OK, (hopefully) final note on Xcode 15 beta install issues 😛

This was my experience (see previous posts which might explain this a bit more in detail) — I opted to download both Xcode 15 beta and iOS 17 since the option was presented and I thought you had to select the items you needed. Multiple downloads were started but in my case, I didn’t get the necessary Xcode XIP file.

I eventually figured out how to get the XIP, extracted it and ran it and then it prompts me to download and install the simulators … including the iOS 17 simulator I’d already downloaded.

This was annoying and confusing. Why have the iOS 17 download under Xcode downloads if Xcode prompts you for it again? If you simply wanted to provide the simulators as separate downloads, then wouldn’t it have made better sense not to include this with the Xcode download. Very confusing ….

Since I already had the iOS 17 simulator downloaded, I opted not to download and install the simulator. Instead, I ran Xcode, let it complete the first run and then quit Xcode, opened the iOS beta DMG and copied the files to the relevant location (which was /Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Profiles/Runtimes) and then restarted Xcode beta.

It detected the simulator and started verifying it but then says that it can’t verify the simulator because it wasn’t signed (or some similar error). But if I go to Settings in Xcode, it now shows the simulator as being present and installed.

I realize that this is a beta, but Apple used to have release notes which explained things but the Xcode 15 beta is just there with no explanations, and no notes. Some info would have eased the process for those who encounter errors?

#Apple #WWDC2023 #XcodeBeta #GettingItWorking

So … If you (or at least I) try to download Xcode 15 beta and select just iOS 17 beta, I get an xcdownloadmanifest file and the DMG for the iOS 17 simulator. But if I select both the iOS 17 beta and the watchOS 10 beta, then I get the previous items, a download for the watchOS simulator and an Xcode 15 XIP file.

Weird ….

And if I expand the XIP file, it does run on macOS 13.x … So that part appears to be OK. Just not sure why the download itself wouldn’t work for me. Since there are no complaints from others (at least that I could find), I assume it works OK for everybody else. So why me? I have no idea 😛

#Apple #WWDC2023 #XcodeBeta

If you are on macOS 13.x (Ventura) and tried to download the Xcode 15 beta after WWDC, you might have found that it downloads two files — a 105-byte .xcdownloadmanifest file and a 7+GB DMG named iOS_17_beta_simulator_Runtime … but nothing to show you how to install any of it 😛

I assume the DMG (or maybe the number of DMGs downloaded) will vary depending on whether you selected just iOS or if you opted for watchOS and tvOS too … I just wanted iOS.

Looking at the DMG, I realized that that’s just the iOS simulator part as it says on the tin, but where was Xcode?

The xcdownloadmanifest file is just a text file which indicates that the parent file is Xcode_15_beta.xip and that the iOS file is additional assets. But that didn’t help me much since I had no idea how I could get Xcode_15_beta.xip …

The compatibility info for the download says macOS 13.3 or later, but it doesn’t look as if you can download it at the moment, at least not from macOS 13.x … Maybe later? Or is it macOS 14.x only for the time being?

Guess I’ll keep digging till I find the answer or just get tired/bored? 😀

#Apple #WWDC2023 #Xcode #Betas

SwiftData … going through the documentation, it looks like it’s all I’d hoped it would be — automatic migration; the ability to define properties as transient, unique etc.; automatic handling of relationships; the ability to store primitive data types as well as complex data types such as structs or enums as long as they conform to Coddle …

The list just goes on …

I just wish that I could use this in production code now 😛

Also, I’m curious as to what format the final data is stored and if it’s possible to view the stored data, especially for debug purposes … I haven’t seen an answer to these two questions yet, but then again, I haven’t really done enough reading/exploration 🙂

I wish I had more brain power to devote to this, but I’ve only had 4 hours of sleep due to staying up to watch the keynote. So I guess I’ll have to wait till I’m more rested ...

