Swift Playgrounds is a visual development environment for Swift created by Apple Inc.
Here, young coders write a program to guide Byte, Hopper and Blu (and Expert in Part 2) to complete a task such as collecting a gem or toggling a switch. The first level is rather easy and simple, needing just several “moveForward()” and a “collectGem()” code at the end. Later levels are more advanced and complex, introducing more things like functions, loops and conditions. Eventually, it’ll reach the point where inexperienced players cannot solve very difficult and complex levels.
Product history[]
Promotional image of a Swift Playgrounds tutorial on an iPad.
The original OS X version of Playgrounds was launched by Apple as an integrated part of Xcode on June 2, 2014, during the 2014 Worldwide Developers Conference.[1][2]
On June 13, 2016 at the 2016 Worldwide Developers Conference, a dedicated version for iPad (Swift Playgrounds for iPad) was announced. Targeted at young students starting to learn code, it was released in September 2016.
In February 2020, a stand-alone version of Swift Playgrounds was launched for macOS Catalina. This version is detached from Xcode, and mimics the iPad version.[3] The 2020 Worldwide Developers Conference introduced the first Swift Student Challenge, with finalists to be announced on June 16, 2020.[4]
Version history[]
| Date | Version | Swift | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-06-02 | Preliminary OS X version for developers, included with Xcode. | ||
| 2016-06-13 | Apple announces Swift Playgrounds for iPad; beta version for developers is released. | ||
| 2016-07 | Public beta release. | ||
| 2016-09 | 1.0 | First official release. | |
| 2016-11-17 | 1.1 | 3.0.1 | Requires iOS 10.1 for music support. |
| 2017-03-21 | 1.2 | 3.1 | Language support for Simplified Chinese, Japanese, French, German and Latin American Spanish; support for MapKit framework. |
| 2017-06-05 | 1.5 | Ability to write code to control robots and drones (Lego Mindstorms EV3, Parrot, Sphero, etc.)[5][6] | |
| 2017-09-19 | 1.6 | 4.0 | Support for ARKit (Augmented Reality); access to camera. |
| 2018-01-24 | 2.0 | 4.0.2 | Subscriptions for third-party playgrounds made available.[7] |
| 2018-04-30 | 2.1 | 4.1 | Support for the iOS 11.3 SDK. |
| 2018-11-12 | 2.2 | 4.2 | Support for the iOS 12 SDK. |
| 2019-05-14 | 3.0 | 5.0 | Shared Swift files. |
| 2019-10-01 | 3.1 | 5.1 | SwiftUI framework included. |
| 2020-04-02 | 3.3 | Supports the new cursor feature in iPadOS; performance improvements and additional bug fixes. |
References[]
- ↑ Keynote - WWDC 2014 - Videos (en).
- ↑ Apple's new Swift language explained: A clever move to boost iOS, while holding Android apps back - ExtremeTech.
- ↑ Lyles, Taylor (2020-02-12). Apple’s free learn-to-code Swift Playgrounds sandbox arrives on Mac (en).
- ↑ Apple reveals lineup for its biggest-ever Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple Inc. 2020-06-11.
- ↑ Apple's new Swift Playgrounds 1.5 includes controls for robots and drones (en) (June 1, 2017).
- ↑ Owen, Malcolm. Swift Playgrounds could help users build controllable robots in coding lessons (en).
- ↑ Apple releases Swift Playgrounds 2.0 with playground subscription options, more (en).
External links[]
- Swift Playgrounds at Apple
- Swift Playgrounds at the Apple App Store
- Swift Playgrounds: Release Notes at Apple Developer
- Swift Playgrounds: Support
- Swift Playgrounds at Wikipedia
