Highlight: Swift2D

The swift language continues to impress me as it grows. GitHub is full of projects direct from Apple and others that add many features that speed up development on new and old projects alike. (Swift Argument Parser, Swift Algorithms, AsyncHTTPClient just to name a few.)

The swift language continues to impress me as it grows. GitHub is full of projects direct from Apple and others that add many features that speed up development on new and old projects alike. (Swift Argument Parser, Swift Algorithms, AsyncHTTPClient just to name a few.)

One thing that I’ve found myself having to do when writing cross-platform swift code is to use compiler definitions to do conditional imports for some data structures: for instance CGRect, CGPoint, and CGSize. These three are all a part of CoreGraphics which is made available through UIKit & SwiftUI when on Apple/Darwin systems. But they are a part of Foundation on Linux. This leads to having extra logic at the top of many source files:

#if canImport(UIKit) // or canImport(ObjectiveC), or os() checks
import UIKit // or CoreGraphics, or SwiftUI
#else
import Foundation
#endif

Wouldn’t it be nice if those structures where a part of the core language itself, just like String or Int? Yes, it would… but then you start wander off the path of what would be considered core to the language. The next best thing is to at least have a way to provide these relatively simple, low-level data structures without needing to do the import check.

This is where Swift2D comes in. It’s a re-implementation of the data structures Rect, Point, and Size, but it’s only using primitive swift types, so there is no need to determine system compatibility when using it! It’s not as complete as the Foundation/CoreGraphics implementations, but it has the features most needed.

Give it a try in your next project, and if you find something missing, feel free to submit a pull request. Community feedback and support helps us all!

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