Question about Xcode editors & swift tutorials?

By KE8UPE, 9 February, 2021

Forum
App Development and Programming

Hi,
I am still in the process of trying to learn Swift, so I can make apps.
I found a tutorial, that uses Swift 5.3, but am fully aware that 5.4 is the newest version available.
Can I still use tutorials that reference older versions of the programming language, or do they have to use the newest version?

Also when in Xcode, voiceover says, "no editor" then if I scroll down a little, it says, "add editor on right" so, i clicked on it, but nothing happened.
Do I need to add an editor to Xcode? If yes, how do I do it?

Any & all advice is greatly appreciated.

Options

Comments

By Oriol Gomez on Friday, February 26, 2021 - 21:46

Hi,
I don't understand about the editor. You need to create a project using the SwiftUI template (recommended if you y have nov ision because the interface builder is not accessible).
There's a lot I could tell you as a blind app developer, so please feel free to message or email me and we can do a quick chat.

By KE8UPE on Friday, February 26, 2021 - 21:46

Hi,
When you started developing apps, did you use any tutorials?
I've found some, but they all discuss older versions of Swift.
Can you recommend some good ones?

By techluver on Friday, February 26, 2021 - 21:46

Hello,
I started with hacking with swift, but I found it simpler to google how to do a lot of things I wanted to do. Google ends up being your friend. :)
Also happy to chat if you have any questions. I just put out my first app about a week ago.

By PaulMartz on Friday, February 26, 2021 - 21:46

I gave up trying to learn Swift. There are a ton of Swift discussion forums with useful-looking code snippets, but no one bothers to label their posts with version numbers. I was going crazy trying to figure out why the code snippets wouldn't compile. I finally figured out the syntax changes radically from one version to the next and Swift has no backwards compatibility. I threw in the towel at that point. Good luck; I hope you have better luck than I did.

By Diogo Melo on Friday, February 26, 2021 - 21:46

I learned Swift and SwiftUI in the last 6 months on hacking with swift, I also purchased some of the books and they are really practical, easy to follow and accessible, at least the html versions.

I recommend you try the 100 days course, I did the Swift UI one. It has a project dedicated to accessibility near the end.

By Blind angel 444 on Friday, February 26, 2021 - 21:46

Have you tried Swift Playgrounds? Its not bad and I love it, even though it has a small learning curve with the lessons. Has it been updated yet? I still have the 5.3 version. My notifications are turned on so when I get the new version it should tell me. Please tell me if I missed anything?

The 100 days course is freely available on the website. I believe the videos are just Paul Hudson reading the text, at least the first ones were and by reading only I never felt that I missed any topic while doing the review tests.

All books are available as html web pages, epub and pdf.
They are bundled in 3 different packs and I bought them on the Black Friday sale for $75 each, I think the usual price is $150.
Prices are relative, but for me the free course was worth what I paid for all the new material I bought, I would pay €200 just for what I learned for free.
Paul Hudson explains the bundles/packs in the website, one is more material to complement the initial course I believe, another pack explores watchOS, macOS and tvOS, as well as swift on the server, and the third is more advanced, like design patterns and testing.

But explore the free part and decide if his teaching style is worth it for you, for me certainly was.

By Florian on Saturday, June 26, 2021 - 21:46

Generally for tutorials you want them to be recent, but they don't have to be the absolute latest version each and every time. Swift 5.3 tutorials will work fine for 5.4 if I read the swift 5.4 release notes properly, however, if we hit 6.0, that might cause some incompatibilities.
That's not an accessibility thing though, that's an everyone thing. So it stands to reason that other people will likely be trying those same tutorials, running into the exact error you run into, and there may be a fix that is just a google away. Slows the learning down some, but that kind of research is also very good practice for various skills you will need as a developer anyway :)

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Saturday, June 26, 2021 - 21:46

Hi people!
Why do you use swift play ground?
Are you going to code professionally in future?
It would be better to focus on pythonista.
It is really a useful and accessible tool and even design inspector is accessible with voiceover.
Tghough... it is your right and your choice.
It was just my advice!
Cheers!

By KE8UPE on Saturday, June 26, 2021 - 21:46

Hi,
I want to make accessible apps for Apple's operating systems.

On that note, I have a semi-related question: "How many people on here, are registered developers?"
I've never paid the fee, but that may be changing this year.
If I did, then I could get a jumpstart on turning my ideas into actual apps, that this wonderful community can use.

By Florian on Saturday, June 26, 2021 - 21:46

In reply to by Unregistered User (not verified)

Pythonista is a very nice tool. It's great for experimenting with python, writing app extensions up to a point and giving your scripts a UI to work with. However, it's not going to let you build actual apps.
Python is certainly a more universal language compared to Swift, it lets you do more general-purpose stuff as well as work in all sorts of other domains. I'll give you that.
However, Swift Playgrounds is meant for one thing: learning the Swift programming language, which is primarily used for writing software for Mac OS, iOS, TVOS, Watch OS, iPad OS and I'm sure I'm missing one or two. Swift playgrounds allows you to learn that language, play with it, experiment with it and, soon, actually allow you to write iPad apps on an iPad. Pythonista won't allow you to do that, nor will it anytime in the near future. I actually don't know of a framework in Python that allows for iOS app creation that results in accessible apps. Ruby, JavaScript, sure, but I don't know any in Python. I'm sure one exists that I just don't know of, though.
What I'm saying is, these two apps are wildly different in what they do, and can easily even be used in tandem.

OK my friend.
I'll tell you a small story.
I needed a powerful tool for handling any text.
A real text.
A simple .txt file.
I didn't find any simple text editor.
And i found pythonista.
With the one i could to code a simple text editor.
In this app only two buttons for opening text and saving it.
And a big text view where I can edit text.
I am pressing down the "open" button.
And the standard document pick dialogue is dropping down.
I am simply choosing a file. Any file I want and the text is loaded into the text view.
I can simply to read or write text.
There are no needless items in this app.
The app is working very fast.

But you are playing with swift play ground.
Yeah, It is necessary to study.
But which app will you code?
OK you will code a lot of apps.
I will be very glad for you.
But how many dollars will you pay to apple?
99 dollars a year?
For a developer account?
Agreed.
You are very rich.
I am very poor.
My main task is to write scripts for making my operations easier.
Not for everybody - for me only.
But everyone chooses his own way.
I'd like to wish you only the best.
Become a good developer.
And maybe I will be the first who will buy your app!
Cheers!

What you wrote is a script, and if that solves the issue, then awesome :)
I'm saying that pytonista and Swit Playgrounds can't really be compared because they do very different things, not that the one is better then the other, it depends on your circumstances and your goals :)

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Saturday, June 26, 2021 - 21:46

In reply to by Florian

Play ground ist the sand box app.
The name of this app sounds so.
Pythonista is a general purpose app for solving local tasks.
Cheers!