S Link
Forward Swift Conference: March 2nd in San Francisco: $50 off
Join us in San Francisco for Forward Swift on March 2nd to hear a full day of talks from some terrific Swift speakers. Use code "forward-swift-2017" to get $50 off your conference pass. Don't forget to grab a workshop by Paul Hudson on beginning or advanced Swift, macOS, and server-side Swift.
The Swift Algorithms Book (Now Shipping Internationally!)
Written for students and professionals, the 2nd edition of Swift Algorithms & Data Structures blends modern code, illustrations and computer science to help you pass the interview or build your next app. Revised and updated for Swift 3.0, we've recently expanded our shipping options to include more than 70 countries. Use coupon code THEROBOT at checkout to receive a 20% discount!
Swift Around the Web
Naming Things in Swift
"Remember: code is written only once, but is read over and over, so programmers should optimize for ease of reading and not ease of writing. And, the most important thing to consider when optimize for reading is context. "
Love the guidelines here! Definitely a good point about naming dangerous functions with a longer, more descriptive name 💥
Swift 3 and Comparing Optionals
Didn't realize that Swift 3 removed the ability to directly compare two optional values. I guess it makes sense if you really think about it, especially with the given example of where things get confusing at the bottom of this article... but in real-world use-case we now have to do the unwrapping first 🎁
Coding
Bringing Wide Color to Instagram
As a non-designer, I was completely confused when Apple announced "Wide Color" at WWDC. This is a good explanation of what wide color is - basically a wider color spectrum than the current sRGB allows - and how to implement it in your app so you don't lose amazing color information stored by the newest iPhone camera technology.
Creating a Compelling Today Widget
Didn't realize a Today's Widget could expand in size. Super useful tip!
Design
Best Practices for Long Scrolling
"The smaller the screen, the longer the scroll"
Unfortunately, the 4-inch screen is here to stay. Love this blog post about making scrolling such an amazing and immersive experience, the user won't mind it.
Other Cool Stuff
Apple kicks off AirPods TV campaign despite limited availability
Gorgeous commercial. Love the dancing Spiderman! 6 weeks wait for AirPods though 😬
Videos
"Watch Your Language!": The Road to Cleaner Code with SwiftLint
I've reviewed some code recently, and my biggest advice was to implement SwiftLint! While people on a team might disagree about some code styles, the most important thing in a project is to have consistency. SwiftLint is a great tool for ensuring that consistency and focusing on bigger and better problems as a team.
Swift Code
- TinyFaces - Avatars & Random data for your designs 👦🏼👨🏾👩🏻 (Built w/ Vapor)
- SwiftMonkey - A framework for doing randomised UI testing of iOS apps
- Mustard - 🌭 Mustard is a Swift library for tokenizing strings when splitting by whitespace doesn't cut it.
- Hedwig - Send email to any SMTP server like a boss, in Swift and cross-platform
- RhythmBox - A Rhythm Box System for your iOS app written in Swift. 🎵
- JDBreaksLoading - You can easily start up a little breaking game in one line. By the way, don't make the user wait too long to play the game~
Business
What surprised us in 2016. And what we’re excited for in 2017.
"We’re not the outsiders anymore — we must go from being disruptors of the status quo to leaders of it."
Swift Thoughts
In super surprising news this week, Chris Lattner will be leaving Apple and joining Tesla as the Vice President of Autopilot Software [insert Tesla runs on Swift joke here].
"I’m happy to announce that Ted Kremenek will be taking over for me as 'Project Lead' for the Swift project, managing the administrative and leadership responsibility for Swift.org. This recognizes the incredible effort he has already been putting into the project, and reflects a decision I’ve made to leave Apple later this month to pursue an opportunity in another space. This decision wasn't made lightly, and I want you all to know that I’m still completely committed to Swift. I plan to remain an active member of the Swift Core Team, as well as a contributor to the swift-evolution mailing list." - Chris Lattner
Luckily, Swift has become much bigger than just Chris Lattner, with many amazing developers involved inside and outside Apple, including Ted Kremenek. While this is a big loss for Apple, I think Swift will be just fine.
This is a good reminder to make sure you don't have that one "star engineer" on your own team without whom the project cannot move forward aka the bus factor. I recommend creating a pairing culture.