Apple has released the long-awaited Swift Playgrounds 4.6 update, or as it’s now known, Swift Playground!
The release notes read as follows:
This update includes a new document browser to easily create a new playground or find a recent one, and provides bug fixes and improved stability.
Let’s see what’s new!
iOS 18 Support!
Despite the description, the update does include support for targeting SDKs up to iOS 18.1.
Interface changes
The update also includes the new document browser demoed in June last year which is a big win for organising projects! I just don’t understand why it’s taken this long.
The updated App Store screenshots also include a mysterious new toolbar item in the app editor, which looks like a set of books on a bookshelf. However, this button seems completely absent in the update itself!
Update: Turns out this is a button that appears when you use a tutorial template! You learn something new every day!
“Bug fixes”
The release notes claim this update includes bug fixes, but the most severe bugs like jumping to types directly using Open Quickly, or the typing into text fields in the previews area, are still broken, so I’m not sure what they claim to be fixing here.
Swift 6?
New projects still make use of Swift tools version 5.9 by default. The update uses the Swift 6 compiler, in Swift 5 language mode with partial concurrency checking.
The following code compiles in the new IDE:
protocol NonCopyableProtocol: ~Copyable {
}
func typedThrows() throws(NSError) {
}
There is no in-app option to specify language mode in the editor, but it is technically possible to edit the Package.swift manually to specify one. I’ve heard that Swift 6 mode will break full app previews for your project though, so use this with caution.
Every learn-to-code template is still listed as “Swift 5.8 Edition”, but at least they’ve updated the “Playground” and “Book” templates listed right at the end though, which are listed as “Swift 5.9 Edition”.
It’s unclear what took this update so long to arrive, but I’m glad it’s finally here! It brings much-needed parity with Xcode, which will allow me to start making my projects Swift Playground-compatible.