Author | Lightnews

Juan Arzola

@ancientbuho.bsky.social

620 followers 500 following 300 posts

Apple platforms dev, BG3 modding, my dog, photography etc. Working on @benkyobox.bsky.social, a simple but powerful memorization app: https://www.autorelease.io/benkyobox/ Live coding: https://www.twitch.tv/ancientbuho Other: https://linktr.ee/juanarzola

www.autorelease.io

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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · Apr 4

Benkyo Box, a pretty simple general-purpose flashcard and memorization app for iPhone and iPad is now in the AppStore. I use it to remember new concepts that I come across or to improve recall on existing ones.

I hope that you find it useful: apple.co/44aXpuH

#flashcards #BenkyoBox

‎BenkyoBox

‎Benkyo Box is a flashcard app that is like your notes, but of the things that you want to commit to memory like names, fun facts, or exam material. These are the facts that you don't want to bury in ...

apple.co

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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 12h

Got started with a manual for Benkyo Box - phew that felt like writing too many blog posts 😮‍💨

Should help you get started and perhaps learn a few advanced features.

www.autorelease.io/benkyobox/ma...

Now I can get back to coding

#flashcard #apps

Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 4d

"Markdown will be enough for this manual", shortly end up with a component system, which Claude helped implement.

the comments are replaced with html at build time (a python script that splits the master .md file into multiple pages), and component variables are replaced, using mustache (`{{ }}`).

a screenshot of cursor with a markdown file with a component defined in a comment. Components start with @component, followed by variables.

Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 8d

typing "tab" in cursor is like trying to increase the car's music volume while navigation is active

Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 10d

been refreshing www.autorelease.io/benkyobox/ a little bit in preparation to add tutorials and other content in the future. It is also good for checking all of the app's release notes currently.

nothing fancy - a lot of php / bootstrap / markdown chaos

Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 11d

In my experience it’s a mix: if you let the system handle collapsing into an overflow, it works but you are very limited in the menus structure, so you always end up DIY. And then, bugs like that happen.

Thankfully there’s a handy menu bar that is a fallback when buttons are not available.

Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 12d

Well there goes sleep thanks #criticalrole c4e4

I can’t pick a favorite character everyone is so great. Maybe Murray cause she makes me want to try divination wizard now :)

Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 26d

Took me most summer, and some rounds with App Review, but it's finally here 🧡

Next up: probably some form of Anki import, since it's a common request (with limits, since we don't overlap all features). Also, can't wait for the quick follow up to be approved, since there's a lot of fixes in it.

Benkyo Box @benkyobox.bsky.social · 26d

Benkyo Box is out for Mac 🚀

It's a native #Mac study app with plenty of features to study, import, organize and clear your study queue. apple.co/42QuGt6

Known bugs (fixes in Apple review):
- Some cards are not included when exporting using drag/drop
- State restoration breaks selection in calendar

A promo image of Benkyo Box for Mac.

It has an import window with questions and answers for the fictional role-playing show "Fire in the Role". It has a study view with a Pomeranian picture and the answer "Pomeranian". In the back of these windows there's a Library window with the current progress and a Computer History Museum folder selected.

Reposted by Juan Arzola

Konstantin @iamkonstantin.eu · 26d

Just a few days until I launch my new app on iPhone and iPad! It's called Flowvibe - it takes the songs you already love and turns them into personalised, mood-based playlists! No robots involved, just science and good vibes. You can pre-order it here: apps.apple.com/be/app/flowv... #IndieDev

‎Flowvi.be Mood Playlist Maker

‎Flowvi.be – Mood Music Playlist Maker Transform your favourite tunes into playlists that perfectly fit your mood. No sign-up. No random choices. Just your songs, mixed for the moment. You'll love i...

apps.apple.com

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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 27d

what if the entitlements file was written in Swift and type safe (so I don't get an app rejection due to switching an entitlement from "true" to "false", which apparently is an invalid way of disabling it) #xcode

Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · 29d

Proud of my wife for hitting this milestone on her graphic novel, Beyond the Road. It is a warm story about pushing through chronic illness, where #TitanPom and I are side characters. Can’t wait to see it <3

Theresa Arzola @thispapercloud.bsky.social · Oct 6

After several months of drawing in solitude, I've hit a huge milestone and finished drawing the pages for Beyond the Road! Here's a little blog post about that experience #comics #blog

Beyond the Road Graphic Novel – First Pass Reflection

October 4, 2025 marks the date I finished drawing all the pages for Beyond the Road! 🎉 Beyond the Road is my 80+ page graphic novel memoir about rediscovering adventure with chronic illness, told through the lens of a 4-day camper van trip. While I’ve worked on comics in the past (White Angel Vol 1 is still available to read on Tapas), this marks a personal milestone for me since it is my first fully self-contained and full-color book.

www.thispapercloud.com

Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · Oct 5

one of my favorite Blender features is Shift+R to "repeat last action". Feels like it should be a macOS system action, like undo/redo.

