Swift Support

It's new, it's trendy, it's the latest thing: Swift support in WhirlyGlobe-Maply!

	func createLayer(baseView: MaplyBaseViewController) -> (MaplyQuadImageTilesLayer) {
	let precipTileSource = MaplyMultiplexTileSource(sources: tileSources)
	// Create a precipitation layer that animates
	let precipLayer = MaplyQuadImageTilesLayer(tileSource: precipTileSource!)
	precipLayer?.imageDepth = UInt32(tileSources.count)
	precipLayer?.animationPeriod = 1.0
	precipLayer?.imageFormat = MaplyQuadImageFormat.ImageUByteRed
	precipLayer?.numSimultaneousFetches = 4
	precipLayer?.handleEdges = false
	precipLayer?.coverPoles = false
	precipLayer?.shaderProgramName = WeatherShader.setupWeatherShader(baseView)
	precipLayer?.fade = 0.5
	return precipLayer!
	}

view raw RandomExample.swift hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Swift has been in there since 2.4.1 (soon 2.5), but we haven't really pointed it out.

Why Swift?

I'm not the audience for Swift.  My favorite language is a mixture of C++ and Objective-C.  You get STL containers, blocks, and ARC.  It's awesome.  Why are you backing away?  Let me tell you more!

This is why I work with other humans.  José was quite interested in Swift and did the bulk of the work.

Swift Interfaces & Documentation

The main issue was Swift bindings for all the various methods.  Swift can interface to Objective-C just fine, but if you want to make it pleasant, it should look like this.

	/** @brief Interpolate a new state between the given states A and B.
	@details This does a simple interpolation (lat/lon, not great circle) between the two animation states.
	*/
	+ (nonnull WhirlyGlobeViewControllerAnimationState *)Interpolate:(double)t from:(WhirlyGlobeViewControllerAnimationState *__nonnull)stateA to:(WhirlyGlobeViewControllerAnimationState *__nonnull)stateB;

view raw HeaderExample.swift hosted with ❤ by GitHub

He did that everywhere and tested it out.  The result is a nice, pleasant Swift interface to the main library.  But we didn't stop there.

Feel the learning!

The tutorials have tabs for Objective-C and Swift!

Swift Tests

In the new AutoTester app (post forthcoming) José wrote a bunch of Swift test cases.  These have a pleasing rhythm to them.

	func insertClusteredMarkers(compB : NSArray, theBaseView: MaplyBaseViewController) {
	let size = CGSizeMake(32, 32)
	let image = UIImage (named: "alcohol-shop-24@2x")
	var markers = [MaplyScreenMarker]()
	for object in compB {
	let marker = MaplyScreenMarker()
	marker.image = image
	marker.loc = (object as! MaplyVectorObject).center()
	marker.size = size
	marker.userObject = object.userObject
	markers.append(marker)
	}
	theBaseView.addScreenMarkers(markers, desc: [kMaplyClusterGroup: 0], mode: MaplyThreadMode.Current)
	}

view raw AutoTesterExample.swift hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Swift-ly into the Future

We're getting user submitted github Issues in Swift now.  Not about Swift mind you, just in Swift.  So that seems to be working.

As Apple changes the language we'll keep up and I think a few new WhirlyGlobe-Maply apps may be written in Swift.