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Jeroen Leenarts: Welcome,
everybody. We're hosting a space
with Stefan, emos me. Basically,
the title of the space says it
all WWDC aftermath, and blues.
So it's all just a little bit
after the WWDC week, and we're
just coming to grips with
everything that's been announced
for us as iOS and Mac
developers, and just trying to
figure out our bearings. And
yeah, just reflect a little bit
on on the things that, that
we've been able to play with for
like, two weeks now. And Emma's,
just to get things started. I'm
just wondering what was like
your experience thus far?
Because you've been very active
with with some of the API's that
that Apple has released? And
yeah, I just, I'm just curious
what your thoughts on F on
things are right now?
Amos Gyamfi: Yeah, I think after
the WWDC the following anyway,
it was really grateful for
because I was able to get enough
time to just test most of the
technologies I'm just interested
in. I didn't do any of the labs
also yet. But just started to
watch most of the sessions I'm
just interested in, for example,
I have used the Swift charts.
And then, for the past months,
we have been also looking more
into INDOXXI. So I was looking
for 2021 Doxie video, but then
found later like, they have two
videos for 2022. So I ordered
them, which were really useful.
And then. So those are the
things I have been just working
on. Just going deep into Swift
that's also doing most of the
things for looksee.
Jeroen Leenarts: So talk talking
about Swift UI charts, or Swift
charts. What's the actual name
of that? API? I think it's
Swift. Just swift charts, right?
Amos Gyamfi: Yeah, yeah. The
actual name is swift that yeah,
it
Jeroen Leenarts: keeps coming
confusing me, because all the
sample codes, and it was really
part of the whole swift UI
announcements at felt, for me at
least. But what are some of the
resources that you're using to
really learn about the Swift UI
stuff, because I know somebody
dropped in, in the audience that
that might be involved with that
a little bit as well. But
Amos Gyamfi: yeah, I try and
documentation is really good. It
starts you with the basics. So
you can just go through and then
just copy code, copy, paste most
of the code, and then just try
to see how to visualize them.
And then I have also checked the
GitHub repo from majority. It
also has some really, really
cool patients and very cool
examples as well, where you can
just start from,
Jeroen Leenarts: and that's,
that's the one, basically,
initially trying to recreate the
charts that was shown during the
videos of Apple, and then find
the looks of things. It's
progressing a little bit beyond
that as well, which is good.
Amos Gyamfi: Yeah, for me, it is
really cool resource, like, you
can just go in and check out
what's going on there. And then
see what people are just
building. It's really nice.
Jeroen Leenarts: Cool. And but
you also mentioned doc, see,
because documentation is not
immediately the most exciting
aspect of our jobs, I guess, an
important one still. But what's
so exciting about doc see for
you right now then,
Amos Gyamfi: for me, my main aim
was to convert some of the
already existent tutorials from
stream into an interactive dot
c, tutorial. So I was looking
for videos for 2021. And then I
found like, they also made some
two new videos. So it is all
about it is not a big
improvement. It is just adding
some sidebar navigation to the
Doxy archive, like if you export
a return after creating an
interactive tutorial, you can
just export it and then host it
on your website or GitHub. So
they just added some little
improvement to into into that.
And of course, what I was just
looking into,
Jeroen Leenarts: yeah, because I
know you've been really busy
with with Doxie documentation
and making sure that you create
something that looks really
good, right?
Amos Gyamfi: Yeah, it looks
really nice. Like the code. I
like the code previews and then
like, you can also if you have
the gifs you can also add it to
the preview as well and the
status of everything looks
really nice. Yeah, I even said
one tweet today. It looks like
people are more just interested
in it.
Jeroen Leenarts: All right. I
want to move it to Stephen now a
little bit and see what his
thoughts are on our what is like
the stuff that really has him
firing on all cylinders in
regards to Apple software
development.
Stefan Blos: Okay, so first of
all, Hey, everybody. I, I wish I
could, I couldn't be more more
excited about about certain SDKs
and everything. But I have to
confess that, like, for me, the
the week of Octopussy, I was
really invested in everything
and trying to get up to speed
and play with the Xcode beta and
everything. But I have to say
that starting from then, things
started to slow down, I watched
a few more sessions, I took some
notes, I played a little bit
with some of the SDKs. But
overall it like it, the fact
that there's still like regular
work we need to do came back to
me. I think it's probably
probably how many of us are
feeling right? The the initial
week is always very exciting.
But then you realize it's an
entire year of content that we
have. So there's other things
that need to be need to be done.
So I didn't have too much time.
