Swift Pocket Reference: Programming for iOS and OS X
Anthony Gray
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Release Date: September 2014
Pages: 100
As disclosed by the title of this book (Swift Pocket Reference) it is a reference work rather than a programming guide of the kind designed to teach you to program for the iOS or OS X platforms. It is not concerned with Cocoa frameworks or working with Objective-C. Instead it aims to provide the most information it can about Swift in the smallest space possible, tabulating where it can and ordering under strict headings.
This lack of concern with the entire process of programming apps provides the opportunity to work through each aspect of the Swift language and syntax in turn right down to generics (yay!).
Who's it for?
It's a book that will serve people who've already read Apple's iBook on the Swift language and who would like to revise and understand elements in Apple's book that weren't entirely clear or which they didn't understand at first reading. For example, you want to know how to get the REPL (run-evaluate-print-loop) working quickly, this book has you covered. You want to learn about Operator Precendence, likewise you are covered. Having difficulty with Array Algorithms? Again you're covered. Trailing Closures, Variadic Parameters, etc., etc. All covered.
Essentially the book is for people who want to save time re-reading Apple's iBooks or searching online to clarify their understanding of elements of the Swift language. Now this might seem like an unnecessary luxury and a repetition of what's already been written. But often, reading programming guides, pieces of information will be dispersed or not entered into with enough variation. So this is where Swift Pocket Reference comes in. It gives you what is hopefully the right information to grasp the concept at hand and if not at least it provides a jumping off point for further research without having first to read several pages of text to arrive at the term you are looking for.
What's it missing?
At this stage of early release when there is still material to be added it would be unfair to write that this or that is missing. I didn't for example find mention of strong reference cycles and how to use weak and unowned keywords, but hopefully the author will add this because it is not only necessary information but also it is scantily described and scattered through Apple's own writing rather than being all in one place.
Conclusion
This book is primarily designed to be bought in print form and to be kept readily at hand for whenever a thought occurs to you or when you are in the pressured situation of being a teacher or student who needs the information readily at hand without fumbling through a larger text.
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