Introducing Swift to the Touchwonders Team

I gave this presentation during an all-hands meeting in June 2014 at Touchwonders. The goal of the talk was to explain the impact that the introduction of Swift will have to the whole team.

The intended audience is a multi-disciplinary team, consisting of designers, developers and product people that are involved in making great apps.

Some slides were augmented or added to compensate for the lack of audio. If you have any questions or comments, please let me know at @thomvis88 or @touchwonders.

Transcript

1. Swift June, 2014 Thomas Visser
2. http://giphy.com/gifs/apple-WB8mx9xfVN9AY
3. A Brief History of Programming Languages C 1972 1983 Objective-C C++ 1995 2009 Go 2003 Scala 2000 C# Java Ruby
4. A Brief History of Programming Languages C 1972 1983 Objective-C C++ 1995 2009 Go 2003 Scala 2000 C# Java Ruby Windows Phone Android Web iOS
5. A Brief History of Programming Languages C 1972 1983 Objective-C C++ Java Ruby 2009 Go 2003 Scala 2000 C# Swift 2014 1995
6. A Brief History of Programming Languages C 1972 1983 Objective-C C++ Java Ruby 2009 Go 2003 Scala 2000 C# Swift 2014 1995 Windows Phone Android iOS Web iOS
7. - Generics! - Closures! - Type inference! - Multiple return types! - Namespaces! - Mutability syntax Swift Features
8. class Future<T> { typealias Callback = (future: Future<T>) -> () ! let q = Queue() var result = TaskResult<T>() var callbacks: Array<Callback> = Array<Callback>() let defaultCallbackExecutionContext = QueueExecutionContext() class func succeeded(value: T?) -> Future<T> { let res = Future<T>(); res.result = TaskResult(value: value) return res } class func failed(error: NSError) -> Future<T> { let res = Future<T>(); res.result = TaskResult(error: error) return res } } Looking at Swift
10. We create great apps
11. Xcode Objective-C iOS App
12. Xcode
13. Xcode + toolchain
14. Objective-C
15. iOS Animations Data Storage Receiving/Sending notifications Location Services Media Player Address Book Access Calendar Access Achievements and Leaderboards Interface (> 4.000 new API’s in iOS 8)
16. App
17. Xcode Objective-C iOS App / Swift
18. Xcode Objective-C iOS App / Swift AppCode Highstreet, Weeronline HD, etc.
19. It’s a big deal We don’t usually switch languages
20. A photographer gets a brand new camera
21. A designer switches from Photoshop to a different program
22. A cyclist switches to new gear shifting mechanics
23. Learn the new thing Apply your trade
24. The new tool for building great apps better
25. Greatness of apps Quality of Objective-C code Quality of Swift code By approximation
26. Same Language Different Language Same! Platform Different! Platform
27. Same Language Different Language Same! Platform Different! Platform
28. Switching languages Switching platforms How do I write an app in Java/Ruby/Swift? How do I make it great?
29. Switching languages Switching platforms How do I write an app in Java/Ruby/Swift? How do I make it great? Takes a few weeks Takes months-years
30. Programming Platform Language By approximation Inside a Developer
32. - Strict! - Modern! - Clean Swift Features
33. Strict & Modern Imagine a future Photoshop where you can never give something a color, without defining a swatch first. In this tool, it is equally impossible to create a label with an arbitrary font style. Fonts styles and colors are created and edited in a central place. Changes propagate to all usages of that color or font style. This tool, like Swift, protects you from introducing inconsistency in your design.
34. let names = ["Steve", "Tim"] for name in names { println("Hello \(name)") } NSArray *names = @[@"Steve", @"Tim"];
 for (NSString *name in names) {
 NSLog(@"Hello %@", name);
 } Objective-C Swift Clean
35. UIView.animateWithDuration(0.5) { view.alpha = 0 } [UIView animateWithDuration:0.5 animations:^{ view.alpha = 0; }]; Objective-C Swift Clean
36. Swift Features - Strict! - Modern! - Clean
37. Swift Features != Easy - Strict! - Modern! - Clean
38. Swift Features != Easy Fresh - Strict! - Modern! - Clean
39. We can start writing apps in Swift today
40. We can ship them when iOS 8 comes out
41. (Swift runs on iOS 7 and above)
42. We can use Swift in existing apps, side by side with Objective-C
43. We should wait a little bit (it’s buggy)
44. We should play with it and let Apple know what we think
45. We can help shape Swift 1.0
46. Bonus Topic Xcode Playgrounds
49. Demo
50. (Screenshot from demo)
51. (Screenshot from demo)