Like Amos already mentioned that
the doc see things, I played
around with that a little bit
more, because one thing they did
was they improved the hosting
aspect. So you, they made it
more easy to get get sites
hosted, for example, like on
static, static sites, for
example, a GitHub GitHub pages
that has been improved. looked
at that, but But aside from
that, there weren't these these
huge announcements in that
realm. So we've charted
something I shed Charlie's tweet
about, about looking for people
who want to collaborate, and I
think it's going very nicely. So
I think it's a very exciting
thing. But I didn't have time
actually to play around with it.
So I know, another nother person
in the audience. Chris, he also
played around with it quite a
bit. And we're always happy to
hear your, your experiences just
just saying that. But yeah, it
wasn't wasn't too much of time,
unfortunately. So you really
Jeroen Leenarts: sound like
you're suffering the opposite,
who lose a little bit like it's
like, oh, boy, so much work that
just, I left lying around. And
now I need to catch up again. I
am I such a bad manager for you
that you're feeling like, oh,
man, he saw my case and the need
to get work done now or what's
going on there?
Stefan Blos: Come on. This is
public. I mean, I can't say
anything, right. Just kidding.
I'm just kidding. Of course. No,
like, part of it is actually
really like I suggested the
title of blues, because I feel
like that that's, that's part of
the of the thing, right? I mean,
it's exciting to hear about the
new things that are released and
are announced. But, like, then
comes the realization that well,
most of them, we can only like
really use are really have in
production, like September
earliest. And if there's, like
many apps need support for for
lower versions as well. So it
will probably be like next year,
maybe. So I think that this
fact, did, in fact, actually
play a role there. So I wouldn't
blame it on your management
skills. But
Jeroen Leenarts: horrible, by
the way. No, no,
Stefan Blos: I can't confirm
that. No, but I think I think
that's that's actually playing
playing playing a role there.
Because yeah, I mean, it's,
it's, it's not that urgent to
Trump on everything first
minute. And like I said, if
there's if there's other work
that needs to be done, the
priorities, right?
Jeroen Leenarts: Well, I get
where you're coming from,
because it is true. You're like,
one week completely focused on
all the new stuff. And then you
dig into that initially. And
then of course, there's the
realisation, okay, I can only
truly use this in production,
like, almost a half year from
now. And also, there's other
stuff that just needs to happen,
right? But just to, to bring it
back on the upbeat a little bit.
Again, I'll share some of my
experiences with with WWDC
content. I don't know why but
for some reason, I got really
excited about the whole passkey
thing. Because basically, the
trailspace that we did like
before, WWDC, I was like, hoping
for something in regards to web
authoring. And it seems at least
on a technical level, Apple has
given us something there And now
it's just a matter of
discovering September and
onwards, what the actual
adoption will be with, with this
technology. I did get to play
around a bit with pasties and
webauthn. And I also did a
presentation on that, at the, at
the Dutch coconuts meetup last
week, hopefully there will be a
video available of that
presentation soon because it was
live streamed, but the network
on site was so bad, that live
stream basically failed. And we
have like the first 20 minutes.
And then like the last five or
10 minutes of my talk and stuff
that was in between what the
actual content was, that's
missing. But we do have a good
capture, recorded locally. And I
know, Marco, who does the video
for that meetup organization. He
is basically editing it. And
hopefully it'll be available by
the end of this week, and maybe
sometime next week. And I'll be
sure to share that on my on my
twitter as well. But in regards
to the technicalities of this
web authoring and passkey stuff,
I really liked it. It's and the
silly thing is it's not really
new technology, because past
keys has been a part of iOS in
some capacity for over two years
now. And the only real new
additional thing that they added
on top of that bit of technology
that was already available, is
the whole QR code thing. But
then trying to figure out how to
get this QR code stuff running.
It's a bit of a hassle because
there's not a really a clear
guideline or documentation
available. As far as I could
find up till now about how you
are supposed to generate one of
those QR codes, what's the exact
API that you implement service
sites beyond webauthn, because
web often has a standard is
pretty well defined. And it's
pretty easy to implement.
Because, for instance, Tim
Condon from fiber, he was able
to hack together a basic
implementation of web auth. And
that is in no way ready for
production. In like, like two
days, that's also shows how
onpoint he is with his
developing skills. But it was it
was quite interesting to dig
into depth as well, a little bit
to just see it working in
practice, and also in a way,
written with Swift, that was
very easy for me to understand
what was going on under the
hood. So and that might be able
to present about that at a meet
up, actually. But yeah, the
moving bits in this is the
standard web often passkey is
the basically the the name, that
webauthn standard in an
additional standard has given to
this feature. So passkey is not
some sort of terminology that
Apple has invented, it's passkey
is something that we're gonna
see on Microsoft and Google
platforms as well. And then it's
just a matter of all platform
providers have it implemented.
