Swift Around the Web
Algorithms & Data Structures with Swift
Here is your programmer interview cheat sheet for Swift. You're welcome.
Code
How to create UIButtons with FontAwesome icons
With my lack of design skills, I love power design tools like FontAwesome that let me make my app pretty without having to pay and / or wait for a designer to create the perfect icon for me. However, adding an icon to your UIButton is a bit tricky. This is how you do it.
Nullability and Inherited Initializers in Objective-C
"Xcode 6.3 introduces a feature that many of us have wanted ever since the introduction of Swift: the ability to specify to the compiler whether a method argument can be nil. Apple calls this nullability. How does this impact how we currently implement Objective-C initializers?"
Apple News
Design
Minimalistic Icons
"Minimalistic Icons are a clean, scalable and editable icon set. They are free for commercial and personal use. The package includes the icon set in Ai along with a brief license agreement. The icon set is royalty free for personal and commercial use." Thanks @MatthewCooperUK!
Mobile design patterns, resources and inspiration
Apple Watch screenshots are now on Pttrns! It's fun to see the variety in design despite the very limited customization that can be done in WatchKit so far. Let the inspiration copying begin!
Random Cool Stuff
Had no idea you could organize Apple Watch apps like this.
I like the crown, although it's probably the least useable.
In Case You Missed It
Swift: The Unused Optional Value Problem
Here is a scenario – you need to do something in your code based on whether an optional value exists or not, but the thing you need to do does not need to actually use the optional value. I'm not a big fan of using != nil for this situation in Swift specifically, but not everyone agrees of course. Join the discussion on Twitter here.
Open Source Apps
One of the very exciting trends I’ve been seeing recently is the open sourcing of actual iOS/OSX apps. I contributed to one of them this week, and I cannot overstate how satisfying it was to have the power to fix the few issues that really bothered me about the app. I hope more of you will consider open sourcing your own apps!
Tutorials
Choosing Images with UIImagePickerController in Swift
Let’s learn how to use UIImagePickerController to let the user select a photo from their device to load into your app.
Use Swift to build Attributed Stings for iOS
Every time I work with NSAttributedString, I have to google again how it works. Good tutorial outlining which NSAttributes are available and what they do.
Functional Voodoo
Creating ASCII art in functional Swift
This article explores an iOS app, written in a functional Swift style, that converts an image to ASCII art for no good reason.
WATCH
WatchKit Development Tips
Must-read WatchKit tips. I already learned something new just by reading the first tip. Did you know you could use these WatchKit NSExtensionContext notifications?
NSExtensionHostWillEnterForegroundNotification NSExtensionHostDidEnterBackgroundNotification NSExtensionHostWillResignActiveNotification NSExtensionHostDidBecomeActiveNotification
More "WatchKit Mistakes"
Another set of must-read WatchKit mistakes to learn from "expert" WatchKit developers. One theme that keeps coming up is to stop thinking of the Watch App as an iOS app. Remember, it's a brand new platform that requires a different interaction and user experience.
Podcasts
Episode 37 – Aaron’s Apple Watch Strikes Out
Great overview of the Apple Watch issues as well as some positives. One thing that stands out is that the third-party apps are not that great / useful. This makes sense, since those who actually released Apple Watch apps did not have access to the actual hardware until possibly later on in the Apple Watch labs for a day if they were lucky to be selected. Still a world of opportunity open for us now that we have the actual hardware to play and work with.
Swift Code
androidtool-mac - One-click screenshots, video recordings, APK installations for Android phones and smartwatches connected to your Mac (probably not relevant for most people on here, but this entertains me)
Timepiece - Intuitive NSDate extensions in Swift
SingleLineShakeAnimation - Shake a view with a single line of code with a non-intrusive extension for UIView, written in Swift.
MusicKit - A framework for composing and transforming music in Swift
FutureKit - A Swift based Future/Promises Library for IOS and OS X.
Business
Apple’s App Analytics
The promise of Apple's App Analytics:
- See how often customers visit your app’s page on the App Store
- Find out how many of your users open your app over time
- Check your app and In-App Purchase sales
- Create custom campaign links and follow the success of your marketing campaigns
- Understand which websites refer the most users
Swift Thoughts
I'm beyond thrilled to be speaking about Swift at UIKonf in Berlin in only two weeks. On my way there, I'll also be speaking at the Swift London Meetup and the Mobile Notts Meetup in Nottingham. If you're located in Berlin or the UK and want to meet up to discuss Swift, WatchKit, or iOS, just hit reply to this email! Excited to meet everyone :)