Book Image

Swift Protocol-Oriented Programming - Fourth Edition

By : Jon Hoffman
Book Image

Swift Protocol-Oriented Programming - Fourth Edition

By: Jon Hoffman

Overview of this book

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.
Table of Contents (11 chapters)

Protocol and protocol extensions compared with superclasses

In the object-oriented programming example, we created a Vehicle superclass from which all the vehicle classes were derived. In the protocol-oriented programming example, we used a combination of protocols and protocol extensions to achieve the same result; however, there are several advantages to the protocol-oriented design.

To refresh our memory of the two solutions, let's examine the code for both the Vehicle superclass and the Vehicle protocol and protocol extension. The following code shows the Vehicle superclass:

class Vehicle {
fileprivate var vehicleTypes = [TerrainType]()
fileprivate var vehicleAttackTypes = [TerrainType]()
fileprivate var vehicleMovementTypes = [TerrainType]()

fileprivate var landAttackRange = -1
fileprivate var seaAttackRange = -1
fileprivate var airAttackRange = -1

...