Apple released Swift 3.0 as the first major version since the language became open source. This update brings big changes to the core language and standard library through many Swift Evolution proposals, but it does not work with code from Swift 2.2 or 2.3.
Apple introduced Xcode Playground Support as part of the open source Swift community, which lets developers build a toolchain to use the latest Swift features in Xcode 8 playgrounds.
Apple announced Developer Preview 1 of Swift 3.0, which offers stable builds to test the work-in-progress version before the final release.
Apple announced Swift 2.3 as a minor update from Swift 2.2.1. The main change is that it works with Apple’s macOS 10.12, iOS 10, watchOS 3, and tvOS 10 SDKs, and it updates LLVM and Clang to match Swift 3.
Swift 3.0 marks a major release without source compatibility to Swift 2.2. It brings key changes to the language and standard library through the evolution process.
Swift 2.2 adds features such as compile-time version checks with #if swift(>=3.0), checked selectors using #selector to avoid runtime errors, built-in tuple comparisons up to six elements, and allows most keywords as argument labels without backticks.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Apple saw a style gap between Cocoa interfaces and the Swift standard library. This gap made coding, debugging, and upkeep harder.
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.
Swift 3 aims to set API design guidelines and apply them across libraries to make the language feel more unified.
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.
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 is Foundation’s class for URLs. Create it with NSURL(string:), it returns nil if the string is invalid.
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.
NSCalendar offers many tools for working with dates beyond basic NSDateComponents.
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 gives you full undo/redo with almost no code. While you change something, tell the undo manager how to reverse it.
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 is an abstract class for a single unit of work. It manages state, priority, dependencies, and cancellation in a thread-safe way.
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, 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.
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.