Mastering Swift

Mastering Swift is aimed at readers who want to build apps for iOS. The text explains why demand for Apple app development keeps growing and why companies look for developers with these skills. It presents the style of Apple's Swift standard library and draws on practical feedback gathered from several Swift projects. The author treats the book as a living resource that changes along with the language.

Before moving into advanced material, the book gives a basic overview of Swift as a high-level language for complex iOS applications that serve a range of social and business needs. Because its syntax resembles Objective-C, the text suggests it is approachable for newcomers while still suited to demanding apps. Swift runs on the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, MacBook and Apple TV, so developers can build scalable apps for each of these platforms.

The author highlights features that set Swift apart, including the smaller amount of code needed to enable functionality, which can shorten development cycles and conserve resources. Support for dynamic libraries, which are executable units of code that can be linked into an application, allows Swift apps to work with newer versions of the language. Swift was deliberately released as open source so the community could contribute and help it mature, and its use has extended to server-side work and web frameworks. The book is intended for both beginners and experienced learners who plan to develop iOS apps in Swift. It is part of the Mastering series and aims to cover the essential aspects of the language.