Issue 245

Comment

It's been a light week for iOS news. Yes, there was a fresh set of betas for all the platforms but the changes are minor. So, let's just get on with the links!

News

Apple Classroom First Impressions

Fraser Speirs takes a look at the Apple Classroom which shipped with iOS 9.3. A review like this is as close as most of us are going to get to seeing it for real so I really appreciated the detailed look at the features it includes.

Google may be considering Swift for use on Android

I've been watching this pull request for a few weeks now and while it's not yet merged, there's consistent active discussions and progress being made. Of course, that pull request is only a first step. However, if Google are thinking about making Swift a first class citizen on Android that could change things quite significantly.

Tools

Using Xcode's Schemes to run a subset of your tests

Orta Therox with a somewhat hidden feature of Xcode which allows different schemes to run different subsets of your tests. This was inspired by AppCode's testing features (which Jon Reid also wrote about this week). However, compare any of this to something like focus in RSpec and we still have a long way to go.

Using Git Hooks to prevent commiting test code

I'm forever doing this... I'll modify something, or comment something out temporarily to set up a specific test scenario and then accidentally commit it. Benedikt Terhechte has come up with a solution though. Mark your temporary code with a unique string and check for it in a Git pre-commit hook. Smart!

Code

The Non-Reactive Solution

Brent Simmons with a response to this post by Junior Bontognali about using RxSwift to solve a problem. I think the combination of these two posts do a pretty good job of discussing the pros and cons of reactive programming.

Bridges of Siracusa County

Russ Bishop with a post on his proposal for Swift classes to be able to expose an Objective-C friendly interface without having to affect the design of the Swift class. I also really like the notes at the end of the article about taking the time to write up proposals like this.

Perspective Transform & Correction with Core Image

More Core Image goodness from Simon Gladman. I had no idea CI could do this, and in just a few lines of code too.

Design

Why Your Gray Text Should Never Exceed 46% Brightness

How about some actual numbers for what kind of contrast actually works well in your UI? Anthony Tseng has some recommendations for various font sizes.

Business and Marketing

How We Decide What To Build Next At Appbot

Stuart Hall on one of the hardest problems in software development, what to prioritise next? He suggests a fairly analytical approach and evaluating each feature by the percentage of people who will use it, the difficulty of the task and the potential impact on revenue. It's a good way to do it.

A little thing about release notes

Slack's release notes are great, just the right balance of useful information and humour. A perfect middle ground between ridiculousness and "Bug fixes and minor tweaks". Anna Pickard goes through their process.

And finally...

Why does iPad not have a native calculator?

Who knows if this is true, but I can believe it.

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Issue 245 April 8th 2016