TL;DR 001
Welcome to the first ever issue of TL;DR. TL;DR is a weekly newsletter where we simply give a TL;DR for some of the best tech articles and blog posts. We cover a wide range of subjects but we try keep a narrow focus and subjective mind when discussing those topics.
APPLE
Apple is said to release a new 9.7" iPad Pro, and a 4" iPhone SE. The iPhone SE will pack similar features to the iPhone 6, yet maintaining a size equivalent to the iPhone 5. The Apple Event will take place at 10am on March 21st, 2016.
http://www.apple.com/apple-events/march-2016/
Apple created a new Twitter handle( @AppleSupport ) just for handling support. Apple posts many tidbits about how to use various Apple products and software. This is accompanied by a shiny new website dedicated to customer support. Its great to see Apple being more open.
SWIFT
Tutorials from Ray Wenderlich are always well written, and easy to follow. In this article Ray walks us through creating an Xcode Playground where he has a build a tiny framework for creating SVG's. He uses only Enums, Stucts, and Classes to construct the framework, giving us great pointers and scenarios in which to use these specific value types.
https://www.raywenderlich.com/119881/enums-structs-and-classes-in-swift
IBM has dedicated tons of resources towards the Swift on Linux effort. They have put together a great looking Swift Package Catalog. You can think of this as a npmjs.com for Swift packages.
https://swiftpkgs.ng.bluemix.net
FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMMING
I've never heard of Tabris.js before this post, but I'm happy I know what it is now. Tabris is a Javascript framework that allows you to write a single Javascript codebase for Android, iOS, and Windows. All of the examples in the Tabris repository are written in an imperative way. The author successfully attempts to rewrite one of the examples in a declarative manner. This is a great resource for understanding the differences in imperative and declarative writing styles.
http://eclipsesource.com/blogs/2016/02/29/tabris-js-declarative-ui-in-100-lines-of-functional-programming
Tyler is actually teaching a React.JS program. This article happens to be snippet of his React.JS Program. Tyler shows us how we can use pure functions within react to make our code even more composable. This falls within the recent trend of UI's becoming more functional and composable. Be sure to checkout Tyler's React.JS Fundamentals as well, a great learning resource for beginners.
http://tylermcginnis.com/building-user-interfaces-with-pure-functions-and-function-composition-in-react-js
The Elm Architecture has fully inspired this Medium blog post. All UI's in Elm are composed using 3 pure functions: init(); update(); view(); The author here tries to directly port these ideas of functional composition over to Javascript using Ramda and Flyd libraries. He uses Ramda for its built in curried functions, and uses Flyd for observables streams. He's able to construct an Elmish architecture in JS, but this is more of a proof of concept rather than a best practice.
https://medium.com/@chetcorcos/elmish-functional-programming-in-javascript-50995f1d4b9e#.xp2lf7lv7
REACT
Bonnie gives us a great general overview of what React Native in as few words as I've ever seen. In short; with React Native you can use a single Javascript codebase to create both Android and iOS applications without comprise of quality or performance. This is a short read, so check it out and try to see if you can get React Native installed and build a "Hello World" app.
http://www.infoq.com/articles/react-native-introduction
https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started.html
This is an article that was much needed. A Step-By-Step method of how to reason with a React-Redux app. This Step-By-Step process is very scientific, in the fact that it focuses to systematically approach all components in a React-Redux app in an identical way. I will certainly reference this article for every React-Redux app I build.
https://medium.com/@rajaraodv/step-by-step-guide-to-building-react-redux-apps-using-mocks-48ca0f47f9a#.765k2m1ay
I love this article. It contains buzzwords like Universal and Isomorphic Javascript, but don't let that deter you from enjoying this piece. The author gives a completely biased list( in good manner ) of core JS libraries you should invest in. The usual suspects are found here including; React, Babel, Redux, and ESLint. He also discusses the go-to testing frameworks you should use. In all this is a great overview of the 2016 JS landscape, and there a lots of great links here so go clicking around.
https://medium.com/javascript-and-opinions/state-of-the-art-javascript-in-2016-ab67fc68eb0b
iOS
A non-traditional approach to the View-Controller life-cycle. A great read.
http://irace.me/lifecycle-behaviors
Marcus gives us a great inside look at how he and his coworkers @Atol are using CloudKit. In short they leverage the power of CKAssets, CKRecords, and CKFetchRecordsOperation to fully optimize the way they handle images.
https://medium.com/frozen-fire-studios/working-with-images-in-cloudkit-1e3579c67558#.b3fdjxubq
DESIGN
Didn't know this was a thing. Brian Lovin from the Design Details podcast has web page dedicated to discuss the "Design Details" of some of Silicons Valleys favorite apps. In the most recent breakdown, Brian explores Stripes dashboard. Enjoy the post is well written and full of awesome GIFS which really help drive Brian's critique.
http://www.brianlovin.com/design-details/stripe-dashboard-for-ios
Sketchapp's online resources seem to get better everytime we turnaround. Sketchapp has put up some fabulous documentation on how to use the app. It goes into to technical and fundamental details to explain each and every tool and feature in Sketch. Check out this detailed documentation in Pixel Precision in Sketch full of images and video to help drive documentation.
http://sketchapp.com/learn/documentation/13-other/5-pixel-precision.html
This is actually not a rant, even though it contains some profanity and a little belittling. It can be seen as a wake up call for Twitter. The author here list 23 different ways Twitter could enhance its service for abuse prevention, and overall giving great tidbits on how Twitter could extend the power and limits of its API. I'll keep it short here but this is a MUST READ.
https://medium.com/art-marketing/putting-out-the-twitter-trashfire-3ac6cb1af3e#.so0dvbwfo
You'll want to bookmark this or save this to your Instapaper after reading. Some great links embedded here and is certainly a piece you can keep going back to when developing and designing your next product. Comprehensive articles of the current landscape will always help you stay up to date with modern the web, but in this case it's all about web typography. There is a ton achieve now with modern browsers and the power of Javascript, and yes; Performance is considered in the post as well.
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/03/meaningful-web-typography