title: Open Your Source
tags: open-source, programming, ios, xcode, auto-complete, component, library
comments: true
date: 2014-03-31 20:17:46+00:00

YAY! Today is a great day. I have been working on a small, yet deep, [iOS component](https://github.com/Mazyod/MJAutoComplete) that allows iOS developers to easily add drop-in auto complete features to their apps. Maniac dev awesomely tested it out, and [posted it on his blog](http://maniacdev.com/2014/03/ios-auto-completion-library-that-supports-any-text-input-source-and-customizable-table-cells).

Working on this project gave me a true insight on what it takes to write an open source project. I had to make sure that everything is clearly defined for the developers who'll use it, and hopefully contribute back. 

I tried as much as possible not to write ugly workarounds nor hacky code, that was a challenge as well. I almost had to refactor the whole thing each time I wrote a few lines of code. (Not to mention that every new feature I add must be properly planned to not screw the design).

## Conclusion

Yeah! It's a great experience writing an open source component, but let me let you in a little secret. I didn't initially write it for fun, nor to use it in my apps. I actually wrote is as a test to get into [Telly](http://telly.com/), which it passed :D
