Two part article on hints on how to write fast Swift programs.
Thanks to Shobhit Gupta for these articles.
https://shobhitgupta-27686.medium.com/writing-high-performance-swift-code-part1-a25749ef21ba
2nd performance article from Shobhit: https://shobhitgupta-27686.medium.com/copy-on-write-optimization-97e43eb8af01
Not only has the Oculus App Lab been a success, they are making it easier to use.
For us non-PC users, this is a big thing. It also show a trend in making tech devices more stand alone.
https://www.roadtovr.com/sidequest-oculus-quest-2-android-app/
Use your VR device to travel back in time, to play with your Commodore 64.
Oculus Quest will shortly have a Fully-functional Commodore 64 Emulator. Amazing.
https://www.roadtovr.com/commodore-64-oculus-quest-2/
Teaser video: https://youtu.be/rI_ADL4iFvA
Inter-component communication is an important ability in an App, Muhammad Ariful Islam shows how to do this with NSNotification.
Notifications are a way for any Swift app to pass information around.
https://medium.com/dev-genius/pass-data-using-nsnotification-in-swift-1ddc3bbd0d6d
A clever use of Regular Expression to verify if Password matches security requirement.
Matt Kopacz shows how to use Swift to verify if a string has upper case, lower case, number & special character.
https://medium.com/swlh/password-validation-in-swift-5-3de161569910
Unfortunately, I do not have a direct link, but the front page of The Washington Post today (April 28, 2021) has an article regarding brain-computer interface company Neural, and other similar companies.
The article is interesting, and it is interesting that people are talking about this subject as fact, not as Science Fiction. You can’t get more mainstream than front page of the Post.
Update: Found link https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/04/27/brain-controlled-tech-facebook-neurable/
A great video from Computerphile regarding the history and background of the popular Unix tool Grep.
I never used GREP very much, but I am learning to use Regular Expressions more and more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTfOnGZUZDk
Here is a great cookbook from Steven Curtis on how to handle Face ID & Touch ID,
The LocalAuthentication API provides the tools to confirm who your user is, something important for shared iPads.
https://betterprogramming.pub/face-id-touch-id-and-localauthentication-df0e20f212b3
This yet to be released product, WOWCube System, is a Rubix Cube-like product, but with programmable screens.
I find it interesting that there is an SDK, allowing you to create your own games.
https://thegadgetflow.com/portfolio/handheld-game/
Ask for info on website: https://wowcube.com
Becoming a better Software Developer is not just learning to code better. It is also learning to communicate.
I like the ideas in this list of emails you should send out weekly (if not daily).
Algorithm: When programmers don’t want to explain what they did.
Heuristic: When programmers can’t explain what they did.
Machine Learning: When programmers don’t know what they did.
Microsoft’s contract with the Army for HoloLens 2 has morphed into a $22 Billion contract.
Originally announced in 2019 (with price tag of $480 million), the military will be using VR for training.
https://www.roadtovr.com/microsoft-hololens-2-us-army-contract-production-phase/
Thank you to Artturi Jalli for these one line treasures.
You quickly get into the habit of using new Swift features.
https://betterprogramming.pub/5-useful-swift-one-liners-to-write-concise-code-e63f75337a53
What will probably be the first use of robot cars in the US be? Delivering Pizza! I am not sure if I should be proud or annoyed.
The automated car will deliver to your curb, but you have to go outside to pick it up.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/12/tech/dominos-pizza-delivery-robot/index.html
Tom Elliott of RayWenderlich team gives us a 30 min tutorial on using Apple’s SF Symbols.
You can use any of the 2400 symbols in your app, or create custom icons based on the symbols.
https://www.raywenderlich.com/20948225-sf-symbols-for-ios-getting-started
Anyone have $1.5 million to lend me? I would love to have first Apple computer type.
Seriously, this is ridiculous amount of money for a bit of tech history. It belongs in a museum.
https://hypebeast.com/2021/2/apple-1-computer-1-5-million-usd-ebay-auction-info
It is always good to know what is going on under the hood. Here is a tutorial for Swift Memory usage.
Tibor Bödecs explains “how Swift manages, stores and references various data types and objects using a memory safe approach”.
https://theswiftdev.com/memory-layout-in-swift/
Related article: https://theswiftdev.com/unsafe-memory-pointers-in-swift/
Often my best ideas, are ones someone else has already implemented, like a Swift library to convert MarkDown text to Attributed text.
Here is Simon Fairbairn GitHub repository for SwiftyMarkdown, a surprisingly easy to use Swift package for this task.
https://github.com/SimonFairbairn/SwiftyMarkdown
Ale Patrón demonstrates the code for what is becoming a common user interface element, the Expanding button.
The techniques shown can be used for a number of animated views. Thanks Ale!
https://medium.com/swlh/creating-an-expandable-button-in-swift-8368165b999e
Github: https://github.com/apatronl/Expandable-Button-Demo
Another hidden Easter egg has been discovered on the Perseverance probe on Mars.
