of that community, but in this story it mostly just adds a little atmosphere. The Troubles aren’t really relevant to the bigger story; they were a vehicle for sharing ideas, and a bit of shock.
I really enjoyed writing The Confession, and hope to share more like this in future. I hope you like reading it.
If you liked this article, please consider buying me a coffee to support my writing.
26 April 2025The Confession
Thomas approached me one evening, as I was reading in one of the quieter spots near the Watchtower. He had a hesitant look on his face that I'd never seen before. He was an army veteran, and nothing seemed to phase him. He took every setback, every shock, in his stride, even when the rest of us were utterly shaken. But this evening was different.
"What's up, Thomas?" I asked. "You look like a ghost just jumped out from behind a bush wearing your grandma's favourite cardigan!"
He was oblivious to my good humour. "See, thing is..." he started, swallowing his sentence. "I need to..."
"What's wrong, Thomas?" I asked, suddenly concerned. This was not a man who struggles for words, or for anything really.
"I need to confess something," he finally managed to say.
"I'm not a priest Thomas," I said, with a smile on my face. "Come on, spit it out. What's on your mind?"
"I was in the army, back in the '70s," he told me.
"I know. We've all heard the stories," I said.
"Smartarse." That was more like Thomas. "Not this one, you haven't.
"In the '70s, Northern Ireland was a dark place to be. The Troubles were as close to a civil war as you can get without actually being in a civil war. The British Army was fighting against, well, terrorists, really. But they had the support of half of the country, so we were often the enemy, even when we were defending our own country from paramilitaries."
"I've heard about it, but I was born 20 years after all that," I said. "I had no idea. I've heard that it was a tough time, but I’ve always seen it as something that's history now."
"We don't teach people enough real history in this country. Not what matters to the people who still live here. It's all 'how many wives did this old king have', not 'why do these people still hate these people after decades.' It was horrific. And I only know my part of it. There are thousands of other stories all as rough as mine."
He paused here. I could tell he'd gone off on a tangent, he'd been more of his old self for a moment. His face dropped again.
"But my story is why I wanted to talk to you tonight.
"I was 22. I'd been there for a couple of weeks, that's all. It was my first time there, although I'd have a few more visits afterwards. None harder than that one though.
"I was with the British Army. We were fighting against the IRA in Belfast. And we'd caught a good few of them in a raid one morning. Brought them back to our base.
"Some of them were proper bruisers. Built like tanks, sweary fuckers like me, could throw a proper punch and could take as good as they could give. We were lucky we were armed and outnumbered them.
"But some others were just kids. Maybe 16 years old and dragged into their parents' and grandparents' fight. They should have been in school. They should have been sneaking out at night, drinking, getting off with girls, learning what not to do.
"But instead they died in a shitty little garage in some manky corner of Belfast."
Silence followed, for a few moments. There was the generic background noise of the river, and the hum of the living quarters, and that was all.
Eventually, I had to ask: "what happened to them?" This seemed to be what Thomas had been both waiting for, and dreading.
"The fuck do you think happened to them? They all just had spontaneous heart attacks? We killed them. We slaughtered them. Every last one of them lost their lives. Ten men and boys, killed because of their politics. Killed because we were scared of what they might possibly do if we didn't kill them. Killed because it was easier than keeping them prisoner. Killed for revenge for our lost brothers. But worst of all, killed because they were unarmed and it was easy."
He paused. He'd let some of the emotion out that he'd clearly been holding in while we spoke earlier, and he seemed to be catching his breath again.
"Most of us didn't want to do it. But that's how the army works, you do what you're told. The Troubles were hard, and they made monsters out of some people who'd been there too long. My Sergeant was one of them. He'd lost too many good men, he told us. We had a great opportunity to finally clean up a part of Belfast, and we shouldn't let it go to waste. I don't remember him ever telling us that he'd had authority from anyone above him to kill unarmed, untried prisoners, and they certainly acted shocked enough when they found out. But nothing ever came of it, ultimately.
"I don't know why I'm telling you this. I'm getting old, and I can't live with it on my conscience, I suppose. Especially in times like these. We've all done bad things, but it feels like there's a reset coming and I want to be cleaner when it comes.
"But I suppose there's also a lesson I want to share. The world is changing. There's a lot of one-dimensional thinking. Peace is disappearing, there's a lot of fear. I see a lot of what I saw in Belfast in the '70s. Everyone was scared then, not knowing where the next attack could come from, never feeling safe. To my Sergeant, the IRA were the enemy, and it was as simple as that. So many people thought like that, on both sides. Without thinking of people as complex humans first and foremost, we reduce them to just one aspect of themselves. We dehumanise them, turning them into a thing instead of a person; something to fear, something to hate. Always remember that people are people. Don't make my mistake. It's haunted me ever since."
The hesitant look was back on Thomas's face. "There's something else too. I need to tell you about ‒"
There was a loud bang, and Thomas hit the ground, the shadow of the Watchtower not entirely hiding his shocked and bloody face.
If you liked this story, please consider buying me a coffee to support my writing.
26 April 2025📚 2025 Reading #3
"The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" by CS Lewis23 March 2025My Home Screen - March 2025
I like to check in on my home screen periodically and see how things evolve. This is my third post containing a home screen, you can see past versions under the homescreen tag.
Main Home Screen
This is my daytime home screen. There are a few changes from last time.
Dock
Mostly my Dock is the same:
- Web browser,
- WhatsApp (the only messaging app that people I talk to actually use, sadly),
- Todoist,
- Obsidian.
