What is Swift Dev Journal?
Swift Dev Journal is a website with articles and books for iOS and Mac developers who build apps in Swift. It is a learning resource rather than a tool or service: you go there to read tutorials and longer-form material, not to sign up for an account or run code in the browser. If you are looking for practical, task-level walkthroughs of SwiftUI, Mac app development, or Instruments, it is worth bookmarking.
What the site covers
The homepage describes it as "a site with articles and books on developing iOS and Mac apps in Swift." The full article list is long, so the landing page groups popular articles by topic. The main clusters are:
- SwiftUI — building interfaces, passing data, lists, text views, sheets, and document handling.
- SwiftUI on Mac — Mac-specific behavior such as list editing, drag and drop, open/save panels, menus, and window management.
- Instruments — measuring and diagnosing app performance.
- New Swift developers — build failures, crashes, optionals, and the debugger.
- Mac development — from first project to document-based apps and Markdown editors.
Who it is for
The material assumes you are writing Swift and working in Xcode. Two groups get the most out of it:
- Developers moving from tutorials to real apps. Articles like "Going from Tutorials to Your First Real App: First Steps" and "Why Won't My Xcode Project Build?" target the gap between following along and shipping something.
- iOS developers adding Mac support. The Mac section covers the parts that differ from iOS, such as menu commands,
WindowGroup, and open/save panels.
If you have never written Swift, the site is not a structured beginner course — it is a collection of focused articles, so you would pair it with a fundamentals resource.
Representative articles by topic
| Topic | Example articles |
|---|---|
| SwiftUI basics | Creating a Simple SwiftUI App; Passing Data to SwiftUI Views; Using Text Views in a SwiftUI App |
| SwiftUI structure | Creating a Master-Detail Interface in SwiftUI; Working with Lists in Multiplatform SwiftUI Apps; Reducing the Number of .sheet Modifiers in Your SwiftUI Views |
| SwiftUI on Mac | Removing Items from SwiftUI Lists in Mac Apps; Moving List Items Using Drag and Drop; Showing a SwiftUI sheet from a Mac Menu; Add an Open Recent Menu to a SwiftUI App |
| Instruments | Measuring Your App's Memory Usage; Find the Slow Spots with the CPU Profiler; Measure App Launch Time; Instruments Flame Graph Introduction |
| Debugging and crashes | Fixing and Avoiding Crashes in Swift Code; Crashing with Swift Optionals; An Introduction to Xcode's Debugger |
| Mac development | Introduction to Mac Development (project, UI, connecting UI elements); Create a Document-Based Mac App in Swift; Create a Mac Markdown Editor with Live Preview |
How to use it
Start from the Articles link in the navigation menu for the complete list, or use the topic groupings on the homepage to jump to what you need. Because the articles are task-focused, the efficient approach is to search the site for the specific problem you are solving — a sheet that won't dismiss, a list row that won't delete, a launch that feels slow — rather than reading front to back.
The site also mentions books alongside articles, so if you prefer a continuous narrative over individual posts, that is the alternative format offered.