Developer(s) | Developer Tools Department Apple Inc |
---|---|
Initial release | iPad September 13, 2016 macOS February 11, 2020 |
Platform | iPadOS, macOS |
Available in | Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish |
Type | Education App |
Website | www |
Swift Playgrounds is an educational tool and development environment for the Swift programming language developed by Apple Inc., initially announced at the WWDC 2016 conference. [1] It was introduced as an iPad application alongside iOS 10, with a macOS version introduced in February 2020. [2] It is available for free via Apple's App Store for iPadOS and Mac App Store for macOS.
In addition to publishing the Swift Playgrounds application itself, Apple also produces a series of educational lessons teaching programming and debugging skills. [3] The application can also subscribe to lessons and other content published by third parties, [4] [5] including lessons allowing users to control educational toys such as Lego Mindstorms EV3 and Sphero robots. [6] Apple publishes a curriculum guide for educators wishing to incorporate Swift Playgrounds into their teaching. [7]
Swift Playgrounds was designed to be a development environment and an education tool simultaneously. [8] The app allows users to download lessons and challenges. Once stored on the iPad, these can be copied and modified without the need of an active internet connection.
Apple's initial lessons, available for all Swift Playgrounds users to download, introduce three characters: Byte, Blu, and Hopper. In each challenge, young coders are asked to assist these characters achieving simple goals by coding simple instructions. As challenges become more difficult, more complex algorithms are required to solve them and new concepts are introduced. [9] Advanced lessons in Playgrounds introduce users to more complex features such as Apple's Bluetooth and Augmented Reality development platform (ARKit) APIs. [10]
In addition to Apple's own educational content, Swift Playgrounds can download third-party lessons through its subscriptions feature. [5] [4] Some third-party lessons allow the app to control robots (such as Lego Mindstorms EV3 and Sphero educational toys) and drones (such as the Parrot). [6] Apple also offers coding classes using Swift Playgrounds at Apple Stores. [11]
Swift Playgrounds was designed to be fully accessible to users with disabilities. [7] [12] It supports Apple's VoiceOver screen reader technology, and at WWDC 2020 Apple introduced a series of lessons called "Swan's Quest" which use accessibility features to help students solve puzzles. [13]
The Swift Playgrounds application was announced on June 13, 2016 at WWDC 2016 as an iPad exclusive app to help people learning to code with Apple's Swift programming language. [1] [14] A beta version for Apple developers was released on the same date, followed by a public beta version in the following month. The app was presented as a teaching tool for students, introducing the core concepts of coding using an interactive environment designed for touch. [15] The application's name is an apparent reference to Xcode's earlier Playgrounds feature, introduced in 2014.[ citation needed ]
Along with iOS 10, the app was officially released on September 13, 2016. [16] Apple also published a curriculum guide, recommending the iPad app for middle school students and up. [7] In January 2018, Apple introduced subscriptions to the iPad application, allowing users to subscribe to playgrounds developed by third parties. [5] [4]
On February 11, 2020, Apple released a macOS version of Swift Playgrounds on the Mac App Store, built using Apple's Catalyst technology. [2] Subsequent versions of the application have supported both iPadOS and macOS, with most of Apple's curriculum available on both platforms.[ citation needed ] For WWDC 2020, Apple published a session instructing third-party developers on how to support both platforms in their subscriptions. [17]
The iPad version of the Swift Playgrounds (1.0) was released on September 13, 2016. Chris Lattner was also one of the few core people who drove Swift Playgrounds for iPad, including conception, design, implementation, and iteration. [18] Simultaneously with its release, Apple published guides on the iBookStore to teach users how to navigate and use the application. [14] The launch coincided with a large Silicon Valley campaign to press public schools to teach coding and was followed by Apple's announcement of the "Everyone Can Code" initiative, a program that provides computer science curriculum to help kids learn how to code. [19] [20] Swift Playgrounds is included in this program as free coding curriculum and Apple provides detailed guides to walk teachers through teaching Swift. [21] Apple also released "App Development with Swift", a year-long curriculum for teaching Swift software development and later introduced a Swift certification program to validate coding skills for students. [22] [23]