And now let's hope for all the
service providers to also start
adopting this. And then maybe
sometime down the line, we can
get to a situation where we
don't have to remember or store
so many passwords anymore. There
are some caveats, but I think
they're being taken care of with
follow up specifications,
because how do you transfer
these pass keys beyond Apple
devices to other ecosystems? But
yeah, all stuff that that has a
lot of question marks in my
mind. And I basically decided to
park that topic for a little
bit. And other stuff that I'm
really excited about from from
WWE was really the the new
language features and the
improvements that were made to
Xcode. So basically, the
improvements to the tooling that
we aren't going to be using day
to day for for a year into the
future, at least till the next
version of Xcode is released.
But I think you can tell a
little bit more about Xcode beta
right now, right, Stefan?
Stefan Blos: Yeah, I've played
around with it. And like, from
my experience, it's, like
remarkably stable, that didn't
have a lot of problems. I mean,
it crashes from time to time,
but I mean, it's the first beta.
So that's to be expected. Right.
But I feel like I feel like
there's been a lot of like, it
doesn't, it doesn't have this
huge design overhaul or
something. But I still feel like
the improvements they made are
very developer focused. I mean,
it's a development tool. So
yeah, that makes sense. But
like, it will definitely make it
easier for us to discover things
to work quickly to, for example,
like, Discovery wise, there's,
there's things like getting
feedback from beta as you don't
have to go to app store connect
to that. There's a there's a
tool now directly inside Xcode
to do that. So that's a very
cool addition. That's going to
be very helpful for people who,
who work with betas and get
feedback from that. Like there's
a new feature for getting,
getting to know which, which
callers a function has. I mean,
there has been something
available like that. But it
hasn't been too great and not
very discoverable. So I think
they made some very good
improvements for that. And then
some little things like you see
the scope, like the current
scope, the current, the current
class, you're in the current
function you're in, you always
see that on screen, it's always
shown at the top of the of the
code editor. So I think it's
been, it's been these captures,
where I wherever that when I
jumped back from the, from the
beta to the stable version of
Xcode, I was really, really
missing that. And I mean,
that's, that's always, always a
good sign for the new features
that are now part of Xcode. So,
yeah, I've truly enjoyed that.
And you've also been using the
new Xcode when you when you do
your experimentation with Swift
charts, right?
Amos Gyamfi: Yeah, I have been
using I just switched between
the beta and the previous
version of Xcode. Yes. So I have
been using the beta version,
think the neck that next week, I
returned to Finland. So I also
liked the design of the
previews. Now, we have the
ability to view the different.
Like, you, we can just view on
different orientations at the
same time. And also just test
for accessibility, like dynamic
sizes, like previewing on
different different devices,
which is really, really cool.
Yeah, so I like that aspect as
well. And then, if you screw up
to like, what you just
mentioned, like, the current
class also always stays at the
top, like, which makes, it makes
it really, really cool when you
have to navigate through long
code. So I like it as well. But
I haven't got enough time to
just experiment with it in more
detail. So maybe in the
following weeks, I will be
digging more deep into that.
Jeroen Leenarts: All right. So
sounds like this, this new
feature in Xcode, that the the
structure of your file sticks at
the top of the screen is very
welcome. Especially if I hear
Stefan saying that he's really
missing it when he switched back
to the old version of Xcode. But
have you been able to look at
some of the new language
features? And was the new things
that have been announced in
Swift 5.7? Or has that not been
a part of the stuff that you've
been working on?
Amos Gyamfi: I haven't looked
into it myself. But I watched
this. What is new in Swift UI
from hacking with Swift? So I
have watched the video and just,
I was just working along with
it. And then this trying to
implement most of the things. So
that is the main thing I have
done so far. But I haven't gone
more deep into that.
Jeroen Leenarts: Yeah, yeah. And
because one of the things I'm
really trying to come to grips
with is all the little small
details that have been changed
in Swift 5.7. And it really
feels like it really feels like
I've been, like, not even able
to completely catch up with
Swift 5.6. Yet. 5.7 is the new
one in in XSplit, 14 and 5.6 is
the current one. Because I'm
just I'm just looking at these,
these blog articles that appear
on my on my timeline, and they
go about, okay, what's the
difference between some and any?
I'm like, what? It's like, wow,
this is like, this is like
abstract stuff, man. So can you
explain to me already what the
difference is between some or
any or anyone in the audience
able to explain that to me,
please grab the microphone and
tell it to me and like a few
lines and see if I can actually
get what's going on with someone
any, because I know it has to do
with generics. And I know it has
to do something with make sure
that you don't have to, like,
constrain your types or
signatures that much anymore.
But I'm really thinking, What is
the use case of these things?
Right? Because I'm like an old
Java dude. And we had generic
like 15 years ago. So it's not
like, Well, my experience of
generics is that it's something
that too many people are too
liberal and using everywhere.
