WWDC Day 3 - Sessions are starting to run together...

We are in the thick of things now; next to last day. Sessions I attended:

• Optimizing Swift Performance - This was a disappointment; it basically was Apple people telling us how Swift is optimized by the compiler, including a mode which does optimization of all of your modules at once. It also demonstrated Xcode's profiling features. While that is interesting, I had been hoping more for how to fix slow Swift code. Don't get me wrong, the presenter demo'd changes in Swift code making his app faster. It was just a different take on the topic than I was expecting.
• Continuous Integration in Xcode - XcodeServer is cool. It is not Jenkins. It really wants to run in OS X Server. And it was introduced last year, so the meat of the feature was presented in last year's WWDC. I need to go back and watch that video. This could be very useful for Mozilla's iOS efforts, if we take the time to write tests using XCTest framework. I feel like this is an area I can explore and contribute to the team.
• Mysteries of Auto Layout, Parts 1 and 2 - Without having seen the basic talk on Auto Layout in the 2014 WWDC sessions, I was a little lost on how to start this from scratch. Dry, long, but ultimately interesting, I will be glad to watch this again after playing with Auto Layout myself.
• CloudKit tips and tricks - Another area I need to go back to 2014. Basically, you can rent space on Apple's servers to provide a back end to your app. Alas, it requires an Apple ID for your users, and I know that will be a barrier to entry.

I had lunch with my good buddy Jim Ingham. We worked together at Sun, Cygnus, Red Hat and Apple, off and on from 1997-2006. It was good to see him. I wish I could remember the last name of the other Apple engineer who joined us, Greg. He had been there a few months when I left, and he had moved from Austin (!). It was good to eat a good lunch away from the show.

I also went to the Apple Bash.  They had the band Walk the Moon, and I was pleasantly surprised. There was actually musicianship on display. I am not going to buy anything, but for once, I wasn't counting time until the band stopped.

It was not a dinner outing. There were small entree-like snacks, but it's not the same. So Paul and I found a late-night place near Union Square.

WWDC Day 2 - more sessions and a party

Lots of sessions today. Let's tear right in:

• App Thinning in Xcode - Basically, the App Store will take your app apart and only deliver assets that your device needs. Storage savings good. You can also have on-demand resources. As long as your connected... They also talked about if you have your own distribution of apps (enterprise). If you set things up right using Assets catalogs, this is done for you. Cool.
• UI Testing in Xcode - OK, this stuff rocks. You can record your UI. You can introspect your UI. As long as it is accessible. Which is not that hard to make happen for most apps. (Firefox may be an exception....) I am really excited about this.
• Getting the Most out of App Analytics - Ugh. It's a website. They showed us features. Good data certainly, but a horrible topic for a talk. I walked out early.
• Protocal-Oriented Programming - Awesome talk. Basically, Swift has a much richer type safety mechanism using protocols than traditional OOP. Really enjoyed this talk, and will almost certainly watch it multiple times to understand everything that went on.
• CloudKit JS and WebServices - So, I wish I had attended or watched the CloudKit talk in 2014. Must do that. It looks awesome. This talk was about the JS libraries for it.

After the main conference, I went to see James Dempsey and the Breakpoints. Uneven songs musically, but the words are all about programming in Cocoa, and it's pretty funny. Check it out on iTunes if you are into that sort of thing.

And I closed the night having an excellent cocktail with my best friend, Paul Tien-Shih Lee, whose birthday it was. The View bar in the Marriot is wonderful.