Apple unveils new tools and technologies, including SwiftUI and Xcode 11, for app developers

SwiftUI framework is a new declarative UI coding structure enabling developers to create native apps across Apple's platforms

The Apple 2019 Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) kicked off in San Jose, California on Monday, where the company announced several new developer tools.

Apple surprised developers by presenting SwiftUI framework - a new declarative UI coding structure that allows developers to create native apps across various Apple platforms.

Apple launched Swift programming language about five years back to replace Objective-C with an expressive and powerful language that would also be easy for beginners to learn, like Python. Apple open-sourced Swift language in 2015, and although it largely succeeded among developers, a big limitation of Swift was the iOS and MacOS APIs that were not practically as intuitive.

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SwiftUI eliminates all weaknesses of Swift language. It is available across Apple's phones, tablets, computers, TV boxes, and watches, and uses declarative paradigms to allow developers to create the same UIs using less code. SwiftUI cuts hundreds of lines of code to a few and also offers support for live previews, animated transitions, accessibility tools in iOS, and the dark mode.

Alongside SwiftUI, Apple also launched version 11 of Xcode offering complete support for SwiftUI. With the latest Xcode version, developers can see the impact of code changes appearing automatically in the visual design tool.

The new Xcode also comes with an inspect tool that allows developers to choose some specific elements within the emulator and change them using a graphical interface.

Developers can also drag-and-drop elements into their app. The code for these elements is automatically generated by Xcode.

Apple also introduced new augmented reality (AR) capabilities through ARKit 3. The tool enables more immersive AR experiences by putting people at the centre of AR.

With ARKit 3, front camera can track up to three faces. The Motion Capture feature allows developers to integrate people's movement into the app.

Apple also made other announcements at WWDC, including new MapKit features with support for iPadOS Dark Mode and iOS 13, improvements to SiriKit, and a PencilKit that lets developers to add Apple Pencil support to their apps.

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