And then you get like, these
API's that you look at you
really think like okay, but what
is the actual type that I'm
dealing with here? It is, it is
some type that is constrained to
something else. But what is it
actually in practice? And
that's, that's some of the
things that probably my personal
baggage with Jaffa or I could
actually say my personal yeah
trauma with Java is maybe
hindering me from like, full
fully adopting these new
language features in Swift. But
yeah, it's just looking at all
these language additions. It's
like there's so much small stuff
that wonder does stop changing
the language on us every year.
So any thoughts on that with
you, Stefan? Or Emma's?
Amos Gyamfi: I think I don't
miss. Yeah, Chris is also here.
I think that will be one of the
most people who can explain that
more.
Jeroen Leenarts: Yeah, but
they're not their hands right
now. So they're, they're
probably afraid of me now did me
confessing that I actually did
Java development years ago.
That's fine. It's perfectly fine
language indeed. But it's
different.
Stefan Blos: Also, people really
like to hate on Java. So for me,
I think I think it showed a
little bit that actually,
actually the development speed
of Swift is going down a little
bit. So I feel like the changes
that have been introduced, like,
so many thing. I think they're
more, they're getting more
subtle, and more to a point
where they are really improving
the capabilities, especially for
like power users, or people who
are more proficient with
everything you want to want to
solve complex problems. But I
feel like the overall structure
of the language is staying
mostly the same, right? So
there's not a lot of things that
have been getting deprecated, or
things that are not working, as
they did before. Like, for
example, the one of the changes
is the if flats equals a flat
variable constant name, equals
the same name and everything
like for for basically
unwrapping optionals. I mean,
that has changed. But as far as
I know, you can still use the
old, old way of doing it. So I
feel like that's, that's a very
good thing to have that. I do
think that when the language
will become even more complex, I
think it's like right now, I
think it's still a language
that's perfectly capable of
being a first programming
language, I think that's still
fine. But there are becoming
like they're getting more and
more features are getting
introduced. And I think like, it
needs to slow down at some
point. Because otherwise, it
will just get too complex, and
people will not, like really
feel at home, learning the
language.
Jeroen Leenarts: So you're
basically saying that swift as a
language might be getting a
little bit too complex at some
point.
Stefan Blos: I think like the
dangers there, right. I don't
think we're there yet. I feel
like I said, I think the
development speed is slowing
down. And they're targeting
specific use cases. But I mean,
things like, like async await
is, is a huge one. It's an
improvement, I think, of course,
because it's making things
easier. But then again, there's
like a new level of how you can
do like, concurrent tasks.
Right. So I think, like there's
there's always this danger for
fast evolving languages. But I
still we're not there yet. I
think so. I think we're still
fine.
Jeroen Leenarts: I think there
are some features in the Swift
language that that yes, of
course, those are a must adopt
features like async await,
because it just makes your your
life as a developer, so much
better in the sense that being
able to reason about
asynchronously in your code, and
actually reasoning about it
correctly. And I think there's
also specific language features
that are introduced in the
language, of course, with an
obvious goal. But those features
Yes, you can use them as a
developer. And sometimes they
can be beneficial. But most of
the times, they're actually
introduced to be able to do
something in an other area, for
instance, to enable specific use
cases in Swift UI that you can
actually deal with a with a few
structs in a specific way that
it's like when you're writing
swift UI view code. That is like
very developer friendly. It's
convenient for you as a
developer to reason about and
that these new language
constructs in In some way, allow
swift UI to hide some of the
complexities so that you don't
have to deal with specific
things. Or that it actually just
cleans up the, the syntax that
you need to write. Because
that's one of the things with
with any and some, it just
basically takes away some of the
brackets in specific use cases,
which just cleans up the way a
situation few struct would look
right. And I think just figuring
out what the balance is there,
you know, when is the language
feature something that is very
bespoke? And specific to very
nice use cases? And when is it
something that you should
generally consider as adoptable
at something that is like really
day to day, you wouldn't run
into much trouble if you have to
explain why you coded it that
way to somebody who's unfamiliar
with those language concepts,
right? Because that's always the
concern I have with any code at
all right? It's like, okay, I
write something now I understand
it now. But do I understand it
like a week or a month from now,
and can I right now, and in the
future, explain it in a way
that, for instance, I can
understand it again, but also
that my colleagues or other
people working on that code
base, if it's open source can
also still come to grips with it
and understand what's going on
in this code. And I really ran
into that with with Java, sorry,
for dragging that language back
in. But if you just look, I
worked with Java from Java,
version three, to like Java,
version seven, or eight. And
just the amount of complexity
that was introduced in the Java
language. Along those years,
some features were good, some
features were like, really, you
just wouldn't use them day to
day because either they were
just too complex, or they were
just too specific, that any
regular bit of code, you
wouldn't be using them. And I'm
really wondering what the
outcome will be for, for swift
in this industry crap, because
as a language, I love the
language, it's very convenient,
I can really reason in it, I can
work with it, I can think in it.