#Coding #WWDC #Swift #SwiftData #Apple

So … I start working on my app which provides multiple timers and Apple finally adds support for multiple timers in the core OS 😛

I also start working on my database engine with CloudKit support for the timer app and Apple announces SwiftData 😀

But seriously, out of all the stuff announced for WWDC so far, SwiftData is what I’m most excited to learn more about …

I’m hoping that it’s going to be a way to add persistence to your apps and also be easy to integrate with CoreData. If that’s the case, I can stop working on my data library and simply switch to SwiftData. Guess we’ll see once I’ve had the chance to do some digging …

#Apple #WWDC #Swift #SwiftData

“Diablo IV” is now available for play and the opening video looks much better than it did in the betas …

Looks as if it’s going to be a busy day what with “Diablo IV” and the new Xcode 15 beta and all the stuff from WWDC that needs to be sifted through 🙂

#Gaming #DiabloIV

Watched the WWDC keynote last night and the Apple AR headset (or Vision Pro) is finally here. But …

My first (and most lasting) impression was one of loneliness.

A father watching videos of his kids, but there’s no family around, he’s all alone.

A woman watching movies on a huge screen but she’s sitting all alone in a darkened room.

Even the woman using the headset and having somebody come by seems to be so isolated from everything.

I’m sure this is not what Apple intended, but that’s the lasting impression I got.

I went in hoping that Apple would show something that people could share. Where people can consume entertainment together and just share in the joy of doing things together. But that didn’t seem to be what they were aiming for — at least, not with this iteration.

Given the price tag, and the barriers to entry, I think I’ll stick with the Meta Quest 3 for the time being. At least, it’s one seventh the price of Vision Pro 😛 Maybe in a couple of years, things will be different?

#Apple #VisionPro #AppleHeadset #Meta #Quest #Impressions

@jefframes I’m not sure it actually caters to people who can afford multiple devices either 🙂 I want to write about this in more detail later (just woke up and gathering my thoughts) but the whole demo felt like a lonely experience …

There was nothing about people using the device together — it was all about just consuming stuff all on your own or connecting to remote people.

@jefframes Sorry to hear that 😕 Hope things ease up for you soon so that you can play around with stuff ….

@jefframes I know how you feel to an extent (but my work is generally good about WWDC and they understand that if I want to binge WWDC videos during work hours, that’s part of work 🙂) …

What I generally do is start a weekend project where I can play around with the new stuff and don’t have to worry bout backward compatibility … Of course, my computer is littered with the skeletons of such projects. Only a few make it — even as personal apps that I or my wife use 😛

@glennf @the_other_jon @davemark @HitokiriEric To me personally, the Apple headset would be very useful but I do agree I might be in the niche category for the use case 🙂

I spend most of my day, every day, in front of screens. So I want as large a screen as possible whether it is for work, gaming, or entertainment. The added possibility of being able to have vision correction built-in is a bonus! So I’ve been waiting for these for years (and have been trying most other solutions too …)

Plus, we move/travel a lot and so a tiny form factor device which gives me a huge screen again works for my own use-cases.

The only area that I’m not sure about is shared media/entertainment consumption. My wife and I watch/play everything together. Will Apple cater to this via SharePlay or something similar? Or are we going to be in our own little bubbles even with the Apple headset?

As far as I’m concerned, that would be the factor which decides whether the headset takes off or not.

Hi. I was a recent casualty of the Disney layoffs. I’m looking to get back on my feet as fast as possible. If you know of anywhere that’s hiring, I’d be very grateful if you could point me in that direction. Thank you!

@mjgardner LOL. Yeah, I remember when they released SpriteKit and a new renaissance in gaming was expected. But after a couple of years, I don’t know if people even remember SpriteKit …

It did have some cool features (and a lot borrowed from cocos2D) but I don’t think I ever used it …

Maybe this time’s the charm? 😀

@AngelaPreston Yep, you did 🙂 I think we have it on PlayStation haven’t played it yet. Just need to find some time 😛

And on the other side of the fence (from Meta), Apple seems to have suddenly discovered that gaming exists 😛

“No Man’s Sky” released for Mac yesterday and an announcement of “Stray” coming to the Mac next …

Hmm … anybody think that all this might have something to do with the AR headset and a push towards gaming on it in a major way?

