Author: patmcg

Software Dev

Swift Sourcery

patmcgLeave a comment

Meta-programming for Swift, stop writing boilerplate code

👉 Sourcery

I haven’t tried this yet, but it sounds interesting if you find yourself writing repetitive code and can’t find another way around it. I gather it generates code from some sort of template.

Sourcery is a code generator for Swift language, built on top of Apple’s own SourceKit. It extends the language abstractions to allow you to generate boilerplate code automatically.

Software Dev

Detecting Changes to Network Access on iOS 12+

patmcgLeave a comment

Holy crap, there’s finally a dedicated iOS API (NWPathMonitor) that detects and monitors network status!

👉 Detecting Internet Access on iOS 12+

We’ve been dealing with or avoiding the problem of network connectivity on iOS apps for years. Now you can monitor the network status with a callback sort of like you would with location or other services. And you can specify wi-fi or cellular.

I’m glad this finally made it to the to of Apple’s backlog! 👍

The World

Roadmap to Alpha Centauri

Featured patmcgLeave a comment

With the Voyager space sailing beyond out solar system, this article looks at some ways we could send people to Alpha Centauri.

👉 Roadmap to Alpha Centauri

This article is a complete mindmelt 🤯: ion drives, solar sails, nuclear rockets,  foraging for dark matter.

I don’t really understand this stuff, but I do like the idea that people could potentially fly around the universe and find a new home. Especially considering the black holes out there.