And I can do all kinds of
things. I use it for command
line scripting, I tried to use
it on the server side, and I
implement iOS applications with
it. It all just works for me.
But I do look a little bit with
a side eye to like, Okay, what's
all this new stuff being
introduced? And when is this
going to be so complex that
anyone coming into the fields of
iOS development is like, just
overwhelmed by all the stuff
that that language just throws
at them? Because you already see
that with people right now
compared to like, when we were
dealing with like swift version
three, it's like, the language
has gotten so much more complex
that people are much more
overwhelmed if they if they
tried to run through the 100
days of Swift nowadays, compared
like two or three years ago. So
I have some thoughts on that.
And I think it'll turn out fine,
because hey, what's the worst
that can happen? That's like, we
have Objective C, and then that
we run into the situation that
Swift is the new Objective C,
right? That that is for sure.
going to happen. Somewhere in
the future, probably 10 years or
later. But who knows. But I do
think that's something of a
cycle that you see with
programming languages, they
start people love it, because
it's simple, it's easy. It's
something you can adopt quickly.
And then it gets more complex.
And then at some point, it just
gets too complex. And people
start looking again for the next
new, cool, small language. And
that is something that I'm yeah,
how would I say that? I would
have put that, that that is
something that I've seen a
couple of iterations of on
several platforms. And I think
swift as a language is getting
so mature now, because you have
all these standards committees,
and they started a few new ones,
as well recently. And yeah, it
just any language features.
There's so many people now
thinking about that,
contributing to that, and that
just the amount of people
involved will slow down the
adoption of new features on the
language because, yeah, many
people leads to much
conversation, and also a slower
adoption curve for new features,
which, in my mind isn't a bad
thing. But
Stefan Blos: yeah, I agree. I
think it's like it's a work of
change if that's if the pace is
slowing down there. I want to I
want to switch gears a little
bit because I mean, it's always
fun to talk about programming
languages, but I mean, the space
is still called WPC after
aftermath or Bluetooth but so
like, is there anything you
noticed where there was a lot of
hype during during the DC week?
That has been when and people
were expecting this to be a huge
thing that has been slowing down
a little bit or vice versa,
something that wasn't really
talked about in the beginning,
but with like people having time
to play around with it, it's
becoming more and more popular
to you Do you have something in
that realm? That's been? Yeah,
just switching in popularity,
Jeroen Leenarts: one of the
things that I noticed is that
the app intense API, Apple
claimed it would be easy. And
the fact that I'm getting online
that is really, stupendously
easy to work with App intense
nowadays, you can get a lot of
cool functionality. So on the
platform integration level with
App intense quite easily and
quite quickly. So I think Apple
is making true on that, on that
promise. And then there was like
this. Yeah, this little small
announcement that Apple did,
like, I think what after WWDC,
like, really was like, oh, yeah,
if you're using Cloud kit in
your app, you can now just
transfer it to another small
detail. That was that was fairly
well received online. And I
wonder why didn't they make that
a part of the WWDC keynote
itself? Probably because it was
a very unpopular situation that
they got themselves into that
they were finally able to
resolve, because there must have
been technical reasons why it
was not possible. And they
finally were able to sort of
like, program their way out of
that ditch, which is good.
Sometimes, yeah, Apple starts
moving if things start hurting
for them. And I think this
cloudkit, tying your app to your
account was a really clear
example of that. And I'm really
curious to see what will come of
all the new CarPlay stuff. And I
understand our industry moves a
lot slower. But just the samples
and the way that these
simulators now look with the new
version of CarPlay, that's not
only your head unit that is like
typically in your center
console, but that can now
integrate like, with the entire
display array that you can have
in modern cars. Nowadays, it's
it seems like your your your
your car is some sort of
Starship Enterprise nowadays
with all the screens that you
have everywhere. But that
actually now CarPlay apparently,
in the near future can drive all
those screens, that that would
be interesting, I think, would
be a while until I get my hands
on the car that can actually do
that. But still, I was very
intrigued with the direction
that Apple is wanting to take
there. And I'm looking forward
to how this would look and work
out in practice. Because I think
it would be a cool way to to
have like an interface which
occurred that it's like, very
strangely, not like really run
by the car itself, but with a
device that you plug into your
car. So really looking forward
to what, what the effects of
that one would be anything that
you can
Stefan Blos: think of just just
quickly jumping on that. Do you
think that this is basically the
either the first or the final
version that we have that is
rumored Apple car? I mean,
because like, it's been like a
really popular theory that will
will build a car or is that
really like the whole they're
really just focusing on the
software side?
Jeroen Leenarts: I don't know.