In May 2018, Apple announced the extension of "Everyone Can Code" initiative to US schools serving blind and deaf students. In January 2017, Apple partnered with RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) to provide braille versions of the Swift Playgrounds graphics used in its coding course. [24] [25]
Date | Version | Description | |
---|---|---|---|
June 2016 | Apple announces Swift Playgrounds for iPad - version for Apple Developers is released | ||
July 2016 | Public beta version released | ||
September 2016 | 1.0 | First version is released | |
March 2017 | 1.2 | Language support for Simplified Chinese, Japanese, French, German and Latin American Spanish; Support for MapKit framework | |
June 2017 | 1.5 | Possibility to write code to control robots and drones (Lego Mindstorms EV3, Parrot, Sphero...) [26] [27] | |
September 2017 | 1.6 | Support for ARKit (Augmented Reality) Support for Swift 4 Access to camera | |
January 2018 | 2.0 | Subscriptions for third-party playgrounds made available. [5] | |
May 2019 | 3.0 | Support for Swift 5 Shared Swift files | |
October 2019 | 3.1 | Support for Swift 5.1 SwiftUI framework included | |
February 2020 | 3.2 (macOS-only) [28] | Support for macOS [28] | |
April 2020 | 3.3 | Support for iPadOS cursor [28] | |
November 2020 | 3.4 | Console area shows the output of print() statements [28] Export as new playground feature [28] | |
December 2021 | 4.0 | Apps can be built with SwiftUI | |
May 2022 | 4.1 | Guided walkthroughs teach SwiftUI app building basics Build and run apps on macOS 12.4 |
Upon release, Swift Playgrounds reached the first place in the top free iPad education apps in nearly 100 countries. The app received generally positive reviews from users (4/5 rating score on the App Store) and from the press. [29] [19] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [21] The app's ability to make serious coding accessible to young students was praised, as well as the fact that it was not excessively focused on Swift but rather in teaching good coding practices. [37] [38] Common Sense Media rates Swift Playgrounds with a 5/5 ranking score. [39]
macOS is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and laptop computers it is the second most widely used desktop OS, after Microsoft Windows and ahead of Chrome OS.
The history of macOS, Apple's current Mac operating system formerly named Mac OS X until 2012 and then OS X until 2016, began with the company's project to replace its "classic" Mac OS. That system, up to and including its final release Mac OS 9, was a direct descendant of the operating system Apple had used in its Macintosh computers since their introduction in 1984. However, the current macOS is a Unix operating system built on technology that had been developed at NeXT from the 1980s until Apple purchased the company in early 1997.
Safari is a graphical web browser developed by Apple. It is primarily based on open-source software, and mainly WebKit. It succeeded Netscape Navigator, Cyberdog and Internet Explorer for Mac as the default web browser for Macintosh computers. It is supported on macOS, iOS, and iPadOS; a Windows version was offered from 2007 to 2010.
Xcode is Apple's integrated development environment (IDE) for macOS, used to develop software for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS. It was initially released in late 2003; the latest stable release is version 13.4, released on May 16, 2022, and is available via the Mac App Store free of charge for macOS Monterey users. Registered developers can download preview releases and prior versions of the suite through the Apple Developer website. Xcode includes Command Line Tools (CLT), which enable UNIX-style development via the Terminal app in macOS. They can also be downloaded and installed without the GUI.
The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is an information technology conference held annually by Apple Inc. The conference is usually held in the San Jose Convention Center in California. The event is usually used to showcase new software and technologies in the macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS families as well as other Apple software. WWDC is also an event hosted for third-party software developers that work on apps for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other Apple devices. Attendees can participate in hands-on labs with Apple engineers and attend in-depth sessions covering a wide variety of topics.
