Learn Swift and SwiftUI in my old age?

Last year, at age 73, I decided to switch my hobby programming to Swift/SwiftUI from XOJO. I waited for SwiftUI to mature as UIKit made my eyes glaze over. After about 6 months of grinding, I successfully converted one of my XOJO apps. I now know there's a few things I did sub-optimally, so I'm continuing to learn. Jump in, the water's fine.

find it pleasing/beneficial/productive to learn Swift/SwiftUI?

Let’s break that down:

• Pleasing That’s very much gonna depend on you.
• Beneficial Yes. Regardless of any other factors, there’s solid evidence that learning new stuff is beneficial, especially as you get older.
• Productive That kinda depends on what you intend to produce (-:

As someone who’s not exactly young myself, I’ve started to understand that the time I have left is limited, and that I need to focus on what I enjoy. I absolutely love playing around with computers, so if and when I retire there’s no doubt I’ll continue doing that.

Keep in mind that there’s a middle ground, namely using Swift to call the frameworks you already know. If you get pleasure from shipping stuff, that might be a good first step, rather than wrestling with Swift and SwiftUI at the same time.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

I used to build desktop applications with Xojo. Those days, it was called RealBasic. There was a German vendor who tried to sell his add-on packages. Even after you say no, he comes back and try to sell one after a while. Since it didn't support iOS development, I eventually switched to Xcode.

They eventually added iOS Support and I used it for a bunch of apps. But the UIKit based system made it harder and harder to achieve a modern UI. Lots of limitations. So it was time to go.

Keep in mind that there’s a middle ground, namely using Swift to call the frameworks you already know.

Thanks, this is the route I’m taking.

I'm four years older than you. I have dabbled in programming as an adjunct to my oil industry job for many years. I have tried to learn programming in the Apple environment for many years and always given up. Anyone remember Think C?

You are obviously well ahead of me - I gave up and disgust trying to program for iOS.

That is until a week or so ago when I decided to give Claude a try.

Within two days, I had a functional iOS app that is related to my old oil industry job. I have subsequently been tweaking it* and I'm thinking about getting it onto the App Store and selling it.

I cannot believe how much I have achieved. The actual code is way beyond my skill level and is practically incomprehensible, but that doesn't matter because for any changes or bug fixes, I describe what I want to Claude and it is done for me.

I am truly astonished.

• The main tweak I have left is allowing the user to select "US Customary Units" rather than "SI Units." I don't want to cut myself off from a very large part of my potential market! :)