Lee Morgan:
We’ll go ahead and extend our KVC protocol and add our default implementation.
extension KVC {
func valueForKey(key : String) -> Any? {
let mirror = reflect(self)
for index in 0 ..< mirror.count {
let (childKey, childMirror) = mirror[index]
if childKey == key {
return childMirror.value
}
}
return nil
}
}
David Owens II has a different implementation that also handles setting values:
As you might be gathering, the basic premise is to use a backing store to maintain our values and type information. The implementation can then verify that the data coming in is correct.
David Owens II:
But wait… if we can shadow the functions and replace them with our own implementations, then this means that method swizzling is back on the table!
There are several caveats, though.
Adrian Kashivskyy:
Remember that reflection in Swift is currently read-only and there’s no way to modify your program at runtime (with Objective-C-derived classes being an exception as you can still class_addMethod() in Swift).
Brent Simmons asks how to instantiate an arbitrary class at runtime.
David Owens II:
The same way as C++, an ugly switch statement!
Wil Shipley:
On the latest Swift you have to add the word “init” to make this more explicit. Then it works. e.g:
let a:P = clsA.init(i:1)
Brent Simmons:
Jim takes this one step further: what if all you have is the class name as a string?
Alas, that’s currently only possible using Objective-C classes. There is no NSClassFromString() for Swift. [Update (2015-07-23): Actually, there is. See the comments below.]
David Owens II:
Xcode 7 Beta 4 is out and it is a doozy! One of the changes is that performSelector is now available from Swift. Now, this isn’t going to make your Swift types dynamic all of a sudden. However, what it does open the door for, is writing both your ObjC-style code and your Swift code all in the same language: Swift.
Brent Simmons:
Here’s the deal I’m willing to make: to make my code more elegant (read: smaller, easier to maintain, reusable), I’m willing to let it crash if I’ve configured things incorrectly.
[…]
So my case is that Swift itself needs things like this. If not a clone of KVC, then something very much like it.
Rob Rhyne:
When Apple announced the Swift programming language in 2014, there were questions about the future of frameworks that depended heavily on the dynamic nature of Objective-C. Frameworks such as Core Data marshall objects with type dependencies determined at runtime. The strict type checks required by the Swift compiler appeared in conflict with Core Data.
[…]
It turns out the answer to one question begat the solution to the other. By turning this class extension into a protocol and with a clever use of typealias, I resolved the insidious casting problem while maintaining type safety. Protocols to the rescue!
In other words, there are ways to use Core Data from Swift in a type-safe way. But it would still be impossible to write Core Data itself in pure Swift.
Core Data iOS Key-Value Coding (KVC) Language Design Mac Message Passing Objective-C Swift Programming Language Swift Runtime
David Owens II:
What I’ve come to realize is, my problem is really about the callsite, I actually always want to use throws. The simple fact is that I can return more information about the failure and let the caller decide if they care about it or not.
But if the caller doesn’t care about it, this makes the callsite ugly.
Ok, so let’s make it better:
func trythrow<T>(@autoclosure fn: () throws -> T?) -> T? {
do { return try fn() }
catch { return nil }
}
func example3() {
guard let tt = trythrow(try Foo(throwable: 0)) else {
print("error")
return
}
print("Foo(throwable:) creation passed")
}
This gets us into a happy place again. We can turn failures where we do not care about the specific reasons into a code path that is more natural. If this becomes a pattern, it begs the question why this wouldn’t be just built into the language.
This thread suggests doing that by adding try?, which looks like a good idea.
iOS Language Design Mac Programming Swift Programming Language
Larry Wall (via Hacker News, Slashdot):
So natural language is very flexible this way because you have a very intelligent listener – or at least, compared with a computer – who you can rely on to figure out what you must have meant, in case of ambiguity. Of course, in a computer language you have to manage the ambiguity much more closely.
