208: “You are the compiler”

John and Rambo discuss various ways of implementing logging, telemetry, and analytics within a project, and how to decide when and how to bring in a third party dependency.

John and Rambo revisit the topic of closures and how their use has evolved since Objective-C’s blocks, and then go on a behind-the-scenes deep dive into AirBuddy 3.

John and Rambo discuss the pros and cons of using AI assistants and agents in the context of open source, as well as how unit testing has evolved on Apple’s platforms during the last few years, with the introduction of tools such as Swift Testing.

John and Rambo discuss some of the new APIs and technologies introduced at WWDC26, including new Swift features, and changes to frameworks like AppKit and FoundationModels. Also, the state of Swift 6, and WWDC video watching strategies.

John builds a cross-platform UI framework in Rust, and Rambo uses the macOS virtualization system to create a virtual iPhone.

Using Android as an iOS user, and the state of Swift Package Manager, including how it could become a more full-featured orchestration tool for Xcode projects.

On this first episode of the 2026 season, John and Rambo discuss how they’re using AI agents when working on different projects, and how to approach learning new programming languages in 2026.

Stacktrace is back! John and Rambo check their hype levels for WWDC24, and discuss how AI might fit into Apple’s plans for this year’s releases. Also, Xcode wishes, and the challenges of building distributed systems.

John and Rambo reflect on what they’ve been learning and how they’ve been aiming to improve as developers during 2023. Also, tips for getting better at debugging, deploying generative AI within existing apps, and are view models really such a good fit for SwiftUI views?

Reactions to Apple’s “Scary fast” event, Rambo’s review of the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and under the hood of CleanupBuddy.