Because apparently Apple was, it
was or is driving around actual
automobiles that that are like
automated in some capacity, not
to the level as, as Tesla's
doing. But yeah, basically out
of lack of personal interest
I've not been really following
on on the Apple car, it's, to
me, the Apple Car thing sort of
felt like a meme. It was like,
if there was like some fancy
project that you wanted the
company to do. It was something
like Apple car or something. So
I don't know, it's we'll just
have to see, because I do think
they had some big announcements
in the sense of car play, that
are much bigger than that people
are actually seeing and
expecting from the based on the
actual announcement itself, it's
going to be much bigger, I
think, in practice, and yeah,
it's just, it's just one of the
things that's like, yeah,
CarPlay it is car. So that's it
needs a couple of years to
really land in a car near you, I
think because yeah, I'm actually
getting my first car this summer
that actually has CarPlay
support just for comparison. So
it took a while. But But yeah,
and what I really liked is and
also have to be worried a little
bit is the whole weather kit
announcement is I liked that
they made the weather API that
they bought with dark skies that
the do result of that they make
that available openly at a fee
at some point. But I think it
used to be that like a To Do app
was like the the first app that
you would make as an aspiring
iOS developer. I think weather
apps will get like a whole new
next level influx of like,
people rolling their own first
iOS app, and it's going to be a
weather app in some capacity.
And then basically have the same
feature set because it's all
using the same API. It's just a
matter of different
visualization, I guess. But
yeah, I like that fact that
where the kid is now. So openly
available, and I'm looking
forward to see what kind of
value that can add to app
developers in their products,
because I can imagine that in
some cases, it's very useful to
integrate with reasonably
accurate local, very local
weather information in your app.
At least, I can't come up with a
use case right now. But I can
imagine that there's really
interesting ways that you can
integrate that in your app. And
yeah, it's just the weather is
something we're all having to
deal with if you step out of
your house, and it is something
we live with every day. Yeah,
that's true value that you can
always start developing on on
the bench somewhere in the park,
right? If it's enough, shade
screens are good enough
nowadays.
Stefan Blos: You know,
allergies?
Jeroen Leenarts: Yeah, that's
true. That's true. But anything
that you think that's like a
really good, interesting, or
maybe not as big of an
announcement as Apple tries to
make it seem?
Stefan Blos: So I have a theory,
because I was thinking about
that. And that didn't didn't
really find a clear winner of
something that's been hugely
popular over the past, like, two
to three weeks. And the theory I
have is that many of the things
that were announced, like app
intense, like swift charts, like
the weather kit API, I think
many of them are nothing that
would like make a standalone
app. Right. Okay. So a weather
app file, right? You could you
can do that. But there's plenty
of them out there because there
are other API's. But what it
does is it offers developers who
want to integrate that into
their apps, maybe into existing
apps, because a lot of apps are
using charts. But it's allowing
them to do that with a native
API. But there's rarely going to
be an app that is only using
charts, for example, or an app.
Like, okay, there's weather
apps, but an app that only uses
App and 10s. So I think many of
the things they announced is
nothing that a standalone app,
or that justifies a standalone
app. But many of the
functionalities are going to be
improving existing apps, and
maybe maybe making some
additional features possible.
But but like I said, not not
really not really accommodated
for for standalone projects. And
that's my my theory why there's
there's no real like winner in
the in the hype, hype category.
I guess I think last year, for
example, there's been like
Richard Kidd, for example. And
there's been this huge thing of,
I think, like the Richard Smith,
I think it was called right the
project where you could
customize the homescreen
entirely, and there was like,
there was a huge buzz around
that. And I mean, that that was
a feature that like just the
fact that which kid is existing
allows for a completely new use
cases. And I think there's
nothing there yet this year that
that does that. And it's
perfectly fine, right? Because I
think we got a lot of tools that
we can improve our existing apps
with. But that's my theory, why
I think there's no real, like,
crazy hype around one of the
SDKs. And if if I had to choose
between, between them, I think
that swift charts has been at
least in my bubble, the most
popular one.
Jeroen Leenarts: Plus, you
mentioned, which is good,
because the cool thing about
which kit is that you can now on
iOS 16 Put widgets on your
homescreen. So I think for end
users, there's going to be like
a big push with app developers
to do a decent weighted kit
implementation for the
homescreen. So that that's very
much with end users. And as you
say that that's more like
refinements of existing apps or
part of refinements or making
like a platform suitable App if
you're creating a new app. So I
really look forward myself to
enjoy my new home screen with
this cool image effects and the
witches that I want to have on
the screen and just make it look
very personal. And I think one
of the big things that are
indeed some more it is it is
going to have impact. But it
seems Apple did a really big
push on making sure that it is
supposed to be easier to develop
an app that works on the iPhone,
iPad, and the Mac side but you
can more easily go the catalyst
route or even a native targets
with shared user interface code.
