DEV Community

Cover image for Almost a month since I started studying Swift and that what I learned
Rossano D'Angelo
Rossano D'Angelo

Posted on • Updated on

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)

Collapse
 
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?

Collapse
 
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 😄
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.

Collapse
 
casiimir profile image
casiimir • Edited

And now, what is the next journey?

Collapse
 
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.

Collapse
 
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!