Book Image

Mastering Swift 3 - Linux

By : Jon Hoffman
Book Image

Mastering Swift 3 - Linux

By: Jon Hoffman

Overview of this book

Swift is a modern, fast, and safe programming language created by Apple. Writing Swift is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and the code runs lightning-fast. Swift’s move to open source has been embraced with open arms and has seen increased adoption in the Linux platform. Our book will introduce you to the Swift language, further delving into all the key concepts you need to create applications for desktop, server, and embedded Linux platforms. We will teach you the best practices to design an application with Swift 3 via design patterns and Protocol-Oriented Programming. Further on, you will learn how to catch and respond to errors within your application. When you have gained a strong knowledge of using Swift in Linux, we’ll show you how to build IoT and robotic projects using Swift on single board computers. By the end of the book, you will have a solid understanding of the Swift Language with Linux and will be able to create your own applications with ease.
Table of Contents (24 chapters)
Mastering Swift 3 - Linux
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
2
Learning About Variables, Constants, Strings, and Operators

Constants and variables


Constants and variables associate an identifier (such as myName or currentTemperature) with a value of a particular type (such as String or Int), where the identifier can be used to retrieve and set the value. The difference between a constant and variable is that a variable can be updated or changed, whereas a constant cannot be changed once a value is assigned to it.

Constants are good for defining values that you know will never change, such as the freezing temperature of water or the speed of light. Constants are also good for defining a value that we use many times throughout our application, such as a standard font size or a character limit in a buffer. There will be numerous examples of constants throughout this book.

Variables tend to be more common in software development than constants; however, this is mainly because developers tend to prefer variables to constants. In Swift, we receive a warning if we declare a variable that is never changed. We can make...