iOS & Swift

macOS Apprentice

macOS Apprentice is a series of multi-chapter tutorials where you’ll learn about developing native macOS apps in Swift, using both SwiftUI — Apple’s newest user interface technology — and AppKit — the venerable UI framework. Along the way, you’ll learn several ways to execute Swift code and you’ll build two fully featured apps from scratch.

If you’re new to macOS and Swift, or to programming in general, learning how to write an app can seem incredibly overwhelming.

That’s why you need a guide that:

Shows you how to write an app step-by-step. Uses tons of illustrations and screenshots to make everything clear. Guides you in a fun and easy-going manner.

You’ll start at the very beginning. The first section assumes you have little to no knowledge of programming in Swift. It walks you through installing Xcode and then teaches you the basics of the Swift programming language. Along the way, you’ll explore several different ways to run Swift code, taking advantage of the fact that you’re developing natively on macOS.

macOS Apprentice doesn’t cover every single feature of macOS; it focuses on the absolutely essential ones. Instead of just covering a list of features, macOS Apprentice does something much more important: It explains how all the building blocks fit together and what is involved in building real apps. You’re not going to create quick example programs that demonstrate how to accomplish a single feature. Instead, you’ll develop complete, fully-formed apps, while exploring many of the complexities and joys of programming macOS.

This book, macOS Apprentice, is designed to teach new developers how to build macOS apps while assuming they have little to no experience with Swift or any other part of the Apple development ecosystem.

Swift Internals

This book is designed for Swift developers who want to go beyond writing working code and understand how the language truly works under the hood.

It explains the mechanics of Swift’s type system, compiler behavior, memory model, and performance characteristics. Readers will also learn advanced topics like unsafe memory operations, metaprogramming, modular architecture, and linking strategies.

The goal is to help developers reason about Swift at the language, compiler, and system levels. It is ideal for Swift engineers who want to write faster, safer, and more scalable apps.

Advanced Git

Master Git!

Chances are if you’re involved with software development you’ve heard of and have used Git at some point in your life. Version control systems are critical for any successful collaborative software project. Git is both simple to start using and accommodating for the most complex tasks with version control. Even seasoned Git users hit roadblocks on how to handle common situations.

Advanced Git is here to help! This book is the easiest and fastest way to get hands-on experience with using Git for version control of your projects.

Take a deep dive into:

How Git actually works: After using Git for a while it’s good to discover the whys behind all of the things. Rebasing: Rebasing and squashing doesn’t have to be scary; it’s quite a useful and advanced way of merging code to support your collaborative workflow. Undoing what you’ve done: Most frustration with Git comes from not being able to undo something that you’ve screwed up. But Git has lots of ways you can go back and recover from a weird merge or commit state. Workflows in Git: Working with Git requires some rules to make sure things go smoothly across development teams. Learn the most common workflows and how to decide which one to use. And more!

One thing you can count on: after reading this book, you’ll be well-prepared to use Git in your own software development workflow!