Issue 377

9^th November 2018

Written by Dave Verwer

Comment

I’m not really a big fan of community awards as they can sometimes feel like a bit of a popularity contest. So, it may come as a surprise that I’m opening this week’s issue with a link to the Swift Community Awards which are open for voting right now.

Just to be clear, I mean absolutely no disrespect by introducing the link in that way! What Paul does for the community is fantastic, I’ve just never really been a big fan of awards. 😀

It’s also important to note that I’m not doing this because I want you to vote for iOS Dev Weekly! Instead, I’m linking it because you’ll almost certainly find some other interesting resources there, and I know that’s also what Paul had in mind when he set this up.

So, there’s other newsletters, conferences, open source libraries and a vote for the best conference talk which was probably the highlight for me. Go and find something new.

One final note on this. I am not sure who nominated iOS Dev Weekly for the best newsletter category but it’s a good opportunity to thank you all again for sticking with me and continuing to read every week. I’m so glad that after all this time people still get value from reading what I write here. Thank you very much for the nomination, and for reading!

Dave Verwer

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News

I’ve read several times in reviews of the new iPad Pro devices this week, that they will really shine with iOS 13. I think that’s a brave statement to make when we know nothing about it yet, and especially brave when you think about how slowly operating system development generally moves. This piece from Craig Mod shows just how far we have to go, and it’s definitely worth a read.

This is a fantastic article from Mattt on the LSP project for Swift that was announced two weeks ago.

This is arguably the most important decision Apple has made for Swift since releasing the language as open source in 2014.

That’s a bold claim, but I think I agree.

This thread from Renaud Lienhart is a nice reminder that even though things aren’t perfect, iOS is a really great platform to work with as a developer.

Tools

This looks cool. Attach to your running iPhone (not iPad, yet) app in the simulator, inspect your view hierarchy, and modify various properties directly at runtime! Paul Hudson also has an interview with the creators if you want some more details.

I really do hope that name doesn’t backfire though… 🤞

Code

The App Store Connect API is available and documented! Straight away, Antoine van der Lee jumped into action and started this project to build a Swift SDK for the API. Looks good.

With external displays potentially stepping back into the limelight, Jordan Morgan has put together this blog post on how to support them.

You may not hit many assertions when you are developing, but you’d be surprised at what states your users manage to get your app into.

There’s some great advice in here from Peter Livesey.

I don’t link to a lot of 3D content here because most app development doesn’t require it. However, with AR becoming more relevant you might be wanting to get up to speed. Warren Moore writes about hit testing in 3D, but there’s also a great intro to coordinate spaces at the start of the article.

There’s a lot going on here from Tobias Due Munk. Is this an open source app which shows interactive slides from his talk Into the Deep? Is it an open source app showing off iOS depth sensing? Is it an open source app that will make you long for the 80s? Or… Is it all of those things and more… 😂

And finally...

Things to know before you go indie… 😂