C1W1 Aug 26

  • Personal Introductions and Syllabus
  • Intro Apple, Xcode, Swift, SwiftUI
  • Environment Setup
  • Announce Assignments
  • (if time) git and Github

Personal Introductions & Syllabus

I began my journey in Aerospace Engineering, which gave me a foundation of problem-solving and technical skills. I’ve ventured into several different industries since then, each adding to my experience and perspective. Although I’m a self-taught developer, my design and engineering background has been greatly shaped my approach to software development.

I continue to work on developing my own apps—a process that, while sometimes slow, is fascinating and rewarding. Every step of the way, I’m constantly learning and applying new ideas, which I’m excited to share with you in this course.

  • B.S. in Aerospace Engineering at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
    • Minor in Psychology
    • Focus on Propulsion Systems
  • M.S. in Creative Technologies & Design at CU Boulder
    • Interactive Art Installations
      • see esp. Permutate and The Intervening Substance by Nicole Banowetz
    • Generative Art
    • Unity 3D (turns out to be like aerospace)
    • iOS App for Haunted House
  • Self-taught Software Developer
  • Aerospace Systems Engineer at Aerojet
  • Middle & High School Science Teacher in Italy
  • Informal Science Educator
  • UAV Sales Engineer
  • Pharmaceutical Data Analyst
  • Education & Outreach at LASP
  • H/W & S/W Engineer, Science Instruments and Museum Exhibits
  • iOS Developer at Woodridge
  • iOS Developer at Workday
  • UI Components based on Workday's Canvas Design System
  • Extensive Accessibility and Internationalization
  • Work most closely with UX Designers via Figma
  • Utilize Continuous Integrations/Development
  • Set the standard for using modern SwiftUI
  • Support QA teams for ensuring stable releases
  • Coding experience (share more in upcoming project)
  • App dev goals and interests
  • Thoughts on App Store submission and TestFlight ($)

See the Syllabus page.

Apple is the creator of Xcode, the essential tool for developing apps across all Apple platforms. Swift, an open-source programming language initially developed by Apple, has become the standard for building modern apps. SwiftUI, a closed-source UI framework also developed by Apple, is the future of app development, gradually replacing the older UIKit framework. Be thankful that you’re entering this space now that it is a much more approachable space to be in than just a few years ago!

Swift and SwiftUI have evolved rapidly, but we’re reaching a point where things are starting to stabilize—especially with Swift. The language continues to introduce new features, but the pace of change is slowing down. We’re currently in a transition from Swift 5 to Swift 6, with strict concurrency being the most significant update. This change is likely to be the last major shift for a while, but it will also break a lot of existing code. As a result, some projects may remain in Swift 5 mode until the heat death of the universe.

While some developers argue that SwiftUI isn’t fully ready for widespread adoption, I strongly disagree—with almost no exceptions. Yes, there are still a few things that UIKit can do that SwiftUI can’t, but that gap is closing fast. Eventually (perhaps a decade from now), UIKit may no longer be the preferred tool for anything. The complaints about SwiftUI often come from developers who learned the “old way” and haven’t fully embraced the SwiftUI mindset. Other frustrations arise from trying to force SwiftUI to do things it wasn’t designed for, rather than following the natural, native patterns.

Personally, I know very little about UIKit, and Objective-C still looks completely foreign to me. From my perspective, anyone complaining about SwiftUI is either not fully understanding it, trying to do things the hard way, or both.

In short: Embrace SwiftUI. It’s the future, and with the right approach, it’s an incredibly powerful tool for building modern apps.

  • New Project
    • The famous Shift-Cmd-N
      • A new file is merely Cmd-N 😅
    • Or from the menu
    • Select iOS App
    • Bundle Identifier as reverse URL
  • Main files and structure
    • App
    • ContentView
    • Project File
  • Navigator
    • Does not necessarily match file structure, but usually does
  • Preview
    • Can be turned on and off
    • Error messages almost helpful (beware!)
    • Preview macro
  • Simulator
    • Differences from physical device
    • No VoiceOver but can get close
    • Not 100% necessary for iOS dev
    • Select the OS (also affects Preview)
  • Console Output
    • print of course
    • Common to get lots of useless messages
      • Worry more about IDE warnings and errors
  • Settings
    • Accounts
    • Locations
    • Derived Data
  • Help Menu
    • Documentation
    • Human Interface Guidelines
  • Component Library
    • Configure views from side menu
  • Show some main views
    • Text
    • Image
    • Button
    • padding
    • background
    • overlay
    • foreground style
    • shapes
  • Settings
    • Login
    • Text Editing
      • Trim trailing whitespace
      • Including white-space only lines
      • Re-indent on paste
    • Derived Data
  • Shortcuts
    • Ctrl-I to indent

Accomplish these for the rest of the class. Feel free to help each other and ask questions.

Sub-tasks go after their parent task

  • Install Xcodes App
    • Install Xcode 15.4 (15F31d)
    • or latest Beta via Xcodes
  • Install Github Desktop
  • Install SF Symbols
  • Install Homebrew
    • Install git with brew install git
    • git config --global core.ignorecase false

Quiz on Swift basics based on the content from days 1-12 of the 100 Days of Swift by Paul Hudson at Hacking with Swift. These are the topics (the day number is not important):

  • Day 1 – variables, simple data types, and string interpolation
  • Day 2 – arrays, dictionaries, sets, and enums
  • Day 3 – operators and conditions
  • Day 4 – loops, loops, and more loops
  • Day 5 – functions, parameters, and errors
  • Day 6 – closures part one
  • Day 7 – closures part two
  • Day 8 – structs, properties, and methods
  • Day 9 – access control, static properties, and laziness
  • Day 10 – classes and inheritance
  • Day 11 – protocols, extensions, and protocol extensions
  • Day 12 – optionals, unwrapping, and typecasting

We may cover these in class. They may be part of future assignments. They might be what you're looking for to learn more.

WWDC19 Introducing SF Symbols WWDC21 SF Symbols in SwiftUI

Basic

  • git init
  • git clone
  • git add
  • git commit
  • git status
  • git push
  • git pull
  • git fetch
  • git merge
  • git branch

Intermediate

  • git checkout (esp. for getting a file from another branch)
  • git log
  • git diff
  • git reset
  • git revert
  • git stash
  • git remote
  • git tag
  • git rm with --cached
  • Obsidian
  • Copilot (via VS Code)
    • Autocomplete
    • Language questions
    • Bash scripts
    • Testing
  • Visual Studio Code
  • Sublime Text
  • Swiftformat
  • Swiftlint

Polish Notes

  • Demo voice control and VoiceOver
  • Clarify what is meant by "Apple libraries"
  • First GH step for classroom is joining the organization, but can it be done in bulk or by link?
  • Xcodes will look like it is working but will fail if you sign in with apple account that is not set up as a developer account
  • git skills and GitHub account can be assumed
  • There is a VS Code plugin to write in Swift, and maybe one that has SwiftUI autocomplete