#AR #Apple #Gaming #Announcements

So it appears that Meta is taking the as yet un-announced Apple AR headset as serious competition … Announcement of Quest 3 yesterday and a slew of new games for the Quest — and some of them might actually get me to try VR gaming 🙂

I’ve mostly been interested in the work aspect of VR — like having a huge monitor I can code on, but now I might be tempted by “Asgard’s Wrath 2” …

I guess I’ll have to see what Apple has on offer before making a decision? 😛

#AR #Headsets #Meta #Apple #VRGaming

@sids Thank you 🙂 Will take a look …

Given how rich the navigation patterns are in UIKit, I do hope that we get some love this year for navigation. Let’s wait and hope I guess?

@jefframes I’ll just say that I’m curious 🙂 I’ve been waiting for this for years, but I have no idea as to the business side of things. I just hope it works well enough for it to do what I want it to do and that it gains enough marketshare to stay around doing it … 😛

I tried to explain the issues I was having with the current SwiftUI navigation options yesterday, but I don’t think I did a good job 🙂 So here’s a second stab at it …

Basically, my understanding is that the only out-of-the-box way to show new views is to either use a NavigationLink or a sheet. I had a List where I wanted the user clicking on the list cell to take them to one view and the user clicking on a button within the list view to take them to another view. (See screenshot #1). This was fairly easy to do in UIKit.

But when I use NavigationLinks for both items, they automatically add these disclosure indicators and doubles them for two NavigationLinks (yes, I know you can hide them with some jugglery, but you shouldn’t need to do that). Worse still, you still get taken to only one view no matter where you click 😛

Fine, so two NavigationLinks in the same cell won’t work. So let’s try making one of them (the button) show a sheet instead. That should work, right?

And this does indeed work. (See screenshot #2).

So all is well? Well kinda … First, I shouldn’t need to show a sheet when I don’t want to. If I want to push a new view in, then I should be able to do so, right?

But leaving that quibble aside, let’s say I want my cell to have a distinctive look. Like in screenshot #3. But now I have the disclosure indicator outside my content cell. And that really doesn’t look good to me …

Oh, but you can put the NavigationLink and the cell content in a ZStack to control that, you say? Sure, but then things look like screenshot #4 😛 Sure, with some more tweaking I can probably get things working right but shouldn’t this be easier?

Also, do note that you can set the opacity of the NavigationLink to 0 and hide the disclosure indicator altogether and yet have the NavigationLink work. And that’s what I did in my app, but in that app, setting things up this way wouldn’t work for the two separate views. Tapping on the button would launch both the detail view and the other view.

But it works correctly here. So I think I must have gotten something subtle wrong in the other implementation.

However, if you want to avoid all these hassles, you might want to try out this package:

https://github.com/DoubleSymmetry/XNavigation

It let me do view navigation the way I wanted to, instead of having to use sheets when I didn’t want to use sheets 😛

If you have a better way to do what I was trying to do, please do let me know. I’m always eager to learn 🙂

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated to the developer of the package in any way. I just liked how it made navigation so much easier … at least for the use cases I had.

#iOS #SwiftUI #Coding #Navigation #Apple
Screenshot #1. Trying to use tw…
Screenshot #2. The button/image…
Screenshot #3. Adding a backgro…
Screenshot #4. The disclosure i…

@danhalliday Thanks, will give that a try and see if that helps 🙂

The issue that I ran into (which I probably didn’t explain properly in the previous post) was that I had a List cell which was enclosed in a NavigationLink but which also had a sub item in the cell with a different NavigationLink. Putting two NavigationLinks for the same list item didn’t appear to be supported … but I must confess that I didn’t dig too deep since I just wanted to get on with the project I was working on 😛

I did try using a sheet with the sub-item too and that would just do both navigations at once. But again, it might have been a bug and it is possible SwiftUI works as intended. I did intend to write a new post about this issue later today anyway and now you’ve actually motivated me to make sure that happens and maybe do a bit of digging into this issue too.

So thank you for that … I think 😛