Those Who Swift - Issue 204

Your weekly dose of Swift!

Mar 05, 2025

Weekly note ✏️

Being a developer isn’t just about writing code and solving issues—it’s also about overcoming the challenge of getting started in the first place. Sometimes, that’s the hardest part.

After years of coding and architecting, many developers begin to treat it like any other office job, with schedules, meetings, and articles to read. Over time, the process becomes more formalized, partially automated, and—just like in many other professions—may lose that initial spark that once felt as captivating as a star in the night sky. And that’s okay!

You don’t have to be a wizard every day, constantly inventing more efficient algorithms or groundbreaking solutions. Approaching your work as an art form can be fulfilling, pushing you toward inner perfection, but it also comes at a cost. Don’t be too hard on yourself, and most importantly, don’t let this feeling lead to a decline in quality. Your code still needs to work and remain maintainable.

If the art analogy doesn’t resonate, think of it like cooking—you can’t create a great dish if some ingredients are undercooked. Unless, of course, you’re making tartare. 😉

Connect with the "Those Who Swift" team - Justas Markus & Anton Gubarenko 👋

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Swift Around the Web 🌐

Safer Swift: How ~Copyable Prevents Hidden Bugs

This feature enhances code safety by enforcing strict ownership rules at compile time, preventing unintended copies that could lead to subtle bugs. The article provides practical examples demonstrating how marking a struct as ~Copyable can avoid issues arising from implicit copying, ensuring more predictable and secure code behavior.
Read more.📍

Simple Modularization Setup for a New App

Manu introduces a modularization approach for iOS apps using Swift Package Manager's local packages, aiming to enhance build times, separation of concerns, testability, collaboration, and code reusability.

The suggested structure organizes code into Core, Domain, and Presentation layers, each with specific responsibilities and dependencies, promoting a clean and efficient architecture.
Read more.📍

Coding 👨‍💻

Custom Lazy List in SwiftUI with Better Performance

SwiftUI's standard List can struggle with performance when handling large datasets on macOS, leading to sluggish scrolling and increased memory usage. To address this, the article guides you through building a custom layout that aggressively recycles rows, repositioning them just in time as the user scrolls while reusing the same view identity as a row fragment.
Read more.📍

Notification Action Buttons with Images in iOS

iOS lets you add images to notification action buttons, making them more useful and visually clear. The post walks through how to set them up using system icons or custom images and links them to actions. Also shares tips on setup, registration, and testing for a smooth experience.
Read more.📍

SwiftUI Performance - How to use UIKit

Majid Jabrayilov explains how integrating UIKit components into SwiftUI can improve performance in certain cases.

He discusses using UIHostingConfiguration to embed SwiftUI views inside UITableViewCell or UICollectionViewCell, taking advantage of UIKit’s efficient cell reuse. This method is particularly useful for handling large datasets and complex layouts where SwiftUI alone may struggle
Read more.📍

Apple News 🍏

Apple Launches New Mac Studio

Apple introduces the new Mac Studio, equipped with the latest M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips, delivering exceptional performance for professional users.
Read more.📍

Apple Introduces New iPad Air with M3 Chip and AI Features

Apple has unveiled the latest iPad Air, now powered by the M3 chip, offering enhanced performance and advanced AI capabilities.
Read more.📍

SDK minimum requirements update

Starting April 24, 2025, all apps submitted to App Store Connect must be built using Xcode 16 or later, targeting the SDKs for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, tvOS 18, visionOS 2, or watchOS 11. This ensures compatibility with the latest platform features and improvements.
Read more.📍

Design 🎨

Adapting Widgets for Tint Mode and Dark Mode in SwiftUI

Widgets in iOS and iPadOS 18 can now adapt to Dark Mode and Tint Mode for a more personalized look. The post covers how to ensure widgets blend seamlessly with system themes while maintaining visual clarity. Tips on color adjustments and dynamic styling help create a consistent user experience.
Read more.📍

Other cool stuff 🧰

Creating macOS Menu Bar App in SwiftUI

Clive Liu provides a concise guide on developing a macOS menu bar application using SwiftUI. He explains that by replacing the standard WindowGroup with MenuBarExtra in the app's structure, developers can create a menu bar app.
Read more.📍

Detect Focused Window on macOS

Learn how to determine which window is currently active in a macOS application using SwiftUI's controlActiveStateenvironment value. This method allows you to customize your app's appearance based on window focus, enhancing user experience.
Read more.📍

AI 🤖

MIT Introduction to Deep Learning | 6.S191

This lecture, part of MIT's 6.S191 course, introduces the foundations of deep learning, covering neural networks, backpropagation, and applications in computer vision and natural language processing. The session includes practical insights and coding examples to help viewers understand core concepts and implement models effectively.
Read more.📍

Tutorials 📒

Detecting Face Landmarks with the Vision Framework

You will learn how to use Apple's Vision framework to detect facial features like eyes, nose, and mouth in images. It will be interesting to see how VNDetectFaceLandmarksRequest helps locate and process these landmarks. The post also covers how to correctly interpret coordinate systems when integrating results into SwiftUI.
Read more.📍

Video 🎥

What's new in Swift 6.1?

Swift 6.1 was introduced last year and is expected to bring important bug fixes. With the latest Xcode Beta, you can now test these updates firsthand. Join Donny Walls as he explores the most interesting changes and improvements!

Watch here.📍