In this issue: what’s new in Swift 5.9, what’s new in SwiftUI for iOS 17, Hacking with Swift Live is almost here, and you can still use my WWDC23 sale to save 50% on all books and bundles!

What’s new in Swift 5.9?

Swift has introduced another barrage of updates, including support for if and switch expressions, macros, value and type parameter packs, discarding task groups, and more.

Most of these features are more than a bit complicated, but I’ve done my best to break them down into understandable concepts in my regular “What’s new in Swift” article – you can find it here: What’s new in Swift 5.9?

What’s new in SwiftUI for iOS 17?

Once you’ve gotten to grips with the major language changes, you’re just getting warmed up: there are lots of major changes to SwiftUI this year, introducing power features like phase animators, animating SF Symbols, scrollview transitions, and Metal shaders baked right in.

I’ve picked out all these changes and more, produced dozens of code samples, taken lots of screenshots and animated GIFs, and written it up in one article to help you get to grips with all these changes at once.

It’s right here: what’s new in SwiftUI for iOS 17?

I’ll be adding a few extra things in the coming weeks, particularly as new betas roll out. In the meantime, I need to close a whole bunch of the feedback reports I filed with Apple, because they’ve really nailed it this year…

It’s almost time for Hacking with Swift Live

Now that WWDC23 has finished, I’ve published the full schedule for Hacking with Swift Live. It takes place entirely online on June 26th and 27th, with all ticket and sponsor revenue going to charity.

On day one we’ll be exploring the key changes to Swift this year, focusing specifically on the things that are likely to help make code easier to write or maintain. We’ll then dive straight into the many and varied SwiftUI improvements this year, building a real project that ties them all together as you learn.

On day two we change tack and move over exclusively to SwiftData. This is a huge new framework that unlocks almost all of Core Data’s power with almost none of Core Data’s complexity – it will completely change the way we write apps. We’ll be looking at this topic from a number of perspectives, including the basics of getting started, advanced uses such as data migrations and shared storage, upgrading existing Core Data apps, and architectural issues such as using MVVM.

Find out more and get your ticket here

It’s going to be a really packed event, with lots of hands-on code samples and challenges for you to try – I’ve always found trying the code yourself, asking questions, and really getting involved is the best way to learn!

I’m grateful to Emerge Tools for sponsoring Hacking with Swift Live this year! Their 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.

Save 50% on all books and bundles

Every year I celebrate WWDC by running my biggest sale, which means you can save 50% on all my Swift books and bundles during June – even my latest book, Pro SwiftUI.

There’s still time to save money with this offer, but time is running out! Click here to browse the sale: https://www.hackingwithswift.com/offers

Thanks to sponsors!

Thanks to Essential Developer, RevenueCat, and Stream for sponsoring Hacking with Swift last month!

Essential Developer run a series of hands-on workshops helping you develop your career, with the next set running July 24th-30th. Find out more here.
RevenueCat can help you add subscriptions to your app in minutes – their open-source framework provides a backend and wrapper around StoreKit to simplify in-app subscriptions. Find out more here.
Stream have a fantastic, free tutorial teaching you how to build a functional Twitter clone using APIs and SwiftUI. Find out more here.

News from friends

More and more iOS conferences are coming back to life, and right now we’re spoiled for choice!

Yes, that’s five conferences in Europe and just one in North America, but I can say for sure that Swift TO punches well above its weight and will be a lot of fun!

Discounts on books

This is where I’d normally provide a list of links where you can buy my books and bundles at a discount, but right now my WWDC23 sale is the cheapest way to complete your collection!

Browse the sale here

One more thing…

Last week I got the chance to try Apple’s new Vision Pro headset at WWDC23, and let me tell you, folks: it’s something really special.

I made a video about my full experience, including my advice for folks who are keen to prepare their apps for visionOS. You can find that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8-wTpiuZwE

But one thing I didn’t add in the video is how exciting this opportunity is for newer developers. If you started Swift development after iOS 9 or so, you might feel like you missed out from the “Wild West” days of Apple development, when all sorts of surprising, fun apps shot to fame because they were the first to do something special on the App Store.

Well, visionOS is a complete platform reset for all of us: no one has made the best visionOS to do app yet because there aren’t any yet, just like no one has made any other apps yet. Everything is new, everyone is just starting out, and you have just as much of a chance of hitting it big as everyone else does.

Vision Pro doesn’t launch for another nine months, so you have lots of time to think up a new app idea, then prototype it, test it, and ship it. You’re first in line for Apple’s latest and greatest platform, so go for it – take this chance and give it your best shot!

Paul

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