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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · Oct 5

annoyingly, invoking transform(updating:) in an attributed string (even without any changes). Auto-applies auto-correct.

Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · Oct 4

struggled with TextEditor attributed text selection (which was broken enough to make me reject an in-review build), and a few minutes watching a WWDC video helped developer.apple.com/videos/play/...

also the test data became unintentionally poetic

#SwiftUI

a SwiftUI TextEditor with attributed text. The title of the view is "Quick Entry". The text in the editor reads:

Oh well
Does this work

What the hell
The cursor did not jump

I am just changing
attributes not text

And udate(transforming:)
Keeps selection sane

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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · Oct 2

one day TipKit popovers will reliably point at buttons

Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · Oct 2

happy Critical Role Campaign 4 day xD

Brennan Lee Mulligan @brennanleemulligan.bsky.social · Oct 2

Tonight, the adventure begins! I could not be more thrilled to embark on this epic journey with these amazing performers. The world of Aramán awaits, tune in tonight at 7pm PT for the premiere of Campaign 4 of Critical Role!

Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · Sep 27

(this doc developer.apple.com/documentatio...)

Building and customizing the menu bar with SwiftUI | Apple Developer Documentation

Provide a seamless, cross-platform user experience by building a native menu bar for iPadOS and macOS.

developer.apple.com

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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · Sep 27

glad it helps! honestly, that crossed my mind, read the docs, and noticed my typo xD

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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · Sep 27

If you ever struggle with dynamic #SwiftUI menu bar commands not updating with state from the active window of their `WindowGroup`, and getting state from the the initially created window of the group instead, tip: `focusedValue` != `focusedSceneValue` 🤦🏻

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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · Sep 23

A system setting "prioritize dock visibility" when iPad windowing is turned on would make me enjoy windowing on iPad a little more.

Dock auto-hide feels a little to aggressive, specially with iPhone apps running on an iPad mini, which are like 2 pixels too tall to fit with the dock.

Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · Sep 22

another day, another List drag/drop woe: sfba.social/@juanarzola/...

Juan Arzola (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image Since drag and drop on lists only works for in-process drag and drop, I changed the design to allow dropping to the import button as well. It’s not very discoverable, but hopefully...

sfba.social

Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · Sep 18

Some subtle #LiquidGlass effect to the Gauge and Gauge pointer, here in multiple themes.

Fun fact, rotationEffect doesn't work very well with .glassEffect, presumably because it doesn't change the view's geometry.

Had to animate the path inside the Shape for it to work with glassEffect.

#SwiftUI

Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · Sep 17

on branches, I have a habit of delaying commits because #xcode 's filter by source control status is so useful for grouping related, current changes - lost when you commit.

But I wish I didn't have this habit, and Xcode had a filter for changes in the current branch, so that I can just commit.

Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · Sep 16

Well, a day later than the iOS 26 update is not too bad :)

Benkyo Box, the app for truly remembering anything, is now in Liquid Glass. apple.co/42QuGt6

Mac is very close, and very capable - feel free to give it a try at: testflight.apple.com/join/jZXFDA46

#ios26 #liquidglass

Benkyo Box @benkyobox.bsky.social · Sep 16

We are proud of our Liquid Glass update, now available in the AppStore 🚀. And as always, hold on tight for the Mac update, coming soon!

#liquidglass #apps

A screenshot of 3 versions of Benkyo Box, for iPad, Mac and iPhone. They all show the main interface, with a Today View with your progress. iPad and Mac selected the Computer History Museum folder, with a card for the IBM 1401 computer selected. A badge for Mac Coming Soon is attached to the Mac. The top says "Capture and learn what matters to you, now in Liquid Glass"

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Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · Sep 13

Ah the thing about automating App Store screenshots with Fastlane is that it also becomes a visual automated test where you find bugs at the last minute (bad dark mode icon here) #iosdev

A screenshot of AppStore app screenshots for Benkyo Box, a learning app. The middle screenshot is of an annotated fruits image, annotating lemon and pomegranate. The “create annotation” button is white, over a dark gray background.

Juan Arzola @ancientbuho.bsky.social · Sep 13

Walking to the SF Swift Language meetup is always a good chance to take some city pics.

Photo of the Salesforce tower taken from a sidewalk. Cars in the foreground with their headlights on.

Phot of some buildings in San Francisco. One of them has an unique, twisted pattern.