I’ve been experiencing WWDC from home, watching videos, reading documentation, and experimenting with the new APIs. The changes introduced this year are very exciting – Apple is firing on all cylinders. Here are my main takeaways.
Mac Pro
My iMac is 4.5 years old, and I’m looking for a replacement I can keep for many years and expand as needed. The new Mac Pro is perfect. Except for price. Once available, I’ll have to evaluate whether a Mac Pro makes sense, or whether an iMac Pro (now looking much cheaper!) will work just as well for development.
The Pro Display XDR is gorgeous, but way overkill for what I need. I think chances are that the iMac is due for a design refresh soon, and at that point, I would expect Apple to release matching standalone monitors. While hoping and waiting for that, I can get a second Dell P2415Q 24” monitor (just $353 instead of $6000) to tide me over if I go with the Mac Pro.
UIKit on Mac
With Catalyst (a.k.a. Marzipan), Apple allows iPad apps to run on the Mac. I’ve already used it to run my new work-in-progress iOS SmartGo app on the Mac, and so far it looks like a good path forward. I hope to end up with a Mac version of SmartGo that is more capable and more complete than the current one, and that will be easy to keep up-to-date with the iOS version.
SwiftUI
SwiftUI was an amazing surprise, the culmination of years of work behind the scenes at Apple. It makes me very happy that I bet on Swift several years ago, first creating SmartOthello to learn Swift, and now rewriting SmartGo in Swift. I’ve been watching the SwiftUI videos and experimenting with it, and it’s a real game changer: with minimal code, it provides more of the features users expect, and a more native experience on the Mac, all while reducing errors, providing instant previews, and making development more fun. It’s win – win – win.
This WWDC really knocked it out of the park. I’m very excited – so much to learn. Thank you, Apple.
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