Swift

In the middle of February I decided I finally wanted to start learning Swift so I could someday create macOS and/or iOS apps. I went to the Swift subreddit and started poking around, trying to figure out the best place to start. The free 100 days of Swift online course was on the top of the recommended list for noobs so that’s what I started.

As I write this I’m currently on day 23 of the course and so far it’s been a lot of fun. The first 15 days were a crash-course in the basics of the Swift language. I wouldn’t call myself a developer, but over the years I’ve written quite a few Python, Ruby, Bash, and Powershell scripts so I’m familiar with programming constructs like variables, arrays, conditionals, loops, functions, classes, etc. While the concepts in the first couple weeks weren’t all new, there were a few things that were, such as protocols, extensions, optionals, and, to some degree, closures. And since I’m 100% new to Swift, all the implementation details were something I had to learn. At any rate, those first couple weeks were a nice way to get started and get back in the programming mindset.

I was honestly a little worried about the switch to SwiftUI, which is the newest user interface framework for Swift. All of the programming I’ve ever really done (except web sites) has been on console apps (i.e, command-line programs) so I don’t have experience creating full-blown GUIs. It’s been really fun, though, learning how SwiftUI works. I’m only a few lessons in, however, so just scratching the surface at this point. I’ve come across some questions and answers on Stack Exchange that tell me there’s a lot of complexity lurking around the corner. But, I’m doing this for fun so will take it slow and enjoy the trip. Definitely more to come on this as I progress through the course.