Issue 685  November 1st 2024

So let’s get into what you all thought on Apple platform development. I’ll start with a few prominent themes: SwiftUI, AI, and improvements to Xcode.

AI is an obvious one these days, but it’s clear that it means different things to different people. Some wished for improvements to Xcode 16’s AI code completion, while others wished for better integration APIs so users can access app-specific data via natural language. Some even wished for improvements to CreateML, which is an easy framework to forget when everything you read about is so dominated by LLM news. It’s clear that AI is on all your minds, though.

People are also clearly wishing for continued improvements to SwiftUI, but seemed to mostly be happy to take whatever Apple deems to bless us with in this area next year as there were only a few specific suggestions.

It was the same for Xcode, too. Improvements to the quality and performance of Xcode was probably the most common “wish” that I saw in the results, but again there were very few specifics. I hear this every year and it sometimes feels like I’m using a different Xcode to everyone else. It’s by no means perfect, but my experience with it seems nowhere near as bad as other people’s. I do wish the phantom errors would go away, though. 👻

 

Finally, I want to touch on a couple of specific comments. First, Siamak (Ash) Ashrafi on how he has seen iOS and Android development switch places when it comes to guidance on app architecture. Apple used to firmly encourage an MVC approach, but that has gone these days. Whereas, Android:

In the early days, Android developers faced a lack of guidance on app architecture. With no best practices provided, every developer implemented their own approach, leading to fragmented use of languages, tools, and design principles. This inconsistency resulted in many poorly designed apps on the Play Store, and unfortunately, the blame often fell on Android itself rather than the individual apps — users simply said, “Android sucks.” Fortunately, Google now offers clear guidelines and best practices, helping developers create robust, consistent, and high-quality Android apps.

He offered a link to Google’s Guide to app architecture and I enjoyed reading it. I thought I agreed with Apple’s recent stance of being completely architecture agnostic, especially when it comes to SwiftUI code. It’s hard to give generic advice about app architecture, but this guide does a great job. They have a whole learning pathway on the subject, too.

The topic of documentation came up several times, too. While there wasn’t anything particularly new said, the same old points remain. James Clarke :

Improving API documentation for Apple APIs giving usage examples.

It’s that last part about “examples” that comes up over and over again, and I’m confident it’s why blogs that take an Apple API and add code examples of using it do so well.

Also, from Daniel Steinberg:

Bring back the old Programming Guides. There are big topics that need those overviews and not API by API docs

I miss them too, Daniel! I understand what Apple is trying to do with adding articles in and around the API documentation, and those articles are great! However, as much as Apple might intend them to replace the old programming guides, they don’t do it well enough. I understand that the “book style” format must have been more work to maintain than shorter articles are, but I miss the way they guided you through a topic.

Finally, bless Marius Felkner for echoing my recent take by hoping for:

Opinionated stuff (Swift Format Rules etc)

It was a fascinating glance at what you all think, and I hope you found the results interesting! Thanks for reading.

Dave Verwer