330: A Rotation You Can't Complete

Swift Journey

Marco Arment shares his evolving relationship with Swift, likening it to a friendship that requires acceptance despite its challenges. He acknowledges the necessity of embracing Swift for its benefits, even if it can be frustrating at times 1. John Siracusa humorously contrasts Marco's struggles by sharing his own seamless experience of developing a Mac app in Swift, highlighting the complexities of creating a notarized Mac application 1. Meanwhile, Marco expresses excitement about SwiftUI's potential, particularly for improving his watch app's interface, which has been limited by previous tools 2.

   

Catalina Insights

Installing macOS Catalina is a pivotal step for developers working with SwiftUI, as Casey Liss explains. He recommends using an external drive for adventurous users, noting that SwiftUI performs significantly better on Catalina than Mojave 3. Marco Arment shares his method of installing Catalina on a second partition to keep his main system stable while testing the beta 3. Casey recounts his own installation challenges, emphasizing the importance of having the right setup, as his initial attempt with an external SSD on a MacBook was unsuccessful 4.

   

Xcode Transition

The transition to using Xcode on Catalina is crucial for Swift development, as Marco Arment plans to spend significant time on this OS for his projects. He considers migrating his main installation to Catalina if the beta proves stable enough 5. John Siracusa shares his reluctance to install betas, despite the limitations he faces with older versions of Xcode on Mojave 5. Casey highlights the benefits of using the latest OS and Xcode versions for accessing new SwiftUI features, although he initially faced issues with the live preview on Mojave 5.