But I've got a new browser. I replaced Safari with Vivaldi. There are a few reasons, which I won't go too deeply into (I have another post in the works for that rabbit hole), but to sum it up, I'm trying to avoid giving money or data to big US companies, where I can. And Vivaldi is pretty good, so I've switched over to using it as my browser on all devices.
Widget Changes
- I've removed the Carrot Weather widget, as I found I didn't actually use it much. I would usually go into the app to look at more data, so I've just replaced the widget with the app icon.
- In place of Carrot, I've moved the Albums widget up, as I still love seeing my favourite album covers decorating my home screen. And the top of the screen is harder to reach, so is better for less interactive widgets.
- I've put the calendar widget up there too, although I've stopped paying the large amount of money for Fantastical and moved over to Google Calendar, which is fine as apps go. (I'd prefer to move my calendar to a service and company based in the UK or Europe, but it's a shared family calendar so it's harder to make that switch. Similar problem to WhatsApp, services that involve others are harder to change.)
App Changes
In removing the Carrot widget, I've got a lot more space for apps, so I added another row, then kept one more row free, to avoid visual overload. Notable changes that I've made in the app icons I keep around:
- Music.app replaces Spotify. I'm using a local library, not streaming. I want to avoid giving Apple or Spotify money if I can help it. (I know Spotify is a Swedish company, but they also pay a lot of money to unsavoury podcast hosts.)
- Reeder is still there, but it's actually something I've recently come back to. I used NetNewsWire for a while, but when I set up FreshRSS for hosting, I switched back to Reeder (Classic, as it is now) because the UI is just nicer to me. I don't know how long Reeder Classic will stick around, but it works best for me for now.
- I've put Ivory on my home screen. I have used it for as long as it's been around, but I keep going through cycles of trying to cut back on social media and trying to be more social.
- I have a shortcut to access the Sure Petcare app, because the app icon, in spite of having a white background, doesn't convert to a dark mode icon.
- I've removed the Kindle app. As I've mentioned before, I want to give less money (and data) to US companies. I'm not a heavy reader, and the BorrowBox app for my local library works well enough for my liking. I'm also trying to read more physical books.
- I've also removed Slack from my home screen, as I only use it for work and don't need or want to see it constantly.
Fitness Apps
The extra row of apps on my home screen is dedicated to fitness.
- Apple Fitness is the hub of things. It's how I view my tracked activity from my Apple Watch. I don't really need quick access to it, but it brings it up to a 4th row of fitness apps.
- Awesome Habits is a habit tracker that I use to try to build better habits, like drinking less coffee, eating more fruit and veg, writing in my journal, etc. I've had it for a few years now and keep going back and forward between using the widget (see night mode) and the app icon. (Strictly speaking it's not a fitness app, but I use it mostly to manage my fitness habits.)
- Running Track is my app that I use to analyse my running data and I will definitely probably release to the public at some point some day.
- I really like Headspace's guided meditations. I find they help me to be more present and more relaxed.
- I don't use Fitbod any more, as I didn't have the time for the workouts, so didn't want to renew the subscription. It's still a great app, which I expect to come back to some day.
Night Focus Home Screen
My aim with my evening home screen is to try to make my phone calming, and less distracting. I want to use it less in the evenings, and do things like read or watch TV to wind down. When I do use my phone, I want to make it look less bright and vibrant. I love the new dark app icons and tinted icons for this.
- There are some apps I use a lot in the evenings, and having quick access to them is useful. Those are the ones I've kept around.
- Beyond that, I've tried to go to an all-black screen, to remove as much visual stimulation as I can. And anything I wasn't frequently using in the evenings, I've removed.
- Later in the night, between 10pm and 6am, I've got the app icons and widgets tinted red, to make it even less interesting to look at, and to make sure my interactions with my phone are as intentional as they can be.
- I've kept Running Track here to remind myself that I need to make a dark mode icon for it! It stands out here, in a bad way, and having the visual reminder there will nudge me to actually fix it.
- At some point I've swapped the Awesome Habits and Batteries widgets around, I don't remember why!
- I've stopped using Duolingo, as I felt like I hit my limit of learning French without actually using it in conversation. I do miss seeing the widget go completely unhinged when I reached the end of the day and hadn't completed a lesson.
- I've also stopped using the Todoist widget, because, much like Carrot Weather, I found I mostly wanted to go into the app, and the preview of a list wasn't particularly useful to me.
Watch Faces
Daytime
I try to keep my watch faces as useful as possible. I don't use it for a huge amount of stuff, so anything I do use it for should be accessible from the watch face rather than tapping into the app grid, where possible.
- The main complications here are Activity, Vitals (to help me understand how badly I slept last night...), a glanceable date, the tall Carrot 5-hour forecast, Awesome Habits, Todoist, and to fill out the last slot, Carrot's rain prediction.
- The two other uses I have for my watch are tracking runs, which I start from the action button on the left of my Apple Watch Ultra, and controlling music and podcasts, which happen from the app auto-launching when I start playing something on my phone.
Night
I have the same approach to night mode on my watch as on my phone.
- I want as little content as possible, while still being useful, and as dark as possible. So it's set to night mode, making everything red (therefore dark).
- I remove the Carrot and Vitals complications, and add the Watch's battery percentage so that I can see if I need to charge before bed.
If you liked this article, please consider buying me a coffee to support my writing.
7 March 2025