Stevenote is a colloquial term for keynote speeches given by Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple, at events such as the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Macworld Expo, and Apple Expo. Because most Apple product releases were first shown to the public at these keynotes, "Stevenotes" caused substantial swings in Apple's stock price.
iOS is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone and iPod Touch; the term also included the versions running on iPads until iPadOS was introduced in 2019. It is the world's second-most widely installed mobile operating system, after Android. It is the basis for three other operating systems made by Apple: iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS. It is proprietary software, although some parts of it are open source under the Apple Public Source License and other licenses.
The iOS SDK, formerly the iPhone SDK, is a software development kit (SDK) developed by Apple Inc. The kit allows for the development of mobile apps on Apple's iOS and iPadOS operating systems.
The version history of the mobile operating system iOS, developed by Apple Inc., began with the release of iPhone OS 1 for the original iPhone on June 29, 2007. Since its initial release, it has been used as the operating system for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and HomePod. Continuous development since its initial release resulted in new major releases of the software, typically being announced at the annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference and later released in September, coinciding with the release of new iPhone models. Starting with the 13.0 release, the operating system for iPad was split off as iPadOS. The latest stable version of iOS and iPadOS, 15.5, was released on May 16, 2022. The latest beta version of iOS and iPadOS, 15.6 beta, was released on May 18, 2022.
iCloud is a cloud storage and cloud computing service from Apple Inc. launched on October 12, 2011. As of 2018, the service had an estimated 850 million users, up from 782 million users in 2016.
iPadOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for its iPad line of tablet computers. It is a rebranded variant of iOS, the operating system used by Apple's iPhones, renamed to reflect the diverging features of the two product lines, particularly the iPad's multitasking capabilities. It was introduced as iPadOS 13 in 2019, reflecting its status as the successor to iOS 12 for the iPad, at the company's 2019 Worldwide Developers Conference. iPadOS was released to the public on September 24, 2019. The current public release is iPadOS 15.5, released on May 16, 2022.
Craig Federighi is an American engineer and business executive who is the senior vice president (SVP) of software engineering at Apple Inc. He oversees the development of iOS, iPadOS, macOS and Apple's common operating system engineering teams. His teams are responsible for delivering the software at the heart of Apple's products, including the user interface, applications and frameworks.
Swift is a general-purpose, multi-paradigm, compiled programming language developed by Apple Inc. and the open-source community. First released in 2014, Swift was developed as a replacement for Apple's earlier programming language Objective-C, as Objective-C had been largely unchanged since the early 1980s and lacked modern language features. Swift works with Apple's Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks, and a key aspect of Swift's design was the ability to interoperate with the huge body of existing Objective-C code developed for Apple products over the previous decades. It is built with the open source LLVM compiler framework and has been included in Xcode since version 6, released in 2014. On Apple platforms, it uses the Objective-C runtime library, which allows C, Objective-C, C++ and Swift code to run within one program.
Apple News is a news aggregator app developed by Apple Inc., for its iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and macOS operating systems. The iOS version was launched with the release of iOS 9. It is the successor to the Newsstand app included in previous versions of iOS. Users can read news articles with it, based on publishers, websites and topics they select, such as technology or politics.
tvOS is an operating system developed by Apple Inc. for the 2nd generation and later Apple TV digital media player. It is based on the iOS operating system and has many similar frameworks, technologies, and concepts.
iOS 13 is the thirteenth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for their iPhone, iPod Touch, and HomePod lines. The successor to iOS 12 on those devices, it was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 3, 2019, and released on September 19, 2019. It was succeeded by iOS 14, released on September 16, 2020.
iPadOS 15 is the third and current major release of the iPadOS operating system developed by Apple for its iPad line of tablet computers. The successor to iPadOS 14, it was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 7, 2021 along with iOS 15, macOS Monterey, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15. It was released to the public on September 20, 2021.
The Playgrounds feature of the Xcode IDE provides an environment for rapid experimentation and development in the Swift programming language. The original version of the feature was announced and released by Apple Inc on June 2, 2014, during WWDC 2014.
macOS Monterey is the 18th and current major release of macOS, Apple's desktop operating system for Macintosh computers. The successor to macOS Big Sur, it was announced at WWDC 2021 on June 7, 2021, and released on October 25, 2021.