Reasons to learn SwiftUI: The Powerful Language

Patel Asha
3 min readJun 3, 2021

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What is swift?

Apple’s open-source programming language specialised to the creation of native iOS apps. It was introduced in 2014 and quickly gained momentum, dethroning Objective-C as the most preferred platform for developing native iOS apps.

Swift is noted for its unique approach, rapid coding speed, and thorough documentation. It is designed to deliver security and great performance for every piece of software created with it. It is not restricted to mobile app development only. Swift is also suitable for online, desktop, and server applications. Each piece of hardware having Apple’s operating system
like TVs, iPads and watches uses software coded in Swift.

XCode is the primary environment for developing native apps with this programming language. The software built using Swift is considered to be easy, rapid, pattern based and appreciated by the community.

So popular…..

SwiftUI, Apple’s latest framework for designing apps for iOS, Mac, TV OS, and watch OS, was introduced in its initial version in 2019. SwiftUI has only one language: Swift. SwiftUI requires Swift knowledge.

SwiftUI is the way iOS development will go in the future. SwiftUI is a fantastic user interface framework that will undoubtedly be the future of app development on Apple’s platforms. Personalized apps, small apps, hobby apps, prototype apps, and general experimentation are perfect places to use SwiftUI. And many firms these days uses only SwiftUI.

Easy learning

Learning SwiftUI was, is a reasonably simple task. Despite the fact that SwiftUI is very different from its predecessor, UIKit, one can apply understanding of ReactJS and Flutter to feel at ease with it. If you’ve never dealt with a declarative framework like React or Flutter before, you might find it difficult to get used to the SwiftUI framework.

Previews in real time

SwiftUI’s ability to alter the user interface instantaneously is one of its primary advantages. A feature called Xcode Live Previews takes care of this. Live previews provide a near - instant preview of a real-time view. The time spent running and waiting for the programme to run in the simulator is no longer an issue. This also aids in the rapid prototyping of an app by allowing for several user interface iterations.

Xcode Live Previews aren’t flawless; they don’t always update and don’t always provide meaningful error messages. Even in debugging mode, the console messages do not show. Although inconvenient, this is to be anticipated from a fresh framework that was only launched a few years ago.

A desire for speed

SwiftUI has a number of advantages, one of which being the speed with which user interfaces may be created. In numerous cases, it takes only 1–2 hours to design an interface in SwiftUI, whereas 5–6 hours to construct the same interface in UIKit. The declarative structure of SwiftUI, together with Xcode Live Previews, causes this acceleration.

Source control management

If you’ve ever worked with Storyboards in UIKit, you know how difficult it is to handle merge conflicts. The storyboard file is just an XML file, and depending on the intricacy of the interface, it can grow rather cluttered. Because SwiftUI views are just structs, handling conflicts in a source control system is a lot easier.

Patterns in Design

SwiftUI, unlike UIKit, does not begin with the MVC Design Pattern. Although you can use MVC architecture in a SwiftUI app, it is not advisable. The main reason is because there are other patterns that are more suited for SwiftUI app development. MVVM Design Pattern and Redux Design Pattern are two of these patterns.

Continuity

After building hundreds of prototypes in SwiftUI, one can confidently state that it is stable and performs as intended in the vast majority of scenarios. Yes, there will be times when SwiftUI falls short and one needs to rely on UIKit for assistance. However, such instances are scarce.

Adoption by Businesses

SwiftUI will take time to be adopted by businesses, just like any new technology. Several firms have begun launching new internal projects that are entirely written in SwiftUI. Some businesses are incorporating SwiftUI into their UIKit apps and building new interfaces in SwiftUI. Only time will tell how swiftly businesses hop on board with SwiftUI.

Final Thoughts

SwiftUI is a brand-new declarative framework for building apps for Apple’s whole product line. Apple has charted the course for iOS development in the future, with SwiftUI at the fore.

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