In this edition: Vision Pro developer kits, Metal shaders, Hacking with Swift Live, and conferences galore!

New on Hacking with Swift+: Metal shaders with SwiftUI!

One of the biggest new SwiftUI features introduced with iOS 17 is the ability to apply Metal shaders directly to SwiftUI views, which allows us to have complete control over their rendering. If you want to warp textures in real time to create water effects, recolor textures dynamically to create thermal camera effects, or even create something completely custom, Metal shaders are exactly what you’re looking for.

Elsewhere online I’ve written about how to use Metal shaders with SwiftUI, but for Hacking with Swift+ I wanted to go further. So, this month I published the first installment in a new mini-series that teaches you how to write your own shaders from scratch – you’ll learn exactly how Metal Shading Language (MSL) works with lots of code samples, and I’ll introduce a range of the most important Metal functions to help you create amazing effects.

Remember, the great thing about Metal shaders is that they run at blazing speed, allowing you to create jaw-dropping effects at 120 frames a second – it’s just screamingly fast on all of Apple’s devices.

You can find the first installment of this series here.

Register now for a Vision Pro developer kit

Apple has just launched its Vision Pro Developer Kit program, allowing developers around the world the chance to sign up to receive a Vision Pro device ahead of release in order to build their software.

Apple has run these programs before, not least for Apple TV and Apple Silicon, but this one is quite specific: they are asking you to provide detail on what exactly you intend to build, what experience you have with other frameworks, and if you have any shipping apps that use similar functionality already. In short, they are going a bit further than usual to make sure their devices get into the hands of developers who will actually use them.

That being said, if you have an idea for a Vision Pro app or a game, I strongly encourage you to apply – don’t think your idea is too small or too uninteresting, because you’re just ruling yourself out. Instead, you have nothing to lose by applying anyway, and perhaps your little idea might end up being a major hit on visionOS!

You can find out more about the Vision Pro developer kit program here: https://developer.apple.com/visionos/developer-kit/

Hacking with Swift Live 2023

My annual conference took place last month, and I’m really proud to say we raised almost $35,000 for charity. This year we were supporting Julian House, which is a charity near me that supports folks who are experiencing homeless or escaping domestic abuse – all ticket sale revenues went straight to them, so I’m thankful for everyone who bought a ticket.

I’m also particularly grateful to Emerge, who not only made a significant charitable donation to sponsor the event, but also gave away tickets as diversity scholarships. Emerge’s suite of tools can analyze your app’s size, performance, launch time, and more, all to make sure you ship the very best app you can.

Find out more about Emerge here.

News from friends

Between now and the end of the year there is an absolute barrage of Swift developer events happening around the world, including. However, right now I want to draw your attention to two events that are coming up in just the next few weeks:

Swift TO takes place in Toronto, and has a speaker line up including Sommer Panage, Gui Rambo, Daniel Steinberg, and Danijela Vrzan. This event is on the verge of selling out, but if you’re fast you can still grab your ticket!
SwiftConf is in Cologne, Germany, and has speakers such as Robin Kanatzar, Peter Friese, Anna Beltrami, and Bruno Rocha. I’ll also be speaking here, so if you already bought a Hacking with Swift T-shirt or hoodie please wear it on the first day to claim your special edition sticker 😎

There are so many more events coming up, including iOSDevUK, try! Swift New York, Pragma Conference, and more, and you can be sure I’ll mention them more in the future because I really do believe in the importance of bringing our community together!

Discounts on books

Here's a reminder of the supporter's discount codes you can use to save money on all my books:

Remember, if you already bought books from either the Swift Power Pack, the Swift Platform Pack, or the Swift Plus Pack and want to upgrade to the full bundle, I can create a custom discount code for you that takes off whatever you already paid – just email me.

One more thing…

You might wonder why I mention attending conferences so often in this newsletter.

Well, I’m on vacation in Japan right now, and while attending a tea ceremony in Kyoto I learned a beautiful Japanese phrase that really sums up what I feel about getting together with others.

The phrase is ichi-go ichi-e, which means “for this time only.” It has a much deeper meaning, though, for which I shall defer to the Wikipedia entry for the phrase:

“The term reminds people to cherish any gathering that they may take part in, citing the fact that any moment in life cannot be repeated; even when the same group of people get together in the same place again, a particular gathering will never be replicated, and thus each moment is always a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

You might think that each event in our community is very similar if not the same, perhaps because they sometimes invite similar speakers. However, nothing could be further from the truth: whether it’s NSSpain, try! Swift New York, Pragma Conference, or even WWDC itself, each of these events has a unique role in our community – each one provides a different selection of topics, each one comes with a different audience, and each one offers different chances to network and make friends.

This is why so many people choose to go to several events a year, or perhaps return to the same event year after year – they’ve figured out that each time is different, giving them fresh perspectives and meet ups that they would otherwise have missed.

I know it can be intimidating going to events by yourself, so here’s a tip: every speaker, whether it’s their first presentation or their hundredth, loves to speak to attendees. So, even if you know no one, listen to a few talks then go up and ask questions to the speakers! I promise they’ll be delighted to chat 😊

Paul

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