Chris and Florian’s new book Thinking in SwiftUI came out in March 2020 already, so I’m late to the party with this announcement. But I still want to mention it here because (a) it’s a good book and (b) I had a small part in its creation as a reviewer. This week’s release of an updated version for the latest SwiftUI version is a good opportunity.

The book is short (150 pages), and that’s one of its strengths. It doesn’t want to be a comprehensive reference manual for every SwiftUI API — rather, it wants to help readers build a mental model of how SwiftUI works on a fundamental level.

The first edition received a lot of praise on Twitter (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). The second edition includes new content on some of the new SwiftUI features that are part of iOS 14/macOS 11, as well as refined explanations on SwiftUI’s layout system. If you’re a Swift Talk subscriber, you already know that Florian and Chris did a deep dive into the layout system this year.

I’m a big fan of the exercises included in the book. Each chapter ends with one or more exercises that encourage you to solve a realistic problem using the things you just learned. Personally, doing the exercises definitely gave me a deeper understanding of the material than just reading about it.

Looking for a technical reviewer? Hire me

On a side note, I love this work as a reviewer, and I think I’m good at it. I you’re planning to write a book about Swift or iOS and are looking for a technical reviewer, hit me up.

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