The episode before WWDC24, wants and hopes for developers
What's up, everybody? Welcome to a bonus episode of the Compile Swift Podcast. We are but a couple of days away now from dub dub dc 24, and some folks asked me what do I think we're gonna see this year, what would I like to see, and so on. And I thought, okay, I'm not gonna make predictions, but I'll make safe bets. And so this is a quick bonus episode to put in some of my thoughts on what we might see and perhaps more what I'd like to see, but why I think we should see them.
Peter:And so let's dive in. So we're gonna see major revisions of all the operating systems of course. That's a given every year. But there's 2 crucial ones this year, I think. You know, naturally, I think vision OS is gonna go to version 2.
Peter:That is very important for Apple. Now, I say for Apple and I'll I'll talk about that in a second why I put it that way. But, you know, they need to keep that platform moving forward. It's a brand new platform. Right?
Peter:It's a v one o right now, and they need to get the second version out to bring in, hopefully, some of the features that, you know, users want and some of the features they want for developers to take into consideration and building apps. And also to keep that platform moving forward and to hopefully open up some of the closed APIs that are there right now. Hopefully, Apple learned enough data last year to know what they feel might be safe to work with or what users want to see, especially developers, I should say. But let's talk about that aspect of it. On that particular platform, VisionOS, Apple needs developers more than they ever did before, I think, for a long time, I would say, at least, on their platforms.
Peter:Because it is the apps that are gonna make vision OS and the headset a success or not. Let let's be honest. Right? That's what it comes down to. And right now, as I've said in previous episodes, Apple needs to win back some love from developers.
Peter:I think developers have been hit hard, especially the past couple of years. Not necessarily Apple's fault, but there's been a lot of things we've had to deal with that have been a major pain in the butt. EU and all those kind of things. I think that Apple more than ever needs to try and do something to win back some of that love, support and maybe, dare I say, trust in Apple's platforms and to build for them. Vision OS, not gonna go anywhere without third party apps is my prediction there.
Peter:I don't think we'll see new hardware, by the way, on that. I think it's way too early on those. Moving on. The other super crucial platform this year, iPad OS. Yes.
Peter:Okay. Every year we all say about how we want this. We'd like it to be more like that or not like this or so on and so on. But I think for whatever reason, because the iPad's got the best chip right now, and and I get that. It'd been a long time, over a year, since the iPad hardware had been revisioned.
Peter:But right now, the iPad has the most impressive chip, dare I say, at a statistics level, at a data level and this is their opportunity to take advantage of that before all the other hardware gets it next year. Right? Now, by that I mean, myself and so many other people. Oh, I'll wait till the M5 chip before I renew my Mac for example. So the iPad is in a position to shine more this year.
Peter:But as I've always said, and and I'm not the lone voice on this, it's the iPad OS itself that causes the iPad to to sit where it's sitting and be held back in some ways. I it what's the point in having this massively powerful chip and still being capped in the ways that you can use the device and the interfaces and the improved, but still questionable multitasking, all these things. So I'm hoping that iPad really needs to shine this year on iPad OS. And also, because I have been using my iPad significantly less for many of these reasons. And so, it's almost like convince me why my m one iPad needs to be upgraded.
Peter:And I think that there's a fair few people looking at it the same way. I got an M1 iPad. What's the reasoning for me changing? The hardware is plenty powerful. The OS is causing some grief on a daily driver depending on what you use it for.
Peter:So those are the 2 OSes that I think are crucial this year. The rest, yeah, we'll see revisions. Great. Nothing new there. They're all very mature plat forms at this point.
Peter:Moving on. Let's talk about the the elephant in the room, Xcode. Right? Of course, we'll see a new major version that will always come with major controversy, if you pardon the pun. But I did intentionally put it there because it'll be fix some, break some.
Peter:Right? But something that I think I'd like to see this year is those plugins, those extensions being opened up a bit more. I feel there is plenty of opportunity there again for 3rd party developers. But also to solve some of the things that bug people about Xcode. Right?
Peter:By way of plugins. You don't have to open up the whole system. Just take it beyond the text editor that it is now as far as availability for plugins. Of course, along with that, AI. Right?
Peter:I am certain. Are we gonna see AI in in all the platforms, OSes, and probably embrace awful Siri even more? But I don't know how that's gonna look on the platforms, and I'll be honest, I'm I don't know that I'd be able to care. But I do care for the use of AI tools in developers world. Right?
Peter:So I would love to see AI embraced in Xcode. There is lots of things it could do. Right? Very easily. Reformatting our code, suggesting better ways of doing our code by analyzing it beyond what we get already from the swift passing and everything else, which is fine.
Peter:But it can definitely go to the next level with AI and say, hey, we think there's a better way for you to do this code or why don't I write that code for you? Those kind of things. I'd love to see some of that in Xcode. Maybe maybe even writing tests. If we could have AI make up basic tests for us based on our code that we can then expand upon, I think that would go a long way to having people embrace more testing and and keeping those tests up to date.
Peter:Again, AI to analyze my out of date test and tell me what makes can make it better. There's plenty of opportunities. I I would call it safe opportunity there as well. We know that this can be done on the machine and it should be. All of Apple's platforms are more than powerful enough that we know that they can do this on platform, stay within the device, be it an iPhone, a Mac, whatever.
Peter:And that's one of Apple's strong points, keeping it on the device from a security perspective. So let's see more of that, I think, from the to help the developers out. Beyond that, I'm I'm pretty happy with Xcode. Xcode. Of course, I'd like to see the preview system working better.
Peter:I'm sure we'll see tweaks across the board on all of these things. But the mythical Xcode on iPad, no. Even though I say every year, wouldn't that be great? Integrate it with Xcode Cloud, but I don't think we'll see it. And, I don't think it matters at this point, even though, ironically, again, the hardware itself on the iPad is more than powerful enough to to deal with it.
Peter:I think until I can plug my iPad into an external screen and have a desktop or even just the iPad screen appear on that external screen, but at a decent resolution. Meaning, don't just mirror my iPad. Let me plug it in and that external screen becomes whatever an extension like the Mac and extended desktop at true resolution. Until you get that, I'm not really interested in doing Xcode on it. I gotta be honest.
Peter:Because it it would take up such an amount of space that on the screen, you, you know, really wouldn't get to write code other than flicking between panels a lot of the time. That's some basic thoughts there from me just in this quick episode. I I do want to point out that I am there are some, of course, like so many podcasts in there, I will be guesting on at least one set to record on the keynote day, and I will also, of course, be recording on a keynote day. Hopefully, our dev club, we've got it getting together to try and do a round table recording for an episode on our our thoughts on the keynote and and all of those kind of things on that day. Subscribe to follow those.
Peter:And also go to compileswift.com because we'll also be opening up a channel during the keynote and then for live discussion as it happens along with some key speakers from the dev club discord. So check that out as well. Of course, it's always an exciting week for all of us in Apple Land. With that folks, I will speak to you again in just a couple of days. I'll see you later.
