iOS

Shift in the protocol paradigm

In this article we will be talking about the recent changes related to protocols: opaque, existential and generic types; some and any; runtime and compile-time polymorphism.

11 min read

Modularity. What problem does it solve?

In this article we will discuss the problem that can be solved by modularity and how exactly modularity can make you project much better thing to deal with.

13 min read

Do protocols break Single Responsibility Principle?

In previous posts we’ve mentioned all the different use cases for this language feature. Now let’s consider some hidden complications which we get together with all the power.

7 min read

Pitfalls of protocol extensions

In previous posts we’ve mentioned all the different use cases for this language feature. Now let’s consider some hidden complications which we get together with all the power.

10 min read

Protocol extensions

When people speak about how powerful protocols are in Swift, in a lot of cases they consider protocol extensions as part of this power. That’s unfair because it’s a separate language feature, and an interesting one. Here we will detach and dissect it.

5 min read

Dark side of extensions in Swift

Extension is a very powerful concept in Swift. It has several different applications in our code: we can extend the data types we don’t own, we can extend our own ones, we can separate the functionality and protocol conformance. Each one of them gives us additional capabilities and extra powers, but some of them come together with drawbacks which we have to consider.

8 min read

Several faces of protocols

“Protocols is one of the most powerful language features in Swift” - people say. Hard to argue. In Swift you can do a lot of different things with protocols. (Maybe even too many… but we will talk about it later).

7 min read

Modularity. Encapsulation

What is this post about:

  • what modularity gives us in terms of context separation
  • what can help us to keep the module properly encapsulated
  • what is a Showcase app and how it can improve our development
  • what might be some possible challenges
8 min read

Modularity. Boundaries

In this post we’ll talk about why boundaries matter and what types of modularity can we distinguish in our projects based on the existing boundaries.

8 min read

Siri Shortcuts Practical Tips

Let’s say, you decided to implement a new platform feature in your app. You read the documentation, checked some tutorials and examples in the internet, you created a sample app and everything worked great. Then you started to integrate it into your existing production app, and here came all the fun.

13 min read

Serialization of enum with associated type

Enumerations are not just first-class citizens in Swift. They adopt many features traditionally supported only by classes, such as computed properties or static and instance methods. Enumerations can also define custom initialisers, can be extended to expand their functionality beyond their original implementation, and can conform to protocols to provide standard functionality.

11 min read

Siri Intents

Siri Intents are the cornerstone notion of all the interaction with Siri no matter if it is full-fledged SiriKit usage or Siri Shortcuts. In this post we will try to figure out what Siri Intent is, what is the difference between Domain Related Intents and Siri Shortcuts and which approach is suitable for which use cases.

14 min read

iOS App Extensions: Data Sharing

App extensions are permeating more and more into our daily job. But some nuances of the way they work are still not so obvious. In this post I try to investigate different ways to share data between an app and its extension.

6 min read

Object serialization in iOS

In this post I’ll try to systemise the knowledge about major formats and types of data serialization in iOS development. I will also compare ObjC approach to the problem (NSCoding) with the one we got in Swift 4 (Codable) and will take a look at some specific use cases like interop between them and the ability to work with complex object graphs.

23 min read

Compile-time code optimization for Swift and Objective-C

Some time ago I needed to switch off asserts for one of the configurations in our project. I kinda read somewhere that whether or not asserts compile to the resulting binary depends primarily on the code optimisation level. But I wondered if there was any way to control the asserts without changing the optimisation level? What if I don’t want to touch it for the asserts only? Do we have separate optimisation levels for Swift and Objective-C code? What do they mean, what are they influence on? How do two compilers in the mixed Swift/ObjC project work together optimising the code? What specifically the compiler does for each optimisation level?

18 min read

Thoughts on iOS Architecture

Seems like in software development and in iOS particularly yet another post about the architecture looks banal if not just boring. But believe me I won’t compare MVVM to VIPER or tell you how bad it is to have Massive View Controller. I will not explain you why you should follow a single responsibility principle, why DI is good or what are the trade-offs of using singletons - I assume you already know that (if not, there are tons of articles about it). This post is more as an attempt to structure my own thoughts on this topic. There will be more questions asked than answers given.

