Issue 681

4^th October 2024

Written by Dave Verwer

Comment

Last week’s downtime on Curated set me thinking about this newsletter and about the fact it has been the same format for a very long time now.

That’s no accident, of course. A collection of links to community-written posts along with news articles, an opinion piece from me, and a light-hearted link to finish is a format that has worked well for many years. Why fix what isn’t broken?

My process of writing the newsletter has been the same for years, too, so much so that I turned that workflow into a product in 2014. I sold that product in 2016 and it’s been sold a couple more times since then, including a recent sale to Buttondown. In the eight years since I originally sold Curated, it has always been incredibly stable but the product hasn’t improved much, either. In some ways, that’s a testament to how right we got the original design of the system, but in others it’s a little disappointing. Add in some recent stability issues, and having a backup plan is definitely on my mind!

The truth is that I’m bored with the “Curated format” too, and I think something needs to change. I’d also love to make some technical changes, like being able to completely remove all click and read analytics, which isn’t possible with Curated. It’s also long overdue a visual refresh.

Before I take any drastic decisions, though, I want to get a bit of feedback so I put together a short survey to see what you all enjoy most about this newsletter. It should only take a couple of minutes to fill in, so I’d be incredibly grateful if you would let me know how you feel. Thank you! ❤️

That said, don’t expect a complete and total change of everything. I’m still a big believer that it’s critical that I showcase articles published by other people as well as writing my own commentary. Think of what’s going to happen as more of an adjustment than a revolution.

Dave Verwer

Code

How to build a Safari extension with SwiftUI

As you might expect, it’s not particularly hard to get SwiftUI up and running inside a Safari Extension. There’s just no easy-to-access example project or documentation on doing it. Here’s Pol Piella with a short but sweet guide to getting your SwiftUI code hosted.

Reminder: Apple Watches use 32 bit pointers

Jeff Verkoeyen:

What is arm64_32? It’s a 64 bit operating system that runs on 32 bit pointers.

I had no idea!

SwiftUI Environment

Let’s finish up this week’s code-related links with Natalia Panferova laying out a comprehensive guide to the SwiftUI Environment. It covers everything from the basics, adding your own custom environment data, and also how it interacts with @Observable.

Design

Giving depth to your App Icons

Flora Damiano starts with a bit of icon history, and while I hadn’t heard of the design style of “Soft-realistic”, I agree that’s where we are. Even better, I love that the industry is finally moving back in this directory. She goes on to give some essential techniques you can use to give your icons this look. 🧑‍🎨

Videos

Videos from Server-Side Swift Conference 2024

I mentioned in the last issue that I didn’t have the full context from Tony Parker and Ben Cohen’s announcement of swift-java. Now the videos from last week’s Server-Side Swift Conference are out, you can watch the whole announcement. All the other session videos are available, too!

And finally...