A camera shot shows on a stick figure family of past Mars Rovers.
https://www.space.com/perseverance-rover-mars-robots-family-portrait
Every time I get a new Mac, I have to install developer tools. Richard So's list is a great starting point.
M1 tools are still being update, so as always, keeping up to date is a work in progress.
https://codeburst.io/my-ultimate-m1-mac-developer-setup-cfdb2daeed2d
Thanks to Alfian Losari for explaining how to use the NFC API for iOS.
In my opinion, Near-field communication technology has the possibility to become part of daily life.
https://www.alfianlosari.com/posts/build-nfc-scanner-ios-app-with-corenfc/
Oculus promised an easier distribution approach with App Lab, and it appears they came thru.
Well known VR pundit Tony “SkarredGhost” Vitillo create the most useless app ever, to prove that anything can be put into the App Store.
https://www.roadtovr.com/unity-cube-worst-quest-game-oculus-app-lab-on-purpose/
Saturday Tech Humor #2
To replace Programmers with AI would require clients to accurately describe what they want.
My job is safe.
Einstein & Hawkins may be more famous, but probably no theoretical physicist is more beloved than Richard Feynman.
Here is 4 of his lectures on Quantum Mechanical, that he gave in 1983. Still fascinating!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcpwnozMh2U
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNF_3KdpdrY
Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmXRQDQQeJ4
Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MksgbUylt8o
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman
Intel appears not to not like Apple switching to a custom M1 chip.
Years ago, Apple dropped the Motorola 68000 chip, then the PowerPC chip. I don’t recall anyone having this reaction.
https://medium.com/macoclock/the-drama-between-intel-and-apple-6ad0f8ce3add
“The Life & Times of Video Games” is a audio blog dealing with past, present & future of this subject.
Running for 4 years now, I have enjoyed some of their past blogs!
https://podyssey.fm/podcast/itunes1279383027-The-Life--Times-of-Video-Games
Duncan Champney an old friend, has released some iOS code demonstrating how to convert a multipoint Polygon into a Round Corner Polygon.
This common graphic operation is not available in any iOS/Mac SDK, so this is great resource for anyone who design this type of interface.
https://github.com/DuncanMC/RoundedCornerPolygon
Stack Overflow posting regarding code: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67051677/how-do-i-draw-irregular-polygons-with-a-mix-of-rounded-and-sharp-corners/
The FCC has released an official Internet Speed Test app for mobile platforms.
The results are shared with the FCC, so they track speed claims of internet providers. Is this good or bad?
Now days, almost all apps should have communication aspect like email, chat or phone call.
I liked this article, Pramish Luitel connected 3 related social operations, and explained it clearly.
https://betterprogramming.pub/call-message-and-email-in-swift-a23df579e429
Swift code can greatly be simplified with its use of inference. 5.4 goes a step further with this ability.
Static function need no longer include Class name, if the class is the result of the function (read the article to make sense of that).
https://www.swiftbysundell.com/tips/chained-implicit-member-expressions/
Mark Ellis wishes that Apple would just kills the Apple TV.
AppleTV has not been the most successful projects, but I am not sure I agree with Mark.
https://medium.com/macoclock/why-apple-needs-to-cancel-the-apple-tv-88b88ed9d433
RoadToVR reports on Apple recent patent regarding “micro-gestures” for AR input.
This “involves using the thumb against the index finger as a sort of virtual joystick or selector”.
https://www.roadtovr.com/apple-ar-vr-patent-micro-gesture-head-worn-haptics/
John of Swift by Sundell gives us some new types of an old tool, the Formatter classes.
PersonNameComponentsFormatter, CNPostalAddressFormatter, RelativeDateTimeFormatter & ListFormatter, all exceptionally useful in converting data into human readable strings.
https://www.swiftbysundell.com/articles/exploring-some-of-the-lesser-known-formatter-types/
Thanks to David Piper for this article on using AVAudioSession to play music in the background.
Handling background processing well is one of the big mysteries on iOS.
https://betterprogramming.pub/dont-stop-the-music-in-an-ios-app-bc4780f6cf61
FanFiction, including game development, has always been running under the radar (common, but illegal). Should it be illegal?
A fun video exploring how game developers are willing to spend huge personal efforts to make something, only to often be shot down.
Personal note: I can see both sides on this issue. Creator should have some control over the uses of his creation. And non-commercial use of the Intellectual Property by enthusiastic fans should not be criminal. Problem is we don’t have either. Due to Parody & Fair use laws, we have the worst situation. Dedicated fans who want to create extended stories are not allowed, while Parody XXX rated use of IP is allowed. At the same time, due to crowd funding, the lines between commercial & non-commercial is becoming even more vague.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Hwl7DuUwI
The Swift consortium has release a new collection of Swift Collections.