16 min read

HealthKit changes observing

There are plenty of “Getting started with HealthKit” tutorials which tells you how to set up the HealthKit integration, request an access to read and write data and make simple queries. That’s pretty much enough you need to know if you just need to get user’s sex, height or recent weight measurement. I assume you already know how to deal with all that. But what if you need to monitor and process the changes in user’s HealthApp? For this purpose HealthKit provides you HKObserverQuery.

5 min read

Stranger things with Core Data Stacks comparison

Core Data is one of the most arguable frameworks for iOS/macOS development and Core Data Stack is indeed one of the most arguable questions inside Core Data topic. Which stack to choose? Which one is more efficient? Discussions about all that have been going on in the community for years.

4 min read

CADisplayLink and its applications

Usually developers get to know CADisplayLink as an advanced timer for “creating smooth frame-by-frame animation”. And that’s one of it’s application, but not the only one. Let’s take a look at the class, it’s capabilities and some general approaches to use it.

9 min read
Back to Top ↑

swift

Shift in the protocol paradigm

In this article we will be talking about the recent changes related to protocols: opaque, existential and generic types; some and any; runtime and compile-time polymorphism.

11 min read

Do protocols break Single Responsibility Principle?

In previous posts we’ve mentioned all the different use cases for this language feature. Now let’s consider some hidden complications which we get together with all the power.

7 min read

Pitfalls of protocol extensions

In previous posts we’ve mentioned all the different use cases for this language feature. Now let’s consider some hidden complications which we get together with all the power.

10 min read

Protocol extensions

When people speak about how powerful protocols are in Swift, in a lot of cases they consider protocol extensions as part of this power. That’s unfair because it’s a separate language feature, and an interesting one. Here we will detach and dissect it.

5 min read

Dark side of extensions in Swift

Extension is a very powerful concept in Swift. It has several different applications in our code: we can extend the data types we don’t own, we can extend our own ones, we can separate the functionality and protocol conformance. Each one of them gives us additional capabilities and extra powers, but some of them come together with drawbacks which we have to consider.

8 min read

Several faces of protocols

“Protocols is one of the most powerful language features in Swift” - people say. Hard to argue. In Swift you can do a lot of different things with protocols. (Maybe even too many… but we will talk about it later).

7 min read

Property Wrappers

In my opinion property wrappers are one of the most interesting features of SwiftUI and the upcoming Swift 5.1. Here I’ll share what has caught my attention and what looks the most interesting about this brand new thingy.

10 min read

Serialization of enum with associated type

Enumerations are not just first-class citizens in Swift. They adopt many features traditionally supported only by classes, such as computed properties or static and instance methods. Enumerations can also define custom initialisers, can be extended to expand their functionality beyond their original implementation, and can conform to protocols to provide standard functionality.

11 min read
Back to Top ↑

architecture

Modularity. What problem does it solve?

In this article we will discuss the problem that can be solved by modularity and how exactly modularity can make you project much better thing to deal with.

13 min read

Modularity. Encapsulation

What is this post about:

  • what modularity gives us in terms of context separation
  • what can help us to keep the module properly encapsulated
  • what is a Showcase app and how it can improve our development
  • what might be some possible challenges
8 min read

Modularity. Boundaries

In this post we’ll talk about why boundaries matter and what types of modularity can we distinguish in our projects based on the existing boundaries.

8 min read

Thoughts on iOS Architecture

Seems like in software development and in iOS particularly yet another post about the architecture looks banal if not just boring. But believe me I won’t compare MVVM to VIPER or tell you how bad it is to have Massive View Controller. I will not explain you why you should follow a single responsibility principle, why DI is good or what are the trade-offs of using singletons - I assume you already know that (if not, there are tons of articles about it). This post is more as an attempt to structure my own thoughts on this topic. There will be more questions asked than answers given.

16 min read
Back to Top ↑

no code

Modularity. What problem does it solve?

In this article we will discuss the problem that can be solved by modularity and how exactly modularity can make you project much better thing to deal with.

