Issue 503

Comment

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has a constant stream of ideas related to software I either work on now, or may work on in the future. The quality of my ideas varies wildly, and it’s often the worst ideas that shout loudest at me to drop everything and start working on them. 😅 You’ll never be perfect at knowing where to focus your attention, or at least I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’ll never be perfect at it, but it’s an important thing to keep in mind.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the maturity of ideas this week, mostly because of this week’s release of Sourcery Pro by Krzysztof Zabłocki. Would this app be as good as it is without the years of thought, development, and iteration that went into Sourcery? Almost certainly not. That experience drove the feature set and workflow, and the app is much better for it.

But does every idea need to be deliberated on for years? Nope! Some ideas benefit from a quick MVP and experimentation. For example, this newsletter. I had the idea to do it, and around a week later I sent the first issue.

It’s hard to advise on this topic, but I think choosing what to pursue often comes down to how complex/significant the task is. I made the right decision to move quickly when deciding to start iOS Dev Weekly as the opportunity cost was small, and I took things much more slowly when considering whether to build the Swift Package Index.

The original idea for building a package search engine popped into my head around two years before the launch of the index site, and a year before the SwiftPM Library. I let the idea stew for a long while before starting as I knew the undertaking was significant.

What should you take from this? I think I might just have written the most obvious advice ever, but sometimes reading obvious stuff can still be useful. I’m also saying you should check out Sourcery Pro. It’s good. 👍

Note: For full disclosure, I helped beta test Sourcery Pro.

News

SwiftWinRT

I have no idea whether Swift on Windows will ever see widespread adoption, but I know that this package's release is a step towards that possibility. The fact that this work is primarily the result of one person's efforts is incredible. Thank you to Saleem Abdulrasool for all his efforts in this area.

Also, note how all builds failed when the package index tried to determine this package's compatibility? 😬 Does that mean we need to add Windows build machines? 😅

Code

JavaScriptCore and Swift

Like most people, I have mixed feelings about JavaScript. 😬 Overall, there are far more positives to the language than there are negatives, but when you hit those negatives... No matter what you think of the language, there's no denying that it can be a powerful ally in your apps when used through JavaScriptCore. Andy Ibanez tells us more.

Refining Accessibility: Lessons Learned

I very nearly linked this article on creating a beautiful aurora background animation from Matt Waller last week. I'm so glad I waited because he followed it up with an even better post this week on the implications of blurring and animations on accessibility. Great article.

Create Combine Publishers for HealthKit

Many articles that focus on Combine can be a little theoretical, but not this post from Isa Lima! I like how she doesn't only concentrate on using Combine to move data around but also on using it for requesting HealthKit permissions.

Hacking native ARM64 binaries to run on the iOS Simulator

Let's finish up with Bogo Giertler teaching us more about XCFrameworks and ARM64 binaries than we'll ever need to know. How about that as a way to finish your Friday? 🎉

Design

What If Your Designers Want a Baseline Grid on iOS?

This long and extremely detailed article from Tammo Freese is a must-read if you want your typography-focused app design to look good, especially if you're supporting dynamic text.

Business and Marketing

Writing your App’s Privacy Policy

Even if you've been through and [answered all of the App Store privacy questions, you still need a separate privacy policy. Here's David Olesch with a good set of points to consider if you're going to write your own privacy policy.

Jobs

iOS Developer @ Shape – If you're passionate about making state-of-the-art iOS apps, why not work together with some of the best developers and designers who share this passion? Our office is in Copenhagen - one of the most liveable cities in the world. We offer relocation support and help you get a VISA. We also like to host social events, morning runs, Friday bars, board game nights, LEGO days and much more. – Copenhagen, Denmark

iOS Specialist @ Darkroom – Tiny team, Apple Design Award-caliber product development, big scale and impact, fully remote team, competitive LA-based salaries anywhere in the world. If you want to build high touch products at scale, in a small team, this is the job for you. – Anywhere between California and Amsterdam

iOS Engineer @ Smile – We at Smile are on a quest to take the “work” out of work. To do this we’re on the search for an iOS Engineer to help delight our customers by crafting an amazing iOS experience for our PDFpen product. What's in it for you? A high level of autonomy in your role, the opportunity to work with motivated and creative teammates, and a flexible schedule that comes with fully remote work. – Remote