Deques, OrderedSet & OrderedDictionary may soon join Arrays, Dictionaries & Sets as part of the Swift Standard Library.
https://swift.org/blog/swift-collections/
I have finally heard the best solution of the great debate on how to pronounce “GIF”. Is if Jif (soft G) or Gif (hard G)?
The answer? Pronounce it the way your boss pronounces it.
Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference (GTC) will be online in a couple days, and it is free. All Game developer should be excited about the new trends.
I find it interesting that the new Video boards are fast enough, that Nvidia is actively encouraging Ray Traced games, not Textured Mapping based ones.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/gtc/topics/game-development/
For Macintosh Historic Forensic geeks, here is the File Format for the original Hypercard stacks.
There was a time, when Hypercard developers would have killed for this information. I wish we had similar tool for cross-platform development.
https://hypercard.org/hypercard_file_format_pierre
Swifter Swift is a package of 500 extension to Swift for all flavors of Apple development.
Installable as a Swift Package now, it is worth review, just for ideas of what can be done.
Conway’s Game of Life celebrated its 50 anniversary last Oct, this documentary helped celebrate it.
Besides an understanding of the game & history, this video goes into depth on how to use Life to duplicate logical circuits, to be a true Turing computer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk2MH9O4pXY
I have heard of liquid cooled chips before, but never dunking the entire motherboard into liquid.
The system does not need a circulation pump, because the low boiling point materials bubbles into mist, which then condenses into rain, losing heat in the process.
The DC iOS developer group will virtual host a talk by Krzysztof Zabłocki of The NY Times on Improving Developer Experience.
Come attend the Meetup on Tue, Apr 13 on 5:00 PM.
https://www.meetup.com/DC-iOS/events/277332365/
About the speaker: http://merowing.info
Krzysztof Zabłocki Github: https://github.com/krzysztofzablocki
A short but sweet article by Dylan Chen about some of the lesser known, but extremely useful Swift protocols.
Arguable, ever class you create should support all of these. I especially like CaseIterable.
https://medium.com/geekculture/swift-5-use-protocols-to-take-your-code-to-the-next-level-a671972f2f2
You know what Facebook & LinkedIn really needs? A Personal Note section attached to all of my Online Friends/Contacts, where I can jot down information about that person. Like who they are and where I met them. Once my Friend list was only people I met face to face regularly. Now I have online only friends, or once I see once a year at a Convention. So little details like "who the hell are they" would be useful.
Big win for Google, but a even bigger win for software development.
While the 6-2 decision did not directly decide against software copyright, it shows the first person to program something does not own the idea.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/05/tech/google-oracle-supreme-court-ruling/index.html
Wiki article on case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_LLC_v._Oracle_America,_Inc.
From Maksym “Max” Shcheglov of On Swift Wings, using Property Wrappers to make Swift code more thread safe.
As Max mentioned, “Atomic property is one of the commonly-requested Swift features”. Using Properties Wrappers, you can do this.
https://www.onswiftwings.com/posts/atomic-property-wrapper/
Give a man a program, frustrate him for a day. Teach a man to program, frustrate him for a lifetime...
Boston Dynamic has come out with a new autonomous robot, Stretch. It is designed specifically for warehouse work.
As impressive as the arm and movement (no legs) system is, more so is the “Perception Mast” that allows it to scan an entire room to know where everything is.
https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/boston-dynamics-new-warehouse-robot-stretch
Another Article: https://singularityhub.com/2021/03/31/boston-dynamics-new-warehouse-robot-can-move-800-boxes-an-hour/
A proposal from the Swift Org boards for a new “let-else” syntax, for similar situation then “guard let” statement, but more readable.
I have to admit to getting familiar with the guard and ?? Keywords, so though I would use it, I am not sure this idea is needed.
https://forums.swift.org/t/pitch-introduce-let-else-syntax-as-alternative-for-single-expression-guard-let-else/46989
Study states that Google Android devices send 20 times more user data to server. Google disagrees strongly (and then says everyone does it).
Chilling line was “Even when idle, each device connects to its back-end server on average every 4.5 minutes”.
Paper: https://www.scss.tcd.ie/doug.leith/apple_google.pdf
Recently Tony of The Ghost Howls had an interesting conversation with two prominent members of the OpenAR Cloud committee.
This article cover the advantages of OpenAR over the upcoming closed communities. Worth reading!
https://skarredghost.com/2021/03/28/open-ar-cloud-pros/
Video of the talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqpCWgwxL9o
I knew about Swift new Result type keyword, but did not understand it until reading Paul's posting.
Yes, you could wrap a tuple around any number of optionals, but Result has some cool features that makes it easier (and consistent).
https://www.hackingwithswift.com/articles/161/how-to-use-result-in-swift
Another article on topic: https://medium.com/swlh/result-type-in-swift-1b4e2a84f2c2