13 min read

Modularity. Encapsulation

What is this post about:

  • what modularity gives us in terms of context separation
  • what can help us to keep the module properly encapsulated
  • what is a Showcase app and how it can improve our development
  • what might be some possible challenges
8 min read

Modularity. Boundaries

In this post we’ll talk about why boundaries matter and what types of modularity can we distinguish in our projects based on the existing boundaries.

8 min read

Aftermath of WWDC

Happy New Apple Year! For ones who work with iOS/macOS/swift development every new year starts not in January but in the beginning of June.

4 min read
Back to Top ↑

protocols

Shift in the protocol paradigm

In this article we will be talking about the recent changes related to protocols: opaque, existential and generic types; some and any; runtime and compile-time polymorphism.

11 min read

Do protocols break Single Responsibility Principle?

In previous posts we’ve mentioned all the different use cases for this language feature. Now let’s consider some hidden complications which we get together with all the power.

7 min read

Pitfalls of protocol extensions

In previous posts we’ve mentioned all the different use cases for this language feature. Now let’s consider some hidden complications which we get together with all the power.

10 min read

Protocol extensions

When people speak about how powerful protocols are in Swift, in a lot of cases they consider protocol extensions as part of this power. That’s unfair because it’s a separate language feature, and an interesting one. Here we will detach and dissect it.

5 min read

Several faces of protocols

“Protocols is one of the most powerful language features in Swift” - people say. Hard to argue. In Swift you can do a lot of different things with protocols. (Maybe even too many… but we will talk about it later).

7 min read
Back to Top ↑

UI/UX

Navigation Bar Customisation. Part 1 - The Basics.

Customisation of a navigation bar is one of the first tasks a junior iOS-developer takes up. Roughly every app (and even most of the test samples and tutorials) has a navigation stack and nobody wants to stick to the default system style of a bar.

8 min read

CADisplayLink and its applications

Usually developers get to know CADisplayLink as an advanced timer for “creating smooth frame-by-frame animation”. And that’s one of it’s application, but not the only one. Let’s take a look at the class, it’s capabilities and some general approaches to use it.

9 min read
Back to Top ↑

extensions

Pitfalls of protocol extensions

In previous posts we’ve mentioned all the different use cases for this language feature. Now let’s consider some hidden complications which we get together with all the power.

10 min read

Protocol extensions

When people speak about how powerful protocols are in Swift, in a lot of cases they consider protocol extensions as part of this power. That’s unfair because it’s a separate language feature, and an interesting one. Here we will detach and dissect it.

5 min read

Dark side of extensions in Swift

Extension is a very powerful concept in Swift. It has several different applications in our code: we can extend the data types we don’t own, we can extend our own ones, we can separate the functionality and protocol conformance. Each one of them gives us additional capabilities and extra powers, but some of them come together with drawbacks which we have to consider.

8 min read
Back to Top ↑

modules

Modularity. What problem does it solve?

In this article we will discuss the problem that can be solved by modularity and how exactly modularity can make you project much better thing to deal with.

13 min read

Modularity. Encapsulation

What is this post about:

  • what modularity gives us in terms of context separation
  • what can help us to keep the module properly encapsulated
  • what is a Showcase app and how it can improve our development
  • what might be some possible challenges
8 min read

Modularity. Boundaries

In this post we’ll talk about why boundaries matter and what types of modularity can we distinguish in our projects based on the existing boundaries.

8 min read
Back to Top ↑

thoughts

Aftermath of WWDC

Happy New Apple Year! For ones who work with iOS/macOS/swift development every new year starts not in January but in the beginning of June.

4 min read

Thoughts on iOS Architecture

Seems like in software development and in iOS particularly yet another post about the architecture looks banal if not just boring. But believe me I won’t compare MVVM to VIPER or tell you how bad it is to have Massive View Controller. I will not explain you why you should follow a single responsibility principle, why DI is good or what are the trade-offs of using singletons - I assume you already know that (if not, there are tons of articles about it). This post is more as an attempt to structure my own thoughts on this topic. There will be more questions asked than answers given.

16 min read
Back to Top ↑

Siri

Siri Shortcuts Practical Tips

Let’s say, you decided to implement a new platform feature in your app. You read the documentation, checked some tutorials and examples in the internet, you created a sample app and everything worked great. Then you started to integrate it into your existing production app, and here came all the fun.

