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Rossano D'Angelo
Rossano D'Angelo

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Almost a month since I started studying Swift and that what I learned

It's almost a month since I started working with Swift and I don't think we're getting along.

I don't like Xcode

The IDE - Xcode - is weird. Maybe you get used to it with time but after a month I still struggle. Too many options, to many "things" besides the code.. I don't know, I just don't like it. I can't compare it to Android Studio, for example, because I didn't use it recently. But I have good memories of it from University when I worked on an Android project for an exam.

The emulator is awesome, though

I found very easy debugging my apps on the emulator. Its "smoothness" and speed are things I'm going to miss.

Conclusion

I don't think I'm going to finish my 100 Days of Swift.. Sadly. It was a great thing to do and I found fantastic resources but it's not for me. I don't feel the magic of it - which I feel for other things like React and/or GraphQL.

Goodbye Swift.

Goodbye Swift

Top comments (5)

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eljayadobe profile image
Eljay-Adobe • Edited

What version of Xcode were you using? I'm finding 12.x to be a lot nicer than 11.x and earlier.

(I'm super-biased, since I was a dev at Microsoft working on Visual Studio. I think Visual Studio has some excellent capabilities, especially in the area of debugging and multiple document interface handling. I also think Xcode has some very nice features, and has slowly-but-surely been getting better over time. Both also have some things that annoy the heck out of me. I've also used Eclipse extensively, to which I give it good marks. (Not to take away from the cool folks at JetBrains, they rock too.))

But mostly I use Vim.

What do you like or dislike about Swift itself, ignoring Xcode? Or was Xcode itself the sole reason for an unhappy experience Swift?

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rossanodan profile image
Rossano D'Angelo

I have Xcode 12.3 (updated this morning so I think it was the earlier version).

The language itself is "weird" but I think that's only because I didn't spend lot of time on it. I use JavaScript at work (React and GraphQL) so when I had to use let for a constant it was painful πŸ˜„
I also didn't like too much the UI builder.. I found it complicated to use with all those options.. I don't know, I didn't find it "right" for me.

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casiimir profile image
casiimir • Edited

And now, what is the next journey?

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rossanodan profile image
Rossano D'Angelo

That's a good question. I have a couple of options: I'd like to understand more in deep GraphQL - I use it at work and would be useful improving with it - and I'd like to jump back on Java. I used it at University years ago but I never really worked with it.

I don't know, hard choice.

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casiimir profile image
casiimir • Edited

In my limited experience I can suggest you to find your passion between the two of them. Personally, maybe I would go for GraphQL. Either way please remember to come back and leave an article about your experience.

And the end of the day every choice is hard, I think, so better start right away!