Arguably in Perl 1 through to 5 we didn’t manage it quite adequately enough. Sometimes the computer was confused when it really shouldn’t be. With Perl 6, we discovered some ways to make the computer more sure about what the user is talking about, even if the user is confused about whether something is really a string or a number. The computer knows the exact type of it. We figured out ways of having stronger typing internally but still have the allomorphic “you can use this as that” idea.
[…]
Part of the reason the Perl 6 has taken so long is that we have around 50 different principles we try to stick to, and in language design you’re end up juggling everything and saying “what’s really the most important principle here”? There has been a lot of discussion about a lot of different things. Sometimes we commit to a decision, work with it for a while, and then realise it wasn’t quite the right decision.
We didn’t design or specify pretty much anything about concurrent programming until someone came along who was smart enough about it and knew what the different trade-offs were, and that’s Jonathan Worthington. He has blended together ideas from other languages like Go and C#, with concurrent primitives that compose well. Composability is important in the rest of the language.
Concurrency Language Design Perl Programming
Stairways Software:
Trigger your macros with hot keys that are down, pressed, released, or tapped multiple times. Or trigger with a change in window focus or folder or clipboard.
Each action now includes a Gear menu to enable, disable, try, rename, add notes, set colors, or get help, as well as copying the action as text or an image for easier sharing.
[…]
As you type text tokens, functions, variables and search tokens possible completions appear right at the cursor. Select the one you need and have it entered for you.
[…]
The new Mouse Display window shows the mouse coordinates as your cursor moves around the screen. Set the corner of screen or window to measure from, then copy the results into your action.
I fell out of the habit of using this type of utility more than a decade ago. Lately, I’ve been thinking that I’ve been missing out.
Keyboard Maestro Mac Mac App
Craig Hockenberry:
Mac developers have never had access to TestFlight, either internally or externally. It’s “coming soon”, and until that day comes, there’s no way to test apps that use the iCloud servers. Which sucks for both the developer and the customer.
[…]
[Analytics] is nowhere to be found on the Mac App Store. Again, it’s “coming soon”.
Just yesterday, Apple did something great for developers. They now block reviews on beta OS releases. Unless that operating system is for the Mac.
Update (2015-07-24): Daniel Jalkut:
But there is no Twitter account for the Mac App Store, and the @AppStore account has nearly never mentioned Mac software. (Go ahead, do an advanced Twitter search for “from:AppStore mac“). Around four years ago at WWDC, I asked a group of App Store affiliated engineers what they made of this. They all looked at me blankly, paused, looked at each other blankly, paused, and then shrugged as if to say “Huh, I wonder why we don’t promote the Mac App Store?” I don’t know either! But they were all in a much better position than I to find out or push for a change. Evidently, that hasn’t happened.
[…]
I guess it’s lucky the Mac was around for so many years before the dawn of iOS, it’s had time to accumulate many developer-empowering features. Although Apple’s priorities with respect to development resources and marketing seem to be focused on iOS today, we enjoy many privileges on the Mac that I doubt iOS developers will ever see.
[…]
I think this speaks to the likely truth that Apple is, more than anything, under-staffed and not well situated to deploy solutions to both platforms in tandem.
Update (2015-07-28): Wil Shipley:
See also: bundle pricing, symbolicating crashes, TestFlight, subscriptions, gifting apps…
App Store iCloud iOS Mac Mac App Store TestFlight
Maciej Ceglowski:
Today I hope to persuade you that the same thing that happened to aviation is happening with the Internet. Here we are, fifty years into the computer revolution, at what feels like our moment of greatest progress. The outlines of the future are clear, and oh boy is it futuristic.
But we’re running into physical and economic barriers that aren’t worth crossing.
We’re starting to see that putting everything online has real and troubling social costs.
And the devices we use are becoming ‘good enough’, to the point where we can focus on making them cheaper, more efficient, and accessible to everyone.
So despite appearances, despite the feeling that things are accelerating and changing faster than ever, I want to make the shocking prediction that the Internet of 2060 is going to look recognizably the same as the Internet today.
Unless we screw it up.
And I want to convince you that this is the best possible news for you as designers, and for us as people.
Airplane Battery Life Business Design History Storage Web
