This weekend I had big plans to get lots of stuff done and learn how to do many things, but I decided to get sick and slowly die instead... So I didn't get much done.
However, after I started to feel better (Tuesday) it was a snow day, so there was time to really start looking into Swift! The more I looked into it, the more interesting it became. Swift really provides the extent of the cool abilities to iOS apps, because it is real code behind every element on the screen.
But it's confusing...
Let me explain my process of learning: First I simply made a normal app like I've done to just make apps with XCode without messing with the code in the background, but it turns out you need to turn on two specific settings before even creating the project. So, after using all of the correct settings, I made a simple app and added a label, text box, and a button to the screen. My idea was to learn how to transfer data between these three different elements.
The next thing I was able to do was access the background code in the .swift file, and insert the different elements of the app (label, text box, button) into the actual code. I simply declared the label and text box as their own entities, but I made the button an 'action pusher' so it can have it's own code inside of it, meaning that pressing the button can set off code to do an action within the app, in this case making the label read out whatever the user typed into the text box.
I also learned how to make the app execute code when it loads or switches between pages, so I could update different pages pretty much whenever I want to. Not sure what I'll do with this ability, but I'm sure there are some pretty cool functions that could be put there that could really make an app amazing.
I know all of this doesn't seem very interesting, but the implication behind it are really cool to me. It shows me that I finally have the ability to actually do something useful in an app, and that pretty much validates my whole reason for wanting to learn to make iOS apps in the first place.
PS:
Next weekend is another robotics competition, so I almost guarantee that I'll get nothing done in regards to the project. Hopefully I'll be able to learn even more functions in Swift before/after that, but there isn't much time to learn new functions before I start making my final app for the project.
I'm also still taking recommendations for app ideas if anyone has one :)