Developer Evangelist @ Semaphore – You're going to love this role if you're passionate about teaching best practices (via articles, videos, presentations...) and interacting with the community. The focus is all about building, testing and deploying code. – Remote

iOS Developer @ Doximity – Doximity, the medical network used by over 70% of US clinicians, is hiring passionate iOS engineers (full-time remote!). You'll get to be part of an amazing product team and work on an app that is constantly evolving. Use your skills (Swift, MVVM, FRP) to be an integral part of our newly launched telemedicine feature. Apply today! – Remote within the US

iOS Software Engineer @ Strava – As an iOS engineer at Strava, you will build the athlete experience in the Strava iOS app. In this role, you will build the features that make the best part of our athletes’ days even better. You will work closely with our cross-functional team to ensure our technology is addressing real athlete problems while being reliable and performant. – San Francisco CA, Denver CO, or Remote within the US

macOS Software Engineer @ Elgato – Elgato's awesome software products require awesome engineers. We are looking for highly motivated engineers focusing on macOS desktop applications to extend our product portfolio and improve the existing products. Your future agile team is a mix of experienced and junior colleagues with various technical and cultural backgrounds. We are looking forward to meeting you. – München or Mönchengladbach

Senior iOS Developer @ Vivino – Join our incredible, multicultural, passionate and truly international work culture and empower people everywhere to enjoy wine to the fullest. – Copenhagen

Technical Lead, Mobile Engineering @ M1 Finance – M1 Finance, The Finance Super App, is on a 🚀 of growth! We want to empower our users to take control of their financial well-being, and we would like you to help us. If you are an enthusiastic mobile engineer looking for your next product challenge and mentoring opportunity, then we would be delighted to hear from you. – Chicago IL

Senior iOS Engineer @ DuckDuckGo – We are a diverse and fully distributed team from around the world, working toward our shared vision to raise the standard of trust online. Join our team as a Senior iOS Engineer and help shape the technology that powers the DuckDuckGo search experience. As part of our growing team, you will collaborate with team members at all levels to identify and close major gaps in our products. – Remote

Senior iOS Engineer @ onX – Are you an iOS developer who loves the outdoors? Join onX! If you’re passionate about writing great software, love playing outside, believe in protecting access to public lands, and want to dominate the off-pavement mobile GPS market – then join our team, where we empower millions of outdoor enthusiasts to explore the unknown! – Remote within the US

iOS Engineer (Multiple Levels) @ Turo – Help us build product features that delight guests who book vehicles on our platform and enable hosts with the tools they need to manage their fleet. The iOS team is actively transitioning our iOS codebase from Objective-C to Swift, and we’re learning SwiftUI together–in labs–as we migrate our internal, watchOS, and tvOS apps. It’s really an exciting time to be an Apple-centric engineer at Turo. – San Francisco CA

Mobile Full Stack Engineer @ Expensify – Join our passionate team of top-notch engineers to solve a real-world problem, and help people spend less time managing expenses and more time pursuing their real goals. As we revolutionize the way people manage their expenses, being part of the Expensify team means building the easiest, fastest, and most efficient platform to automate everything expense-related. – Remote, San Francisco, Portland, Michigan, New York, London, or Melbourne

Are you hiring? Get your open iOS development positions listed right here by posting a Featured Listing over at iOS Dev Jobs.

Insiders

Thanks so much to this week’s iOS Dev Weekly Insiders! Matt Brindley, Filip Němeček, Matt Mayer, Luca Bartoletti, and Francisco Cantu. I really appreciate your support. ❤️

Want to join them? This week’s discussion call starts in about an hour!

And finally...

dequeConfiguredReusableCell 😂

(I wish I had seen this tweet before publishing last week's newsletter)

Issue 503 April 16th 2021