13 min read

Siri Intents

Siri Intents are the cornerstone notion of all the interaction with Siri no matter if it is full-fledged SiriKit usage or Siri Shortcuts. In this post we will try to figure out what Siri Intent is, what is the difference between Domain Related Intents and Siri Shortcuts and which approach is suitable for which use cases.

14 min read
Back to Top ↑

UINavigationController

Navigation Bar Customisation. Part 1 - The Basics.

Customisation of a navigation bar is one of the first tasks a junior iOS-developer takes up. Roughly every app (and even most of the test samples and tutorials) has a navigation stack and nobody wants to stick to the default system style of a bar.

8 min read
Back to Top ↑

app extension

Siri Intents

Siri Intents are the cornerstone notion of all the interaction with Siri no matter if it is full-fledged SiriKit usage or Siri Shortcuts. In this post we will try to figure out what Siri Intent is, what is the difference between Domain Related Intents and Siri Shortcuts and which approach is suitable for which use cases.

14 min read

iOS App Extensions: Data Sharing

App extensions are permeating more and more into our daily job. But some nuances of the way they work are still not so obvious. In this post I try to investigate different ways to share data between an app and its extension.

6 min read
Back to Top ↑

language feature

Property Wrappers

In my opinion property wrappers are one of the most interesting features of SwiftUI and the upcoming Swift 5.1. Here I’ll share what has caught my attention and what looks the most interesting about this brand new thingy.

10 min read

Serialization of enum with associated type

Enumerations are not just first-class citizens in Swift. They adopt many features traditionally supported only by classes, such as computed properties or static and instance methods. Enumerations can also define custom initialisers, can be extended to expand their functionality beyond their original implementation, and can conform to protocols to provide standard functionality.

11 min read
Back to Top ↑

patterns

Do protocols break Single Responsibility Principle?

In previous posts we’ve mentioned all the different use cases for this language feature. Now let’s consider some hidden complications which we get together with all the power.

7 min read

Thoughts on iOS Architecture

Seems like in software development and in iOS particularly yet another post about the architecture looks banal if not just boring. But believe me I won’t compare MVVM to VIPER or tell you how bad it is to have Massive View Controller. I will not explain you why you should follow a single responsibility principle, why DI is good or what are the trade-offs of using singletons - I assume you already know that (if not, there are tons of articles about it). This post is more as an attempt to structure my own thoughts on this topic. There will be more questions asked than answers given.

16 min read
Back to Top ↑

serialization

Serialization of enum with associated type

Enumerations are not just first-class citizens in Swift. They adopt many features traditionally supported only by classes, such as computed properties or static and instance methods. Enumerations can also define custom initialisers, can be extended to expand their functionality beyond their original implementation, and can conform to protocols to provide standard functionality.

11 min read

Object serialization in iOS

In this post I’ll try to systemise the knowledge about major formats and types of data serialization in iOS development. I will also compare ObjC approach to the problem (NSCoding) with the one we got in Swift 4 (Codable) and will take a look at some specific use cases like interop between them and the ability to work with complex object graphs.

23 min read
Back to Top ↑

Codable

Object serialization in iOS

In this post I’ll try to systemise the knowledge about major formats and types of data serialization in iOS development. I will also compare ObjC approach to the problem (NSCoding) with the one we got in Swift 4 (Codable) and will take a look at some specific use cases like interop between them and the ability to work with complex object graphs.

23 min read
Back to Top ↑

CoreData

Stranger things with Core Data Stacks comparison

Core Data is one of the most arguable frameworks for iOS/macOS development and Core Data Stack is indeed one of the most arguable questions inside Core Data topic. Which stack to choose? Which one is more efficient? Discussions about all that have been going on in the community for years.

4 min read
Back to Top ↑

HealthKit

HealthKit changes observing

There are plenty of “Getting started with HealthKit” tutorials which tells you how to set up the HealthKit integration, request an access to read and write data and make simple queries. That’s pretty much enough you need to know if you just need to get user’s sex, height or recent weight measurement. I assume you already know how to deal with all that. But what if you need to monitor and process the changes in user’s HealthApp? For this purpose HealthKit provides you HKObserverQuery.

