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Building Apps In Swift With Storyboards

Posted by samzenpus on from the build-it-better dept.

Nerval's Lobster writes Apple touts the Swift programming language as easy to use, thanks in large part to features such as Interface Builder, a visual designer provided in Xcode that allows a developer to visually design storyboards. In theory, this simplifies the process of designing both screens and the connections between screens, as it needs no code and offers an easy-to-read visual map of an app's navigation. But is Swift really so easy (or at least as easy as anything else in a developer's workflow)? This new walkthrough of Interface Builder (via Dice) shows that it's indeed simple to build an app with these custom tools... so long as the app itself is simple. Development novices who were hoping that Apple had created a way to build complex apps with a limited amount of actual coding might have to spend a bit more time learning the basics before embarking on the big project of their dreams.

2 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I WANT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative


    int main(int argc, const char* argv[])
    {
            CreateGameThatIsSortOfLikeAngryBirdsAndMakeMeMillionsOfDollarsOvernight();
            return 0;
    }

    FTFY

  2. They are right to say storyboard ... by perpenso · · Score: 4, Informative

    "Storyboards" are Apple's name for a user interface layout tool, its not a logic flow tool so it is not really like flowcharts. A storyboard is basically a view pane where you layout the visual elements and controls, and define some constraints involved in repositioning and resizing for different resolutions. There is very limited flow control. Things like clicking on this button brings up a different storyboard.

    In short storyboards let you mock up a user interface, including one view launching a different view. If you are nostalgic for the 90s think back to Microsoft's Visual Studio GUI layout and glue code generation tools. Its pretty much the same sort of stuff.