I’ve begun work on the Swift TinyDB library. It’s a part-time project so I’m not making a lot of progress, but I’ve made some. I’ve gotten my library to create a database and read my reference databases. This was simple to do since TinyDB databases are JSON. The hard part is yet to come. I’ll have to mimic the TinyDB calls in Swift and provide the appropriate functionality and metadata of the database.

Being a library, there is no UI, but I’m working on my MicroProjects app in parallel since it uses the library. In addition, to standard XCT tests, the app is a nice test-bed.

I’m using the beta version of Xcode that was released at WWDC. Although, it’s still a monolith, Xcode seems better. The code completion is nice, and I’m really liking the new SwiftDocC documentation preview. I’ve never used DocC, but this seemed like a good year to start using it. It’s well implemented and works. One feature I’d love to have is the ability to build the documentation as an ePub so you could SwiftDocC to write standalone manuals. I looked at the output documentation and it’s just a folder/FileWrapper with a lot of HTML, CSS, and JSON files. So writing a utility to convert it to an ePub is doable. I just don’t have the time. If you’re up to it, go for it.

The improvements in Xcode’s git integration are welcome, but it’s still not as full-featured as Tower. For quick commits and such, it’s good enough.

One thing I don’t like about this version of Xcode is the auto-indentation, especially when creating documentation. It seems unintuitive, and seems to mix tabs with spaces. I haven’t researched it enough, I guess.

I’ve only scratched the surface of this Xcode beta. I still hate that it’s a single conglomeration of a program. I don’t really understand why Apple doesn’t allow plug-ins. I’ve said this before. Xcode should be a product suite.

At some level, it probably has to do with security or the integrity of the application. But Apple is a smart company. They could solve whatever problems they may see.