The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC)
The Worldwide Developers Conference, better known as WWDC, is the annual event where Apple announces its major releases and software changes that affect how we, as Swift developers, work within its ecosystem.
In a way, it’s like Christmas for Swift development – WWDC sets the tone for the following 12 months, what it wants us to focus on, and let us know what Apple thinks is most valuable for the billion or so users of its products.
Apple tends to run the conference with the assumption that everyone attending is up to date on where its software is right now. Watching the WWDC talks is often the only way to understand how the newest things work or even how to make them work.
If you’re new to Apple and Swift development, it can be overwhelming with the enormous amount of information delivered over a week.
How to WWDC with Peter Witham
Peter comes on to discuss how to prepare for WWDC, what to really do that week, and what to focus on during the summer.
Back Up Everything
If you plan to try out beta OS versions or anything new with Xcode on your Mac, it is worth going to the trouble of cloning your drives to an external and ensuring you can boot from it before trying anything.
The approach of WWDC each year should signal all Swift developers to back up everything on all their machines if they haven’t already.
There will be interesting and potentially exciting things you can try out that are still in some kind of pre-release state. On the one hand, it’s an opportunity for developers to help Apple identify and fix quality and usability issues, but they historically also contain errors that can render other software on your machine unusable – or it might outright delete all your data.
Don’t Install Betas On Your iPhone or Apple Watch
If you plan on installing a beta OS on any machine, especially iPhones and Watches, be prepared for that device to become useless.
During WWDC, iOS betas are likely to be very unstable, with major bugs. While it’s possible to opt out and roll back a particularly buggy beta, it is time-consuming to go through the process.
Make a Viewing List
There’s usually so much that comes out during WWDC that it’s unrealistic to dive deep into everything. Instead, it is time to clear your WWDC bookmarks in the Apple Developer app and decide what is most important or exciting for you. It is worth it to be picky about what you watch or listen to.
As a general rule, when it comes to deciding what talks you should listen to, use the following criteria:
- What you’re interested in
- Things that your current apps could use
- Features that you think you can build on top of
Resources to keep up to date and connect with the Swift development community
There are a ton of good resources available for Swift and iOS developers looking to prepare themselves for WWDC:
Lastly, Pace Yourself
WWDC is a week-long conference that marks the beginning of the next year of development in the Apple development community. You don’t have to be completely prepared, even on the day the conference starts. And pacing yourself applies equally if you are lucky to attend WWDC live or watch it all remotely.
What’s more, everything is recorded, so everything will be around for a while. The best advice is to take in the conference in a way that is best for the way you like to learn, whether that’s to sit and watch or immediately crack open Xcode and start playing around with things.