(Part 2) Best products from r/swift

I really don't have a favorite. All language suck; it's just a question of finding the one whose suck is the least poorest fit for the problem you're trying to solve.

One reason I rather like meta-languages - that is, languages for constructing languages; Lisp being the canonical example - is that if you can close that disjoint gap significantly before you even start writing your solution, the rest of the exercise will go much quickly and smoothly. Of course, learning to write good DSLs is quite a curve in itself, not aided by the lack of shared expertise and prior art that comes from have a mass modern pop programming culture whose idea of improving efficiency is to bang the rocks together faster.

Right now I use Python to develop my own special-purpose kiwi automation language and toolset (my day job), and Swift for a novel new general-purpose scripting language and re-treaded macOS automation library I'm irregularly working on as personal side projects for now.

I'm using Python cos it already provides the libraries and dynamism I need for the former, Swift cos it's rapidly accummulating the audience size and long legs I want for the latter; i.e. pragmatic logistical choices. I'd love to have a big meaty project I could do all-declaratively (e.g. using ML/Haskell, or even something more exotic), my currently works won't quite fit that mould, but perhaps in future. At least kiwi's partly-declarative, which goes some way to helping me explore and learn how and where automating away repetitive scutwork can and should make the language's user's life easier and more productive (e.g. memory management in garbage-collected/ref-counted languages such as Swift, determining appropriate order in which to perform operations in non-sequential languages such as Haskell, describing highly specialized powerful operations in extremely concise simple code in custom DSLs build on metalanguages such as Lisp).

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One link I think you'd like to check out:(from here) is one of Alan Kay's more recent explorations in how to make computing suck less not by increments but by magnitudes:

https://github.com/damelang/nile/wiki/socal.pdf

Its given title—"The Nile Programming Language: Declarative Stream Processing for Media Applications"—is perfectly appalling in its uselessness. (Alan may be a brilliant technical visionary, but his sales skills suck. And his visual design skills are even worse so you'll need a tissue to mop up your eyeballs after reading that PDF, but it is worth it.) The presentation really should've been called "How to Write a 10KLOC Program in 100 Lines Or Less!", because the project's true goal is to explore how to get a 10X reduction in code size and complexity just by using a meta-language to build a task-specific language and the writing your program in that. (The Gezira program example uses a task-specific language written in another task-specific [meta-]language written in the original meta-language to obtain a 10 10 = 100X reduction in total.)

Alan Kay is one of the most fascinating explorers in HCI to follow, and still alive and working too! (We're really running short now!) iI's a shame he hasn't tried harder to transform ideas and technology POCs into living Products and communicate successfully to everyone else just what these products really are and how each of us can make them work for us. (If you think Alan Kay's achievement is giving us OOP, you're probably the sort who thinks of Doug Engelbart as inventor of the mouse. None so blind as those who aren't paying attention.)

Plus my always-obligatory link to Papert's Mindstorms, which'll tell you what Logo was created to be (an open-ended, universally accessible platform for enhanced Computer-Aided Thought, and hand it to every person from 8 to 80 to self-build and grow her own perfectly tailored toolbox that serves her needs and fits her interests), as opposed to what Logo got sold as by the time entrenched interests, impermeable mindsets, and Chinese whispers reduced it down to by the time it got real-world deployment ("Good morning, class, today we will learn to write loops…").

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My own language development work of the last decade convergently evolved quite accidentally to roughly where Papert was already at before I was even in diapers. Since then I've taking a lot* more interest in the non- and pre-C/Unix history of computing and discovering it's an absolute treasure trove of exciting, unorthodox, and yet almost entirely untapped ideas.

