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What's your favorite programming language?
In 2019, Kotlin and Swift were used by 2M developers worldwide each in mobile development. What will change in 2020 and beyond? We want to know! Take Q2 2020 Developer Economics survey and share your views about the most important programming languages. You may win one out of $15,000 worth of prizes! Open until August 10th. Start now!
developereconomics.net
News
Apple’s Relentless Strategy, Execution, and Point of View
I almost linked to Steven Sinofsky's tweetstorm last week, but I'm glad I waited as he has since expanded it into a full blog post. It's easy to look at an individual release and see the problems and inconsistencies. Still, he's right that engineering on this scale, with this consistency, and with this much success is unprecedented and remarkable.
learningbyshipping.com
The benefit of SwiftUI
Kyle Van Essen makes a great point in this tweetstorm. It may not be possible to reach UI nirvana with SwiftUI yet, but that the benefits it does bring are worth the current compromises. The framework coverage, and ability to polish can come over the next few years, but getting rid of the endless complexity of UI updates in increasingly complex operating environments is priceless.
twitter.com
Tools
Sim Genie
The simulator has come a long way recently, but many enhancements arrived as additions to simctl, the command-line tool. I've linked to several apps recently that have built UIs on top of various bits of simctl, but none that have done it quite so comprehensively as this new one from Curtis Herbert. It's not purely simctl automation though, it's also simulator folder management, and a whole host of other everyday development helpers. Also, how could I not link to a tool where you can set a systemwide shortcut key for deleting your derived data. 😂
For full disclosure, I've had this app for a while now as Curtis asked if I would beta test it. Unfortunately, with being extremely busy with other things, I only actually managed to even take a look at it this week. Sorry for being the worst beta tester ever, Curtis!
simgenie.app
Difference
I linked to Krzysztof Zabłocki's Difference library almost three years ago, so why am I linking it again? Well, as this tweet says, there have been updates. But honestly, I'm linking it because I can't remember when I saw a better pitch for a library than the two screenshots attached to this tweet.
twitter.com
Code
StoreKit Testing in Xcode
The building, debugging, and testing of StoreKit code is always stressful. It's the code that you use to earn your living, so the stakes are high. The good news is that StoreKit, and specifically the testing of StoreKit received a lot of attention in this year's releases! Jacob Eiting is here to give us a rundown of what's new.
revenuecat.com
What's new in WKWebView
It's easy to miss some of the subtle changes to important classes at a time like this. A great example of that is the introduction of WKContentWorld to WKWebView. As Filip Němeček explains here, it's a great step forward for stability and security in embedded web views.
nemecek.be
as, as?, and as!
The full semantics of
as,as?,as!, and is are so complex that I’m sure I can’t describe them
I learned several things about the difference between these operators as I read Ole Begemann's latest post, and I'm sure you will too. 👍
oleb.net
Apple machine learning in 2020
In stark contrast to the last few years, both ML and AR took a back seat to more practical, everyday technologies at this year's WWDC. That doesn't mean that there were no changes, though! Matthijs Hollemans takes a look at what's new in ML, and it's not a short article either! 🙇♂️
machinethink.net
Design
Using SVGs in asset catalogs
As soon as I saw that the new platforms supported SVG images as assets, I knew I wanted Marc Edwards' opinion on it. I'm delighted to say that he has almost nothing to say on the subject. 🤩
The most exciting part of this new feature is that there's not much to say — it's full SVG support, and it just works.
Farewell multi-resolution PNG files, we barely knew ye... Actually, we knew ye for more than ten years, and you quite outstayed your welcome, but still! Farewell, and safe travels!
Note: If you're wondering why I was concerned with Marc's opinion on this, this should give you some context.
bjango.com
Announcing the 2020 Apple Design Awards
Watch the video and get polishing your own apps. I must admit, I was a little disappointed to see to see the design awards focus so much on games. I liked it when there were a set number of awards per category. Congratulations to all the winners!
Also, ever wondered what the unboxing experience for a design award is like? Wonder no more.
apple.com
Jobs
iOS Software Engineer @ Perry Street Software – Perry Street Software is Jack’d and SCRUFF. We are two of the world’s largest gay, bi, trans and queer social dating apps on iOS. Our brands reach more than 20+ million members worldwide so members can connect, meet and express themselves on a platform that prioritizes privacy and security. We are a small, agile, nimble company, so the ability to make an impact is significant. – Remote, or New York NY
Senior iOS Developer @ Vessel – Our mission is to provide instant health tracking at home - we launch in August! Our mobile experience needs to be top-notch so we’re hiring a Senior iOS Developer. We are a consumer-facing company focused on creating an incredible UI/UX. We have a lean team of excellent developers that collaborate to create something truly special. – Remote, or San Diego CA
I wanted to write something about sponsoring open-source projects a couple of weeks ago when this post appeared, but WWDC dominates everything! But I didn't forget, and I'll talk about it now instead.
The post, if you read it, is about PSPDFKit sponsoring part of the CocoaPods project. I had no idea that some of the CocoaPods maintainers were paying for significant portions of this essential part of our ecosystem from their own pockets. 😨
I talked briefly about this in April, but I think it's worth saying again. We all rely on open-source libraries and tools, so wouldn't it be lovely if the people kindly maintaining them were earning money for doing it?
I feel that this support should come primarily from companies too. It's all too easy for businesses to ignore the issue, or maybe not even know how essential open-source software is to what they do. Also, the amounts of money needed from each company, if more did this, would be trivial. So that's where you come in, dear reader! A little advocacy can go a long way, and so I'd love it if you took a look at what open-source your company's apps rely on, and set some wheels in motion at your next 1:1 meeting.
Dave Verwer