▶Book Description
Protocol-oriented programming is an incredibly powerful concept at the heart of Swift's design. Swift's standard library was developed using POP techniques, generics, and first-class value semantics; therefore, it is important for every Swift developer to understand these core concepts and take advantage of them. The fourth edition of this book is improved and updated to the latest version of the Swift programming language.
This book will help you understand what protocol-oriented programming is all about and how it is different from other programming paradigms such as object-oriented programming. This book covers topics such as generics, Copy-On-Write, extensions, and of course protocols. It also demonstrates how to use protocol-oriented programming techniques via real-world use cases.
By the end of this book, you will know how to use protocol-oriented programming techniques to build powerful and practical applications.
▶What You Will Learn
- Learn the differences between object-oriented programming and protocol-oriented programming
- Understand why value types should be prioritized over reference types
- Delve into protocols, protocol inheritance, protocol composition, and protocol extensions
- Learn how to implement COW (Copy-On-Write) within your custom value types
- Understand how memory management works in Swift and how to avoid common pitfalls
- Design applications by starting with the protocol rather than the implementation
▶Key Features
- Leverage the power of Protocol-Oriented Programming in your applications
- Leverage generics to create very flexible frameworks
- Learn how to implement common design patterns in a protocol-oriented way
▶Who This Book Is For
This book is intended for Swift developers who have, at minimum an introductory knowledge of the Swift programming language and would like to understand how they can use Protocol-Oriented Programming techniques in their applications.
▶What this book covers
- Chapter 1, Starting with the Protocol, looks at what protocols are and how they are used in the Swift programming language. We will also examine how protocols can be used to write very flexible and reusable code.
- Chapter 2, Our Type Choices, discusses the different types that Swift offers (structs, classes, enums, and tuples). We will look at several examples of when to use the various types and when not to.
- Chapter 3, Extensions, looks at how extensions and protocol extensions are used with the Swift programming language. We will look at examples of how extensions can be used with protocol-oriented programming.
- Chapter 4, Generics, shows how powerful generics are. Apple has stated that Generics are one of the most powerful features of Swift. We will look at how to use Generics to make very flexible types, and also how to implement the Copy-on-Write (COW) feature for our custom types.
- Chapter 5, Memory Management, looks at how Swift manages memory with Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) and how strong reference cycles can cause ARC to fail. We also look at how to use weak and unowned references.
- Chapter 6, Object-Oriented Programming, examines how we would develop characters for a video game if we were taking an object-oriented approach. In order to really appreciate the ideas behind protocol-oriented programming, we need to understand the problems it is designed to solve. We will then look at the drawbacks with this design.
- Chapter 7, Protocol-Oriented Programming, develops the same video game characters from Chapter 5, Memory Management, but this time we will take a protocol-oriented approach to the design. We will then compare the object-oriented approach and the protocol-oriented approach to see the advantages that the protocol-oriented approach offers.
- Chapter 8, Adopting Design Patterns in Swift, looks at implementing several design patterns using protocol-oriented programming. For each of the design patterns, we will look at the problem they are designed to solve and how to implement the pattern.
- Chapter 9, Case Studies, explores two case studies. This chapter is designed to pull everything from the first six chapters together to show you how to use protocol-oriented programming in real-world situations.
