Category: Education

It's VP-day... Apple Vision Pro joins other Apple ecosystem devices. So, we'll need to bring our apps to a new platform. Let's see – what could we read over the weekend to improve our development skills.

• Chip Loder gives a quick tour on FileMerge tool in Xcode – How to use Xcode's FileMerge tool to compare files;
  
  
• Use cases for self, Self and Self.self in Swift by Natalia Panferova is a self-explanatory article;
  
  
• Keith Harrison provides great guide on App Intents in modern apps – Getting Started With App Intents;
  
  
• Mastering App Intents: Querying Made Easy by Ashli Rankin explores same topic with focus on data;
  
  
• Majid Jabrayilov goes through visionOS design language – visionOS ornaments in SwiftUI;
  
  
• Apple’s Vision of Our Digital Future by Matej Bukovinski is a good take on how we could adjust to new computing paradigms;
  
  
• Antoine van der Lee provides a good tool to make iOS Simulator screenshots with proper status bar – Status bar overrides in the iOS Simulator;
  
  
• Giovanni Monaco goes through debug techniques for visionOS – Debug for visionOS using Xcode simulator visualizations;
  
  
• Apple’s response to the EU’s Digital Markets Act: What app developers need to know by Charlie Chapman goes through interesting details of Apple's approach to DMA compliance;
  
  
• Wade Tregaskis shares couple of interesting articles on file management – Creating files safely in Mac apps, Bad API example: FileManager’s url(for:in:appropriateFor:create:);
  
  
• Automating SwiftUI Accessibility Audits in Xcode 15 by Leonardo Maia Pugliese will help you go through accessibility checks quicker;
  
  
• Francesco Perchiazzi talks about infinite canvas in Vision Pro – Embracing Spatial Computing: the Speculative Spatial Design Canvas.

And that is it for today. Let's play with Vision Pro and read great stuff. See you next week!

Apple provides developers with 1-on-1 30 minute consultations regarding updates in EU app distribution and other aspects of DMA compliance changes.

Developers are encouraged to pick appropriate date and time and discuss their options.

In addition, if you’re interested in getting started with operating an alternative app marketplace on iOS in the European Union, you can request to attend an in-person labin Cork, Ireland.

Apple Developer

Apple Developer: Request a consultation about the changes to apps distributed in the European Union

Last January weekend in 2024. And we've got couple of great reads. Buckle up!

• Malcolm Owen gives his thoughts on usage patterns for Vision Pro – Sit or stand: What to think about when using Apple Vision Pro;
  
  
• Understanding spatial design for visionOS by Chip Loder does into design aspects;
  
  
• WebKit blog shares a hint on horizontal devices in picker elements on the web – Bringing Back Horizontal Rules in Select Elements;
  
  
• SwiftUI main thread hang detector by Wade Tregaskis could help debugging main thread excessive use;
  
  
• Natalia Panferova reminds of small details to consider when you compare strings – Case insensitive string comparison in Swift;
  
  
• A new access modifier in Swift: package by Marco Eidinger guides through new access modifier allowing to access members and functions within one package;
  
  
• Very nice guide on new widget capabilities – Interactive Widgets With SwiftUI by Alessandro Di Nepi;
  
  
• Jesse Squires shares automation hints for developers – A simple fastlane setup for solo indie developers;
  
  
• Majid Jabrayilov explores SwiftUI with visionOS – Introducing SwiftUI on visionOS;
  
  
• Implementing windows in visionOS, Implementing volumes in visionOS and Embedding 3D objects into visionOS windows by Emanuele Agosta goes through various visual element setups in visionOS;
  
  
• Leonardo Maia Pugliese explains rethrows keyword in Swift – How to use the rethrows keyword in Swift?;
  
  
• Deleting an Xcode Project’s Git Repository by Mark Szymczyk will help you clean unused git files;
  
  
• Donny Wals shares his view on writing error-proof code – Writing code that makes mistakes harder;
  
  
• ScrollView Bounce Behavior configuration in SwiftUI by Antoine van der Lee covers design considerations on making bounce behavior appropriate in your app;
  
  
• The Browser Company shares their path on using Swift with Windows – Swift, meet WinRT.

