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

Protocols as types


Even though no functionality is implemented in a protocol, they are still considered a full-fledged type in the Swift programming language and can be used like any other type. What this means is we can use protocols as a parameter type or as a return type in a function. We can also use them as the type for variables, constants, and collections. Let's take a look at some examples. For these few examples, we will use the PersonProtocol protocol:

protocol PersonProtocol { 
    var firstName: String {get set} 
    var lastName: String {get set} 
    var birthDate: NSDate {get set} 
    var profession: String {get} 
     
    init (firstName: String, lastName: String, birthDate: NSDate) 
} 

In this first example, we will see how we would use protocols as a parameter type or return type in functions, methods, or initializers:

  func updatePerson(person: PersonProtocol) -> PersonProtocol { 
      // Code to update person goes here 
      return person 
   } 

In this example...