So I'm wondering what what we'll
see in that areas, you know
that, that if there will be many
apps that will be like, become
available from iOS to the Mac OS
platform or not? Because, yeah,
with a whole new, new new
navigation API for swift UI that
works across all of these device
families, I think that would be
the I think that might actually
be one of the bigger things if
you're a Mac user, that there
will be more iOS apps that make
an appearance on the Mac
platform, and that are like a
good citizen on the Mac
platform. So I think that's some
of the more impactful things
that we'll get to deal with.
Once a September comes by having
to make the decision if you want
to support the Mac platform as a
proper citizen or not. Because
nowadays, you can already if you
have iPad target, you can
already push a button, and it's
available on the on the Mac App
Store. And quite a lot of apps
were quite easily that way. But
yeah, I think I think this year
is going to be a year with much
refinements of, of the API's and
the features that we get to deal
with as, as Apple Platform
Developers.
Stefan Blos: And I really liked
that. I mean, that's that's been
the theme at the beginning, when
when we thought about what,
what's the topic of this year
stepped up this year. And I
mean, it's nice that, that us
developers are getting better
tooling and better SDKs and more
refinement there. So I think
it's a very, very welcome,
welcome tendency. And maybe next
year, there will be like a ton
of new features. But at least
for this year, the the smaller
feature enhancements and
stability things are a very,
very welcome thing. Right. I was
wondering if Amos Amos had also
some some highlights, or some
things he was surprised of that
are surprisingly good, or, like
disruptive maybe features.
Amos Gyamfi: Apart from the
Swift charts you mentioned, on
Twitter, most of the things I
also see is cool. People are
just join in with the WebSocket.
Yeah. But apart from that, I
haven't seen anything, which is
very huge, and people were just
talking about.
Stefan Blos: So someone from the
audience wants to share
something, you're very welcome
to, to jump, jump on and ask for
the mic. But yeah, I think I
think that the theme has been
pretty clear from the beginning,
for this year's doctor to see.
Now now's the time where people
will, will jump on that and
start working on their features.
Start to experiment. And yeah,
your own what's the what's the
SDK, you will you will next look
at?
Jeroen Leenarts: Oh, that's a
good one. So I looked at the
past key stuff, I looked a
little bit at the navigation
stuff for swift UI. Let me think
a little bit, I think I want to
have my hands a little bit on,
like, cross platform stuff, you
know, see what it takes to once
you've adopted the new API's a
little bit what it takes to
really transfer it over to a Mac
app and see what the menus look
like. Because there's been some
improvements in the support for
the native look and feel of the
system menus on on Mac OS for
swift UI based applications. So
yeah, I'm really thinking about
that one. And of course, I want
to dig into App intense because
yeah, I just need to be able to
understand what it really takes
to work with appetites and if
there are any rough edges. And
because I do think that app
intense is like one of these.
Yeah, it's if you don't do it,
it's you just leave a lot of
integration with your app on the
table that you could easily take
with without much effort. So I
think app incense will be a very
important side projects to be
done on many code bases. And I
want to get my hands on that
too, to see if I'm right in that
regard.
Stefan Blos: Okay, do you have
anything there? What do you
would tap on next? I know you've
been experimenting with with the
charts, but is there anything
else?
Amos Gyamfi: Apart from the
chat? I just now want to
experiment more with the
improvement in Swift UI and also
swift and There were some also
videos about SF symbols. I just
watched the beginning. If I have
time, then I will just dive deep
into that. And then I will also
plan to dive into weather kit
and music. Good. Yeah.
Stefan Blos: Okay, nice. That's
cool. So, so for me, there's a
few things I want to I want to
play around with, it's probably
less, less popular things like
one thing is widgetkit. Okay, so
I want to see like, what, what's
the maximum capability there.
And I am really excited for
this. I think it called life
activities API that's coming
later, where we basically can
have one notification that
constantly updates. So for
example, like for, for example,
a sports game, the score can
update constantly. And like, it
seems like it real time and with
any major changes and
everything, at least from the
demo they had. So that's
something I'm really looking
forward to. One thing that's
been, I don't know why, but it's
been fascinating. And I really
want to dig into that is the
transferable protocol. Because I
think that's something that that
could make the I think it's
called an item provider thing.
redundant, which has never been
a pleasant API to use, at least
for me. But it could also have
been, like, personal preference
there. So I really, really,
really looking forward to that.
And the last thing is, there's a
new image renderer class that
allows to render widgets, or
render swift UI views as an
image and also as PDF, for
example. And I think that's a
very interesting thing, because
I think you can do a lot of
things with that, right?
Because, for example, one thing
I've been always wanting to do
is like you can like to create,
for example, marketing images
from your apps and, and others
apps out there that does that.
