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Learn Swift by Building Applications
Learn Swift by Building Applications

Learn Swift by Building Applications: Explore Swift programming through iOS app development

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Profile Icon Giordano Scalzo Profile Icon Emil Atanasov
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$19.99 per month
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.5 (2 Ratings)
Paperback May 2018 366 pages 1st Edition
eBook
€23.99 €26.99
Paperback
€32.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at $19.99p/m
Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Giordano Scalzo Profile Icon Emil Atanasov
Arrow right icon
$19.99 per month
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.5 (2 Ratings)
Paperback May 2018 366 pages 1st Edition
eBook
€23.99 €26.99
Paperback
€32.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at $19.99p/m
eBook
€23.99 €26.99
Paperback
€32.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at $19.99p/m

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Learn Swift by Building Applications

Getting Familiar with Xcode and Playgrounds

In this chapter, we will get familiar with Xcode, the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that is used to develop iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS apps. We will introduce a pretty neat way of playing with and exploring the Swift language called playground. We will see all the panels and the many different options that are available in Xcode. We will find an easy way to use templates and we will experiment with real Swift code in a playground.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • Installing Xcode
  • Exploring playground
  • Different options available in Xcode
  • Markup items

Installing Xcode

First, Xcode runs on macOS only. This means you have to find a macOS-compatible computer that is running macOS 10.13 or later.

It is possible to have macOS running on a virtual machine, but having a hardware one is better.

We will install Xcode version 9.3. This is the latest version available in the App Store at the moment, but it may change in the near future, so no worries if you install a slightly newer version. The IDE looks the same way.

Start your computer and open the App Store application. This application is used to download extra software on to your macOS. You can find its icon on the dock, as shown here:

Once you've clicked the icon, you should see the App Store application displayed. At the top-right corner, there is a search field. Select it and start typing Xcode. You will see many suggestions as shown in the following screenshot:

Select...

Exploring Xcode

The Xcode application is installed and it is running. You will see the following start screen:

On the right, you will see No Recent Projects, but this just shows a list of the last few projects you have worked on. On the left, you will see the version of Xcode 9.3 and a few shortcuts. We will start with the first one to get familiar with the playground. Go and click Get started with a playground. A new window is displayed, as shown in the following screenshot. Don't panic; this is the window in which you have to select the template for your playground project. For now, we will stick to iOS:

When you click Next, you have to enter the name of the playground. Let's start with Swift 4 by examples. We can change the platform if we want to explore the different features of other platforms. Xcode has a really powerful simulator which can simulate different...

Playground

Before diving into a mobile project, we will start with a special type of project that will help us master the Swift language. These projects are a cool place to experiment, without the extra hassle of setting up a real mobile project. We can experiment with real mobile functions, without even working on a full mobile project. Playground projects are a really nice place to prototype algorithms or UI, and simply to have small building blocks, ready and fully tested, before plugging them into a mobile app.

What is a playground?

Straight from the file generated by Xcode:

"Playground – noun: a place where people can play."

Playground is a simple project, which can be used to practice, experiment, prototype...

Summary

In this chapter, we learned how to install the Xcode app and how to use it in general. We are familiar with the basic components of the IDE and we have created our first playground. It was pretty basic, but we know how to write Swift code, which is automatically evaluated. We can read the errors and we can try to resolve them.

The next chapter will teach us how to create our first mobile app. It will explain the structure of a mobile project and how to start adding simple features to it. Let's dive deep into iOS and produce something which can be executed on mobile devices.

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Key benefits

  • A complete beginner's guide to Swift programming language
  • Understand core Swift programming concepts and techniques for creating popular iOS apps
  • Start your journey toward building mobile app development with this practical guide

Description

Swift Language is now more powerful than ever; it has introduced new ways to solve old problems and has gone on to become one of the fastest growing popular languages. It is now a de-facto choice for iOS developers and it powers most of the newly released and popular apps. This practical guide will help you to begin your journey with Swift programming through learning how to build iOS apps. You will learn all about basic variables, if clauses, functions, loops, and other core concepts; then structures, classes, and inheritance will be discussed. Next, you’ll dive into developing a weather app that consumes data from the internet and presents information to the user. The final project is more complex, involving creating an Instagram like app that integrates different external libraries. The app also uses CocoaPods as its package dependency manager, to give you a cutting-edge tool to add to your skillset. By the end of the book, you will have learned how to model real-world apps in Swift.

Who is this book for?

This book is for beginners who are new to Swift or may have some preliminary knowledge of Objective-C. If you are interested in learning and mastering Swift in Apple’s ecosystem, namely mobile development, then this book is for you.

What you will learn

  • Become a pro at iOS development by creating simple-to-complex iOS mobile applications
  • Master Playgrounds, a unique and intuitive approach to teaching Xcode
  • Tackle the basics, including variables, if clauses, functions, loops and structures, classes, and inheritance
  • Model real-world objects in Swift and have an in-depth understanding of the data structures used, along with OOP concepts and protocols
  • Use CocoaPods, an open source Swift package manager to ease your everyday developer requirements
  • Develop a wide range of apps, from a simple weather app to an Instagram-like social app
  • Get ahead in the industry by learning how to use third-party libraries efficiently in your apps

Product Details

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Publication date : May 25, 2018
Length: 366 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781786463920
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Publication date : May 25, 2018
Length: 366 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781786463920
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Table of Contents

13 Chapters
Swift Basics – Variables and Functions Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Getting Familiar with Xcode and Playgrounds Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Creating a Minimal Mobile App Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Structures, Classes, and Inheritance Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Adding Interactivity to Your First App Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
How to Use Data Structures, OOP, and Protocols Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Developing a Simple Weather App Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Introducing CocoaPods and Project Dependencies Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Improving a Version of a Weather App Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Building an Instagram-Like App Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Instagram-Like App Continued Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Contributing to an Open Source Project Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.5
(2 Ratings)
5 star 50%
4 star 0%
3 star 0%
2 star 50%
1 star 0%
TH Jan 12, 2019
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Great
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Cmd Jun 25, 2019
Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2
The descriptions/instructions are vague. The book says it is for a beginning with no experience and it is definitely not. I know four coding languages and struggled to get through the actual app development tutorials. Would not recommend.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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