5 min read
Back to Top ↑

JSON

Object serialization in iOS

In this post I’ll try to systemise the knowledge about major formats and types of data serialization in iOS development. I will also compare ObjC approach to the problem (NSCoding) with the one we got in Swift 4 (Codable) and will take a look at some specific use cases like interop between them and the ability to work with complex object graphs.

23 min read
Back to Top ↑

NSCoding

Object serialization in iOS

In this post I’ll try to systemise the knowledge about major formats and types of data serialization in iOS development. I will also compare ObjC approach to the problem (NSCoding) with the one we got in Swift 4 (Codable) and will take a look at some specific use cases like interop between them and the ability to work with complex object graphs.

23 min read
Back to Top ↑

WWDC

Aftermath of WWDC

Happy New Apple Year! For ones who work with iOS/macOS/swift development every new year starts not in January but in the beginning of June.

4 min read
Back to Top ↑

animation

CADisplayLink and its applications

Usually developers get to know CADisplayLink as an advanced timer for “creating smooth frame-by-frame animation”. And that’s one of it’s application, but not the only one. Let’s take a look at the class, it’s capabilities and some general approaches to use it.

9 min read
Back to Top ↑

build process

Compile-time code optimization for Swift and Objective-C

Some time ago I needed to switch off asserts for one of the configurations in our project. I kinda read somewhere that whether or not asserts compile to the resulting binary depends primarily on the code optimisation level. But I wondered if there was any way to control the asserts without changing the optimisation level? What if I don’t want to touch it for the asserts only? Do we have separate optimisation levels for Swift and Objective-C code? What do they mean, what are they influence on? How do two compilers in the mixed Swift/ObjC project work together optimising the code? What specifically the compiler does for each optimisation level?

18 min read
Back to Top ↑

compiler

Compile-time code optimization for Swift and Objective-C

Some time ago I needed to switch off asserts for one of the configurations in our project. I kinda read somewhere that whether or not asserts compile to the resulting binary depends primarily on the code optimisation level. But I wondered if there was any way to control the asserts without changing the optimisation level? What if I don’t want to touch it for the asserts only? Do we have separate optimisation levels for Swift and Objective-C code? What do they mean, what are they influence on? How do two compilers in the mixed Swift/ObjC project work together optimising the code? What specifically the compiler does for each optimisation level?

18 min read
Back to Top ↑

data sharing

iOS App Extensions: Data Sharing

App extensions are permeating more and more into our daily job. But some nuances of the way they work are still not so obvious. In this post I try to investigate different ways to share data between an app and its extension.

6 min read
Back to Top ↑

data storing

Stranger things with Core Data Stacks comparison

Core Data is one of the most arguable frameworks for iOS/macOS development and Core Data Stack is indeed one of the most arguable questions inside Core Data topic. Which stack to choose? Which one is more efficient? Discussions about all that have been going on in the community for years.

4 min read
Back to Top ↑

enum

Serialization of enum with associated type

Enumerations are not just first-class citizens in Swift. They adopt many features traditionally supported only by classes, such as computed properties or static and instance methods. Enumerations can also define custom initialisers, can be extended to expand their functionality beyond their original implementation, and can conform to protocols to provide standard functionality.

11 min read
Back to Top ↑

iOS13

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obj-c

Shift in the protocol paradigm

In this article we will be talking about the recent changes related to protocols: opaque, existential and generic types; some and any; runtime and compile-time polymorphism.

11 min read
Back to Top ↑

plist

Object serialization in iOS

In this post I’ll try to systemise the knowledge about major formats and types of data serialization in iOS development. I will also compare ObjC approach to the problem (NSCoding) with the one we got in Swift 4 (Codable) and will take a look at some specific use cases like interop between them and the ability to work with complex object graphs.

23 min read
Back to Top ↑

tips

Siri Shortcuts Practical Tips

Let’s say, you decided to implement a new platform feature in your app. You read the documentation, checked some tutorials and examples in the internet, you created a sample app and everything worked great. Then you started to integrate it into your existing production app, and here came all the fun.

13 min read
Back to Top ↑