modern-swift

Modern Swift Development

Write idiomatic SwiftUI code following Apple's latest architectural recommendations and best practices.

Core Philosophy

• SwiftUI is the default UI paradigm for Apple platforms - embrace its declarative nature
• Avoid legacy UIKit patterns and unnecessary abstractions
• Focus on simplicity, clarity, and native data flow
• Let SwiftUI handle the complexity - don't fight the framework

Architecture Guidelines

1. Embrace Native State Management

Use SwiftUI's built-in property wrappers appropriately:

• @State - Local, ephemeral view state
• @Binding - Two-way data flow between views
• @Observable - Shared state (iOS 17+)
• @ObservableObject - Legacy shared state (pre-iOS 17)
• @Environment - Dependency injection for app-wide concerns

2. State Ownership Principles

• Views own their local state unless sharing is required
• State flows down, actions flow up
• Keep state as close to where it's used as possible
• Extract shared state only when multiple views need it

3. Modern Async Patterns

• Use async/await as the default for asynchronous operations
• Leverage .task modifier for lifecycle-aware async work
• Avoid Combine unless absolutely necessary
• Handle errors gracefully with try/catch

4. View Composition

• Build UI with small, focused views
• Extract reusable components naturally
• Use view modifiers to encapsulate common styling
• Prefer composition over inheritance

5. Code Organization

• Organize by feature, not by type (avoid Views/, Models/, ViewModels/ folders)
• Keep related code together in the same file when appropriate
• Use extensions to organize large files
• Follow Swift naming conventions consistently

Implementation Patterns

Simple State Example

struct CounterView: View {
    @State private var count = 0
    
    var body: some View {
        VStack {
            Text("Count: \(count)")
            Button("Increment") { 
                count += 1 
            }
        }
    }
}