Yes, it is a big list. Next week we'll get first Apple Vision Pro devices in our hands and there will definitely be less time to read. So let's enjoy this weekend and go through interesting topics.

Annual Swift Student Challenge is announced by Apple.

Students could go to challenge website to prepare themselves and get additional information.

Eligibility criteria are listed too.

To be eligible for the Challenge, at the time you submit your app playground you must:

• Be 13 years of age or older in the United States, or the equivalent minimum age in the relevant jurisdiction (for example, 16 years of age in the European Union);
• Be registered for free with Apple as an Apple developer or be a member of the Apple Developer Program; and
• Fulfill one of the following requirements:
  • Be enrolled in an accredited academic institution or official homeschool equivalent;
  • Be enrolled in a STEM organization’s educational curriculum;
  • Be enrolled in an Apple Developer Academy; or
  • Have graduated from high school or equivalent within the past 6 months and be awaiting acceptance or have received acceptance to an accredited academic institution.

You can receive a Swift Student Challenge award up to four times.

Apple Developer: Swift Student Challenge applications open February 5

So, pre-orders have started... If you already ordered, or you're waiting – anyway, we have some great reads for you for this weekend.

• Let's start with good review of Xcode Cloud by Chip Loder – Understanding Xcode Cloud, Apple's CI build service;
  
  
• And another guide by Chip Loder – Understanding CPU job scheduling for Apple Silicon game development - this time covering how CPU works on Apple platforms;
  
  
• SwiftUI Button Styles And Shapes by Keith Harrison goes through controls styling in SwiftUI;
  
  
• Marco Eidinger navigates on signing process for binary frameworks – How to verify a signed xcframework programmatically;
  
  
• Concurrency-safe global variables to prevent data races by Antoine van der Lee is focused on making global resources thread-safe;
  
  
• Rik Haandrikman shares options for developers on use of external payment links in iOS apps – The Supreme Court’s stance on Epic vs. Apple case: What this means for App Store monetization;
  
  
• Jesse Squires gives a hint on interesting protocol considerations – Swift protocol requirement quirks;
  
  
• Connecting your git repository with a remote server by Donny Wals continues his series on use of Git;
  
  
• Flora Damiano explores principles of great app icons in Crafting better App Icons;
  
  
• The Flexible Swift Error Handling by Leonardo Maia Pugliese is a great guide on how define error conditions and how to handle those.

That is it for this weekend. Since we still have to wait for two more weeks for Vision Pro to hit the stores, we could spend some time on these interesting topics. See you next week!

While we're all getting ready for Apple Vision Pro preorders to start, this weekend could be spent going through some interesting articles. Including some content for visionOS development too, so let's start with that.

• Apple Developer editors share answers on some questions raised by developers – Q&A: Building apps for visionOS;
  
  
• Peter Friese covers approaches to using SwiftUI view styles – Styling SwiftUI Views;
  
  
• Hint on bindings in SwiftUI byChris Eidhof – SwiftUI Binding Tips;
  
  
• Ensure safe code in your iOS app extensions by Marco Eidinger covers important aspects of code sharing with your app extensions;
  
  
• Majid Jabrayilov guides us on testing StoreKit in-app purchases – StoreKit testing in Swift;
  
  
• Antoine van der Lee checks performance aspects of new @Observable macro – @Observable Macro performance increase over ObservableObject;
  
  
• Great tip on running unit tests slightly quicker with different app entry point – How to Bypass SwiftUI App Launch During Unit Testing by Jon Reid;
  
  
• Flora Damiano goes through icon design in visionOS – Adapting your App Icon to visionOS;
  
  
• Donny Wals gives hints on git conflict resolution – Understanding and resolving merge conflicts;
  
  
• How to use Published Properties inside a Protocol in SwiftUI? by Leonardo Maia Pugliese explains use of protocols with ObservableObject's;
  
  
• Francesco Perchiazzi covers principles of spatial design – Embracing Extended Reality (XR): diving deep into Spatial Design for visionOS.