But like if you if you, for
example, could have a library or
like an SDK that you could just
integrate in your app. And then
like, from witches create
screenshots from that, I think
that's a very cool thing. And
the new functionality makes it
really easy. So I think that's
also something I want to have a
look at. So there's, there's
quite a few things. Like,
there's probably a probably, I'm
not the only one who just needs
more time to play around with
all these functionalities,
right.
Jeroen Leenarts: I know Daniel
say he did a nice article on the
Swift UI for image renderer. So
it is actually scrolling through
that right now. And yeah, it is
it is very convenient if you
want to grab a portion of your
user interface, and just do
something interesting with them.
Stefan Blos: Yeah, it's gonna be
fun.
Jeroen Leenarts: They can rally
chance to
Stefan Blos: do we have anything
else? Do you have anything else
you want to talk about?
Jeroen Leenarts: Yeah. Did you
try live text API already? Or
not in in iOS? The live text
API?
Stefan Blos: I have not shaved
shame on me. I've not
Jeroen Leenarts: mean, either,
so
Amos Gyamfi: I haven't.
Stefan Blos: Alright, one thing
is, I think that UI Kit API,
right.
Jeroen Leenarts: In what
regards?
Stefan Blos: Because I've seen
someone play around with it. And
that was a UI Kit app. And I
think they're only offering a UI
kit. Like API for that, which is
interesting, right? Because
they're not that many of the
features, like get an exclusive
UI kit. Treatment. I mean, you
can always breach that. And it's
easier. No, but but still
interesting to see that.
Jeroen Leenarts: Is that the
collapse the calendar thing, or
what is it?
Stefan Blos: Now the left text
API.
Jeroen Leenarts: Yeah, but I
think you can you can get to
that from from Swift UI.
Stefan Blos: You can but the API
itself, I think it's your
Jeroen Leenarts: best Oh, yeah.
Yeah, cuz I'm looking at some
code samples. Now. It is it is
it has this distinct flavor. In
the
Stefan Blos: end, it's easy.
It's a very, it's a tribal API.
I've seen it. I've not, not like
used it actively. But I've seen
someone do it. And it's a nice
API, but I think it's
interesting that they announced
that or like released that for
you. I could only so far.
Jeroen Leenarts: Now I think
it's part of phishing kits and
phishing kits. It works a lot of
things through like, what they
call controllers, and then it's
actually a few controller in In
the scope of the object that
you're dealing with, so you have
to put it on screen with like,
quite some screen real estate.
Because it's the DAT scanner
view controller is one of the
central classes for the live
text API. And indeed, that is,
you cannot throw fish in kids.
So not sure. Yeah. Yeah, I
haven't. I haven't looked into
that API just yet.
Stefan Blos: Yeah. But like I
said, there's a lot, a lot we
will look at. But yeah, we need
more time.
Jeroen Leenarts: And way more
time, and we're talking about
time, I think we've been
talking. Well, I think I must be
tired. We've been talking for
close to an hour right now. So I
think it's, it's good that we
start winding this space down
again. And so what do you think,
Stefan? Are we done for the for
this space or not?
Stefan Blos: I think we're done.
I had fun. I like I started off
with more of a negative load of
I didn't have time to play
around with too many API's yet.
But, but I'm excited. Again.
There's there's, there's
interesting things to play with.
And I can't wait to get my hands
on more of these API's.
Jeroen Leenarts: Yeah, yeah, I
did notice that the week after
WWDC, there were like a whole
bunch of new articles popping up
on my RSS feeds. And then the
second week after that, like,
trickled down to like, quite a
low number, actually. So I'm
expecting some content for the
next week, because that's one of
the things I really like, about
WWDC, and the weeks after that,
it's all the new perspectives
that people put out there and
all the thought process that
goes into considering and
looking at these API's and
working out what is the way that
Apple intends you to use these
API's in a good way? And yeah,
I'm looking forward to what
people have to say about some
more of the finer details of all
the stuff that's been announced
by Apple.
Stefan Blos: Yeah, I totally
agree. It's gonna be very
interesting to see.
Jeroen Leenarts: So with that,
I'd say, as the first of three
of us, enjoy the rest of your
day. And I like talking about
these topics. And then if you
want to find us online, just
look at Twitter at of course
one. And I'll just give it to
Stefan to say a few words. And
then Amos, and I will just close
the space.
Stefan Blos: I only say the
words. Thanks for listening,
everybody. We do this regularly.
While it's late already. We do
this regularly. So feel free to
follow us to see when we will go
live again, we always share
things. So all of like the three
of us, it's always worth the
follow. No, no, I feel dirty and
I handed over tables.
Amos Gyamfi: So thanks for
everyone. Thanks, everyone for
joining. So, next week, we'll
we'll also host another topic,
so just try to join. Yeah, that
is all I have.
Jeroen Leenarts: All right.
Thanks, everybody and talk to
you next time.