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Wednesday, August 5, 2015

LuckGrib version 1.0 is now available


After months of development, and hard but interesting work, LuckGrib has gone from an idea in my head, through several rough prototypes, then on to evolving and growing more capable which eventually lead to a beta program involving 7 versions - LuckGrib version 1.0 is done.



I submitted LuckGrib 1.0 to the Apple App store last week.  This morning I received an email from Apple that the application had entered the 'in review' status, and an hour later I received a final email that the app was approved and would soon be available on the App Store.

Yay!

LuckGrib has been a work of passion for me over the last 6 months.  I have a background in software architecture, computer graphics, math, import/export of a variety of file formats, some user interface, a little animation.  This application has touched on a lot of what I've learned over the last 30 years and it has been a fun project to work on.

Creating LuckGrib would not have been possible 10 years ago.  Its an app that is designed from the bottom up to run well on the hardware we have available to today.

To learn more about LuckGrib, there are video's on YouTube (search for LuckGrib) and a review written by David Burch, which I referenced in a blog post a little earlier.

Of course the best way to learn about LuckGrib is to buy a copy and try it out.  If understanding weather is important to you, I believe you'll enjoy and appreciate LuckGrib.

Please let me know what you think of this new app.  If you have any suggestions for improvements, don't hesitate to contact me.

If you like the app, please leave a comment on the App Store.

Craig McPheeters,
s/v Luckness,
August, 2015.

First public review of LuckGrib


I started development of LuckGrib while sailing in New Zealand, around December 2014.  Over the next four months I dove deeply back into software development and the bulk of LuckGrib was formed.

I formed a beta program early in 2015 and had help from many other people who were using early copies of LuckGrib and providing me feedback.

Toward the end of the beta program, once the program had started to resolve itself into what was closer to its final form, I invited David Burch into the beta program.

I have never met David and only know him through the excellent books he writes.  Through my activities as a sea kayaker and now as a sailor, I ended up reading three or four of his books, and it struck me that they were always very well written and informative.

David is the author of the excellent weather book, Modern Marine Weather, which I have read cover to cover several times.  When I started as a sailor I had a lot to learn, and books such as David's were enormously useful to me.

It turns out that David has a Mac and uses it daily in his work.  He agreed to join the beta program for LuckGrib and was able to quickly provide me with some feedback on the application.  He is deeply involved in modern weather forecasting, using a wide variety of sources.  My impression is that he's a little leading edge.

David has a blog, writing on all sorts of topics of interest to the weather community.  He recently wrote a review of LuckGrib and provided me with a quote that I can (and have) used in the description of the app on the Apple App store.

The quote he provided is:

"The LuckGrib viewer is elegant, fast, and functional.... a must have app for all sailors using Macs for weather work." —David Burch, Director of Starpath School of Navigation and author of Modern Marine Weather.
His review can be found at: