SwiftUI After 7 Years: A Story of Mediocrity

2 hours ago

Seven years after its 2019 announcement, SwiftUI remains in a perpetual beta state with unresolved layout and performance issues.
Senior engineers face growing frustration due to SwiftUI's unpredictable data flow, lack of backward compatibility, and reliance on workarounds.
Apple's own SwiftUI tutorial demo is broken, and a head-to-head comparison shows UIKit outperforms SwiftUI in performance.
SwiftUI's layout system is fragile, often requiring GeometryReader and manual coordinate calculations, undermining its declarative promise.
API instability and version gating force developers to maintain multiple implementations, increasing complexity.
SwiftUI's cross-platform promise fails to deliver native-feeling UIs, especially on macOS vs iOS.
A cultural shift at Apple from craftsmanship to 'good enough' products is reflected in SwiftUI and other system apps, lowering quality standards.

iOS 27 beta introduced a crash in NetNewsWire caused by a broken transition between split view and compact mode.
Crashes are most frequent on Pro Max devices and iPads, as reported in TestFlight feedback involving phone rotation.
The developer expresses frustration over constant iOS changes that force unnecessary work instead of improvements.

Companies often lose their vision as they grow, adding layers of management that stifle creative passion, as Steve Jobs noted.
Apple's macOS has lost a clear, cohesive vision, unlike iPadOS and iOS, which still have strong guiding principles.
The macOS Tahoe release shows a struggle between good engineering (e.g., clipboard manager, Spotlight improvements) and poor visual design (e.g., oversized UI elements, confusing notifications, forced iOS features).

Tailwind requires learning dozens of utility classes, slowing initial development.
It breaks the separation of structure and design, bloating HTML and reducing readability.
Class naming is inconsistent, causing confusion (e.g., items-center vs justify-center).

Apple's App Store is experiencing high submission volume due to 'vibe coding', causing delays in app review, even for major apps like X.
Non-game apps have surpassed games as the top revenue source on the App Store for the first time, likely due to easier CRUD app development.
The app review team often uses automated rejection messages with minimal detail, making it hard for developers to communicate their perspective.

Building a great smartwatch experience on iPhone is much harder than on Android, and the situation has worsened over 8 years.
Third-party smartwatches cannot send text messages, reply to notifications, or perform actions like dismissing or muting on iOS.
iOS lacks interprocess communication (IPC) like Android, forcing clunky SDK solutions that other apps dislike.

iOS 27 beta introduced a crash in NetNewsWire caused by a broken transition between split view and compact mode.
Crashes are most frequent on Pro Max devices and iPads, as reported in TestFlight feedback involving phone rotation.
The developer expresses frustration over constant iOS changes that force unnecessary work instead of improvements.

Companies often lose their vision as they grow, adding layers of management that stifle creative passion, as Steve Jobs noted.
Apple's macOS has lost a clear, cohesive vision, unlike iPadOS and iOS, which still have strong guiding principles.
The macOS Tahoe release shows a struggle between good engineering (e.g., clipboard manager, Spotlight improvements) and poor visual design (e.g., oversized UI elements, confusing notifications, forced iOS features).

Tailwind requires learning dozens of utility classes, slowing initial development.
It breaks the separation of structure and design, bloating HTML and reducing readability.
Class naming is inconsistent, causing confusion (e.g., items-center vs justify-center).

Apple's App Store is experiencing high submission volume due to 'vibe coding', causing delays in app review, even for major apps like X.
Non-game apps have surpassed games as the top revenue source on the App Store for the first time, likely due to easier CRUD app development.
The app review team often uses automated rejection messages with minimal detail, making it hard for developers to communicate their perspective.

Building a great smartwatch experience on iPhone is much harder than on Android, and the situation has worsened over 8 years.
Third-party smartwatches cannot send text messages, reply to notifications, or perform actions like dismissing or muting on iOS.
iOS lacks interprocess communication (IPC) like Android, forcing clunky SDK solutions that other apps dislike.

Hasty Briefsbeta