I have been working feverishly on learning to code apps on my own, free of any platform constraints. If you have been around for a while, you know that the app launched as a free, ad-supported version in the beginning. I then moved to a subscription-supported model to help offset the costs of maintaining and running the app. Then, something broke…and it was out of my control. I had to make the hard decision to turn off subscriptions and make everything available for everyone; mainly, because I could not take anything away from the people who paid.
Today, I made progress in my learning of the Flutter development environment. I am working on taking a 39-hour course on how to use it. And, I am happy to say, progress is certainly being made. While I am not ready to proclaim my independence from the constraints of the platform I was using, I am getting closer to that freedom. When I was presented with the task of creating an app, I found the easiest way I could get from point A to B. And, with the help of the great folks at Thunkable, my dream of creating this app became a reality! However, I cannot detract from the fact that I am a coder at heart. And, while Thunkable takes a lot of the coding headache out of the process, coding is my art. I love it. While I can continue to code my web pages while still using the Thunkable platform, there was just something missing.
I am very happy that I finally took the initiative to learn Flutter. When I first stumbled upon it, it felt overwhelming. It had been years, 22 to be exact since I delved into something other than HTML and PHP. Now that I am on the learning path, Flutter feels less daunting and more freeing to me. And that has me excited! Keep your eyes out for Verison 11 of the Amazing Aurora app. It will likely be my first-ever self-coded mobile application. Exciting times for sure!