4 ms·

Show HN: Foreign Numbers – First iOS App

16 points by jasonlfunk 9y ago

jasonlfunk 9y ago
Author here: 100 days ago I submitted a side project to HN and it had a great response. You can see the discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13745753 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13745753 Since then, I've rebuilt the service as iOS app. As a web developer, it was the first iOS application that I had ever built. I used React Native to build the application and was extremely happy with it. React Native took a little bit of time to get used to but once I figured out the difference between React Native and 'normal' react, development went rather quickly. The performance feels great and the app looks really good (in my opinion.) If you are learning a foreign language, I'd love for you to check it out and let me know what you think.
wingerlang 9y ago
I am sure that site had thai, how come it is unavailable on the app?
- jasonlfunk 9y ago
  The app doesn't support all languages that the website did yet. Since the app supports things like telling the time, phone numbers, etc, it takes a little bit of effort to add a new language. The web version supported pretty much any language that the browser knew about. Thai is on the list to add to the app now. :)
  - wingerlang 9y ago
    Maybe you should add a "request language" and see which ones to prioritise. I would think that Thai is very low on the list.
Oras 9y ago
It would be great if you can add more screenshots and probably a video demonstrating how does your app work. In your website footer, I noticed you have different languages. I tried Arabic and it only changed welcome paragraph. I would suggest having app screenshot for particular language numbers if you have an interface for that.
janwillemb 9y ago
Minor point: "foreign" is relative to the country you live in. It always bugs me a little that "international" and "foreign" are used from the American perspective.
- jasonlfunk 9y ago
  Yeah, that's true. I do plan on having it app be multi-lingual in the future, which should resolve that issue.
agilb 9y ago
Wow, this is one of those things you didn't realize you needed until you use it. I used to study Mandarin Chinese in college and one of the things that would always trip me up would be numbers - especially big ones that follow a completely different pattern. In English, large numbers are broken down by thousands. In Chinese, it's by 10 thousands (万).

16 points by jasonlfunk 9y ago

Author here: 100 days ago I submitted a side project to HN and it had a great response. You can see the discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13745753 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13745753 Since then, I've rebuilt the service as iOS app. As a web developer, it was the first iOS application that I had ever built. I used React Native to build the application and was extremely happy with it. React Native took a little bit of time to get used to but once I figured out the difference between React Native and 'normal' react, development went rather quickly. The performance feels great and the app looks really good (in my opinion.) If you are learning a foreign language, I'd love for you to check it out and let me know what you think.

wingerlang 9y ago

I am sure that site had thai, how come it is unavailable on the app?

jasonlfunk 9y ago
The app doesn't support all languages that the website did yet. Since the app supports things like telling the time, phone numbers, etc, it takes a little bit of effort to add a new language. The web version supported pretty much any language that the browser knew about. Thai is on the list to add to the app now. :)
- wingerlang 9y ago
  Maybe you should add a "request language" and see which ones to prioritise. I would think that Thai is very low on the list.

Oras 9y ago

It would be great if you can add more screenshots and probably a video demonstrating how does your app work. In your website footer, I noticed you have different languages. I tried Arabic and it only changed welcome paragraph. I would suggest having app screenshot for particular language numbers if you have an interface for that.

janwillemb 9y ago

Minor point: "foreign" is relative to the country you live in. It always bugs me a little that "international" and "foreign" are used from the American perspective.

jasonlfunk 9y ago
Yeah, that's true. I do plan on having it app be multi-lingual in the future, which should resolve that issue.

agilb 9y ago

Wow, this is one of those things you didn't realize you needed until you use it. I used to study Mandarin Chinese in college and one of the things that would always trip me up would be numbers - especially big ones that follow a completely different pattern. In English, large numbers are broken down by thousands. In Chinese, it's by 10 thousands (万).