Updates on Swift content

Hey iOS students,

I wanted to take a second and update you guys on the status of Swift content at Treehouse since it’s been a few weeks since the last course release.

We tentatively have four courses left to go to wrap up the Beginner Swift/iOS development track: Closures, Build a Weather App (reshoot), Enhance Weather App with Table Views and Build a Treasure Hunting app. Closures and Build a Weather app are written and ready to record but unfortunately there’s a hold up that’s out of my control. Apple recently released Swift 1.2, the latest version of the language, and I need to record with this version since there are considerable changes to the syntax compared to 1.1. However, Swift 1.2 is currently only available in a beta version of Xcode - specifically Xcode 6.3 beta 2.

I could record the content using this beta version but there are a couple reasons why this is probably not a good idea:

• Beta versions are quite buggy. As a student you will specifically have to download the latest beta of Xcode from the developer center to take the course. When learning new material, you may think you are doing something wrong and get really frustrated but in reality it might just be the beta version crashing (and mind you it crashes often). It’s not just new problems that are reintroduced with betas. For example, the latest beta introduces errors when attempting to cast from NSArray to a Swift array in certain configurations of Xcode.
• A beta version indicates that there are changes forthcoming. By recording a course and releasing it over the next few weeks, I risk having to re-record the content if the new beta introduces any breaking changes to the course. One of the reasons I’m re-recording the Weather App is because it was partially recorded on a beta when Swift was first announced. Enough changes have been made since, to both Xcode and Swift, to where the project doesn’t run unless you fix those errors. As an indicator of how much betas change things: We had Xcode 6.2 beta 5 over a month ago that included changes to WatchKit, Xcode 6.3 beta 1 only two weeks ago that made significant changes to Swift (enough so that there’s a migrator to automatically convert Swift code from 1.1 to 1.2) and finally Xcode 6.3 beta 2 today that modified Swift syntax even further.

So my options are to record the content now using the beta build and risk having to re-record (if that happens you will be inevitably waiting for new/advanced content) or I can wait a few weeks and see if a stable build is released soon. I’m pretty sure the release of Xcode 6.3 GM (stable version) is being timed to give developers plenty of time to work on their WatchKit apps. Since the Apple watch is supposed to release early April, I’m hoping that means only a couple weeks of waiting for the stable build.

Anyway, just want to keep you guys updated. In the mean time, I’m going get started on the next few courses so that when GM is released I will have plenty to record and release.

Sorry for the inconvenience! Feel free to direct blame at Apple :)

Leave comments/email me with any questions!