That's it for today. Next Friday might be a little bit busy for some of us, but surely there will be more articles to read.

Apple Developer portal gets new article on visionOS development questions.

Questions cover spatial gestures, use of windows and immersive spaces, view positioning in virtual space, spacial videos, and others.

Apple Developer: Q&A: Building apps for visionOS

It's 2024! All new things are happening! Well, okay, maybe not all is new, but good reads for developers is now starting its next season. And first issue will be covering these topics:

• Jordan Morgan explains some changes with iOS 17 SwiftUI macros in regards to bindings – Using @Binding with @Environment(Object.self);
  
  
• SwiftData Fetching Pending Changes by Keith Harrison uncovers some interesting behavior of SwiftData in regards to non-committed changes;
  
  
• Martin Mitrevski run experiments to measure impact of AnyView use in your SwiftUI app – AnyView’s impact on SwiftUI performance;
  
  
• Question asked by some seasoned developers – Where is the Info.plist file? is answered by Mark Szymczyk;
  
  
• How I successfully migrated my indie app to RevenueCat Paywalls by Charlie Chapman is good success story on monetization of the app;
  
  
• Donny Wals goes through git basics – Git basics for iOS developers;
  
  
• Leonardo Maia Pugliese covers Swift versioning and function availability – Unavailable Functions In Swift;
  
  
• Workaround: Xcode simctl status_bar is still broken for iOS 17 simulators by Jesse Squires will help to deal with iOS simulators issue.

And, if case you missed it, Apple Treats had season 3 finale last week.

And that is it for the first week of 2024. Happy New Year!

Hey! This the last weekend good reads for 2023. There are not too many articles honestly. But those might still take a while to go through.

• Paul Hudson comes up with quite a long read on how to build actual fully functioning SwiftUI app in 2023 – Build your first app with SwiftUI and SwiftData;
  
  
• There is no right or wrong in software engineering by Bruno Rocha goes through various uses of design patterns.

And, yes, that is it. Not too many. But if you still have time over this weekend, you might want to watch season 3 finale for Apple Treats where we review 2023 from developers' perspective.

Happy New Year! See you in January!

We're swiftly approaching end of the 2023. So here is second to last installment of weekend good reads.

• Natalia Panferova publishes two articles – covering Swift initializers and properties Trigger property observers from initializers in Swift (and some notes from Michael Tsai – Triggering Swift Property Observers From Initializers) and pattern matching with custom types Pattern matching for custom types in Swift;
  
  
• Egor Mikhnevich explores performance issues in table views – Debugging in iOS: Resolving UITextView Flickering Issues;
  
  
• SwiftData Deleting Data by Keith Harrison covers different ways of deleting data in SwiftData framework;
  
  
• Majid Jabrayilov continues his series on MapKit in SwiftUI – Mastering MapKit in SwiftUI. Interactions.;
  
  
• Using campaign links to track impressions, downloads, and sales by Antoine van der Lee gives hints on how to measure effectiveness of your app ad campaigns;
  
  
• Christian Tietze covers multiple Swift topics in his articles – Dependency Injection via Protocol Composition and Using Type Markers for 'is' Type Predicates to Cover Generic Types;
  
  
• Preparing your App for VoiceOver: Accessibility Actions by Pasquale Vittoriosi helps improving the app for VoiceOver compatibility;
  
  
• Michael Tsai also covers changes in state restoration in macOS Sonoma – State Restoration With NSSecureCoding on Sonoma.

And just before the year ends we have podcast episode to close the season too.

See you next week!