Swift 2.2 Released!
Apple launched Swift as an open source project with the Swift.org site, which includes key parts like the compiler, standard library, LLDB debugger, core libraries, and package manager.
Development
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Expanding Commit Access
Now that the Swift Continuous Integration system is established and proven, we’d like to grant commit access on a more frequent basis to project contributors who have established a track record of good contributions.
Swift Benchmark Suite now Available
Apple's Swift Team has released the benchmark suite as open source. It includes 75 benchmarks for key Swift tasks, libraries for common functions, a driver to run and show metrics, and a tool to compare versions.
Continuous Integration now Available
Apple has rolled out continuous integration for the Swift project. Jenkins powers the system, which builds and tests on macOS, iOS simulator, and Ubuntu versions 14.04 and 15.10.
It's Coming: the Great Swift API Transformation
Apple saw a style gap between Cocoa interfaces and the Swift standard library. This gap made coding, debugging, and upkeep harder.
Swift 2.2 Release Process
Swift 2.2 marks the first official release after Swift became open source. It stays mostly compatible with Swift 2.1 and focuses on core fixes, better diagnostics, and faster code without big language changes.
The Website Obesity Crisis
In conversations with web performance advocates, I sometimes feel like a hippie talking to SUV owners about fuel economy. They have all kinds of weirdly specific tricks to improve mileage. Deflate the front left tire a little bit.
Swift 3 API Design Guidelines
Swift 3 aims to set API design guidelines and apply them across libraries to make the language feel more unified.
The Swift Linux Port
Apple released a Linux port of Swift with the open source project launch. Users can build it from sources or download binaries for Ubuntu on x86_64 architecture.
The Swift.org Blog
Apple has launched the open source Swift project and the Swift.org website. They aim to work with the community to fix issues, add features, and expand Swift to new platforms.
NSURL
NSURL is Foundation’s class for URLs. Create it with NSURL(string:), it returns nil if the string is invalid.
Kill all browser plugins
In the last few years all big players on the internet, started adopting HTML5 for video streaming. Like YouTube, Netflix and all kinds of news websites.
CloudKit
CloudKit, a powerful framework by Apple, enables iOS developers to integrate iCloud functionality into apps, eliminating the need for custom backend code and server maintenance by providing seamless user authentication, data storage, and file management.
About labels and icons
In the battle of clarity between icons and labels, labels always win.
NSCalendar Additions
NSCalendar offers many tools for working with dates beyond basic NSDateComponents.
NSScanner
NSScanner wraps a string to pull out substrings and numbers. It has properties like caseSensitive (for matches), charactersToBeSkipped (ignores chars), scanLocation (current position), locale (for numbers).
NSUndoManager
NSUndoManager gives you full undo/redo with almost no code. While you change something, tell the undo manager how to reverse it.
Core Location in iOS 8
iOS 8 introduces significant updates to the Core Location framework, enhancing developer capabilities and user privacy through granular permissions, indoor positioning, and visit monitoring.
NSOperation
NSOperation is an abstract class for a single unit of work. It manages state, priority, dependencies, and cancellation in a thread-safe way.
IBAction / IBOutlet / IBOutletCollection
The article explores the roles of IBAction, IBOutlet, and IBOutletCollection in Objective-C development for Cocoa and Cocoa Touch, highlighting their evolution from necessary Interface Builder directives to vestigial yet culturally significant markers.
MKGeodesicPolyline
MKGeodesicPolyline, added in iOS 7, draws the true shortest path between points on the Earth’s curved surface. On a flat map this appears as a gentle arc instead of a straight line.
MKTileOverlay, MKMapSnapshotter & MKDirections
iOS 7 quietly brought three powerful new MapKit tools that fixed many old complaints about Apple Maps. Together these solved the biggest developer gripes: ugly base maps, no static map images, and no routing. Even today they remain some of the most generous (and under-used) mapping APIs on iOS.
NSRange
NSRange is a Foundation struct for a contiguous interval of integers, with location (start) and length. It helps avoid off-by-one errors compared to start/end pairs.
Multipeer Connectivity
Multipeer Connectivity (introduced in iOS 7) lets nearby iPhones, iPads, and Macs talk directly to each other using Wi-Fi, peer-to-peer Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth. No internet, no server, no central service required.
NSNotification & NSNotificationCenter
NSNotificationCenter acts as a central hub. Any part of an app can send notices or listen for changes from others. Observers sign up for certain events and get a callback when they happen.