So I figure if all the big fat lazy pussycats of today's programming culture are all too incurious and complacent to pay it any heed, or even know it's there(!), than that's just more 100% free opportunities to collect every dusty genie lamp I can find and polish them up for my own personal profit and glory; and maybe put a few more noses out by empowering several billion other "ordinary pidgeons" just like me to get in on their cozy little "programming" hustle too... ;p

This guide will get you started with testing in Swift 4. It'll help you get everything set up properly and show you how to write your first tests in Swift. If you want even more depth, you could try Test-Driven iOS Development with Swift 4, Test-Driven iOS Development (Objective-C), or the seminal book, Test-Driven Development: By Example which uses Java.

If you haven't heard of it already,I'd recommend The Programmers Bible. The one and only book you'll ever need for writing consistently clean code.

Advanced topics. We're flooded with entry level stuff, don't need more of the same. Advanced isn't just digging deeper into things that re-define the language, we have tons of protocol programming and overriding operators.

There was a "pushing the limits" book years ago... make one like that.
https://www.amazon.com/iOS-Programming-Pushing-Limits-Applications/dp/1118818342

Stopped at iOS 7, make a new version that covers modern things.

"Core Animation for Mac OS X and the iPhone"
https://www.amazon.com/Core-Animation-Mac-iPhone-Programmers/dp/1934356107

Actually principles the same as for iOS. Also recommend try this: https://www.paintcodeapp.com (expensive but have trial version). Also check tutorials for Paintcode, IMHO 1-month enough to understand principles of custom control creation.

1. Late 2011 is easily supported by: http://dosdude1.com/catalina/
   
2. SSD: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K8A29E6/
   
3. RAM: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SNM1LHS/

Hmm...looks like the relevant books won't be coming out for couple of months. This one:

http://www.amazon.com/Swift-Development-Cocoa-Developing-Stores/dp/1491908947/

is coming out Christmas day! Weird.

I learned a fair amount from Swift for Beginners. It went off into the weeds occasionally with some advanced stuff, but it gave me enough of a base so that I can now work my way through Apple's Language Guide, and am absorbing that stuff without getting overwhelmed.

This book, updated for Swift.

Read this while also reading this and then watch these lectures (note: the iOS 10 version should be starting by the time you finish the two books).

Every single line of code you see you should also be writing. Every project built in both books and the lectures you should also build. You should regularly use what you've learned to make your own dumb little practice projects. If you learn how to make a UIButton in chapter x then you should go and make your own project after reading chapter x that screws around and explores creating UIButtons.

Come up with some actual app that you'd want to make for your own usage. As you learn features that you want your app to have, implement them in your app. Every now and then restart it from scratch as you learn how to code better. (IE your implementation of a trio of UIButtons after reading chapter 3 will be coded rather poorly compared to your implementation of the same trio of buttons after reading chapter 22.)

This is how I did it and I taught myself how to be a professional iOS developer from not knowing what a variable was in less than a year.

I have just started Erica Sadun's iOS Autolayout demystified book. That might be a good next step for you. https://www.amazon.com/Auto-Layout-Demystified-Mobile-Programming/dp/0321967194
Edit: Sorry, I have just realised that this is a Swift stub, and the book is in Objective-C ... :/

Why not just get a book on Swift?

Last month I published my latest book UML and Object-Oriented Design Foundations and a Udemy course.

I'm currently working on my next Lynda course.

I first went through the Swift and iOS programming books by Big Nerd Ranch, and then I went through one of their bootcamps in Atlanta. I highly recommend this company. Apple, Spotify, Square, etc... send their employees to Big Nerd Ranch.

The best two books that you can add to you list are going to be release in December 2015:

• Swift Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide (Big Nerd Ranch Guides)
  Dec 21, 2015
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Swift-Programming-Ranch-Guide-Guides/dp/0134398017/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449670522&sr=1-1&refinements=p_n_publication_date%3A1250228011
  
  
• iOS Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide (5th Edition) (Big Nerd Ranch Guides) 5th Edition
  Dec 21, 2015
  
  http://www.amazon.com/iOS-Programming-Ranch-Edition-Guides/dp/0134390733/ref=pd_bxgy_14_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=01375BDKNPMY4DPRYDSM