Be careful with Obj-C bridging in Swift
Type casting in Swift allows us to treat an instance as a different instance of a superclass or subclass from its hierarchy. It's accomplished using the as operator. However, did you know that the as operator is also the Objective-C bridging operator? In this post, Bruno Rocha explains why we need to pay extra attention when casting to make sure we are not also bridging from Swift to Objective-C types.
Posted on March 26, 2021
|
How to use @autoclosure in Swift to improve performance
An autoclosure is a Swift closure that is automatically created to wrap an expression passed as a function argument. In this post, Antoine Van Der Lee demonstrates how we can use autoclosures and provides examples of Swift APIs which use this feature.
Posted on March 17, 2021
|
Exploiting String Interpolation For Fun And For Profit
String interpolation allows us to construct a Swift String value from a mix of constants, variables, literals, and expressions. In this post, Dave Delong gets creative with interpolation, creating what he describes as a solution in search of a problem.
Posted on March 12, 2021
|
Core Store
Core Data is an object graph and persistence framework provided by Apple. Introduced in iOS 3.0, it's still relevant but is also generally acknowledged as not being particularly Swift friendly. In this post, the excellent Daniel Steinberg makes an early prediction for a Swift replacement of Core Data which he thinks might be unveiled at this year's WWDC.
Posted on March 8, 2021
|
Distributing closed-source frameworks with SPM
The Swift Package Manager is a tool for managing the distribution of Swift code. It's incredibly easy to use and is quickly becoming one of the main methods of distributing Swift libraries. In this post, Daniel Saidi looks at how to distribute closed-source XCFrameworks using the Swift Package Manager.
Posted on March 5, 2021
|
Variable, Tuple, Closure, and Generic Typealias in Swift
A type alias declaration introduces a named alias of an existing type and is declared using the typealias keyword. In this post, Robert Pieta provides examples of creating type aliases for a variety of Swift types. Even if you are already familiar with type alias declarations, this is a useful quick refresher.
Posted on March 4, 2021
|
Operation
The Operation type from Apple's Foundation framework is an abstract class that represents a single task. In this post, Bruce Evens makes his case for using Operations over DispatchQueues in Swift, arguing that since we are using a high-level language, we should also use high-level constructs.
Posted on February 27, 2021
|
Phantom types in Swift
A phantom type in Swift is a generic type that is declared but not used inside the type where it is declared. In this post, Majid Jabrayilov demonstrates how to use phantom types to create type-safe and robust APIs.
Posted on February 26, 2021
|
nil-null-mess in Objective-C and Swift
In this post, Andy Ibanez looks at the state of nullability in both Objective-C and Swift. Andy explains the different representations of nothingness in each language and points out some pitfalls which we might encounter when working with nullability.
Posted on February 25, 2021
|
XCTest tips and tricks that can level up your Swift testing
Testing is such a critical part of the software development process that it's always great to learn some new test-related tricks. In this post, Joe Masilotti shares some of his favorite XCTest tips he picked up over the past few years. Swift code samples included.
Posted on February 19, 2021
|