Give your simulator superpowers

RocketSim: An Essential Developer Tool
as recommended by Apple

Issue 190
Oct 24, 2023

Writing tests alone is not enough.

I'm developing RocketSim in my spare time, and especially for side projects, it's sometimes challenging to keep writing tests. Time is limited, so if you have time, you want to move fast and work on new features instead.

I've shared Side Projects: 10 Tips for being successful before, in which you can learn how I like to work on my side projects. One thing it doesn't cover is how you should deal with tests.

Last week, I released RocketSim 12.0.0 (more on that next week) with the idea of "Ship fast, learn fast." Unfortunately, I went a little too fast since I broke the recording functionality, even though one of my tests would've told me before releasing.

Since I work solely, I don't have PRs and CI runs for changes. That decision made me forget to do a final unit test run (oops). On top of that, since it's a side project, I had to wait till I was done working at WeTransfer before I could work on a fix.

In other words, make sure to write tests for crucial parts, but also make sure not to forget to run them before a release (it sounds so obvious when I'm writing this now)

Enjoy this week's SwiftLee Weekly!

THIS WEEK'S BLOG POST

Many developers know how to use User Defaults in their apps, but until last week, there wasn't a great solution for debugging User Defaults during development. I created a tool that helps you quickly test implementations in real-time.

SPONSORED

Waldo Sessions is a free tool that makes it easy to capture key details as you reproduce a bug. Waldo will capture a full video, device and build details, console logs and network requests, and package them all into one shareable link. Check out an example here and sign up for free!

CURATED FROM THE COMMUNITY

SWIFTUI

Getting started with Swift Charts can be intimidating since there’s so much to discover (At least, that’s how I’ve been looking at it). This article by Danijela Vrzan feels like a great starting point to me. It builds up slowly, explaining how to beautify a standard chart further.

An important SwiftUI lesson shared by Dean. If you need to respond to @State changes, you better do it correctly to prevent issues.

At first, you might think there’s little difference between a Tap Gesture and a Button. However, David Yang shares a few great reasons why you should consider one over another.

SWIFT

I’m a big fan of facades and abstracting away layers to gain flexibility when needed. Jordan Morgan shares the same mindset and provides a typical example: tracking layers. I’m using the same strategy to potentially track multiple services via a single entry point.

OPTIMIZING

You won’t often need it, but I bet you will use bash scripting someday. I use it often in a small manner to execute actions from a build phase— Natascha Fadeeva shares you the basics.

STRATEGY

The decisions you make today have an impact on your options in the future. David Smith explains this concept and shares what you can do to help your future self.

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