What was the experience like at iPlayground 2019?
iPlayground 2019 Enthusiastic Participation Review
About the Event
Last year it was held in mid-October. I only started managing Medium to record my life in early October last year; combining the UUID topic I heard and my participation experience, I also wrote an article. This year, I continue to write my thoughts to ride the hype!
iPlayground 2019 (This time, corporate tickets were again sponsored by the company)
Compared to the first event in 2018, this year has seen significant improvements in every aspect!
First, the venue: Last year, the event was held in a basement conference room, which was small and felt cramped, making it difficult to use computers during lectures. This year, it was moved to the College of Liberal Arts at NTU, which is spacious, new, not crowded, and the classrooms have desks and power outlets, making it convenient to use personal computers!
Agenda: Besides local experts, this event also invited international speakers to share; the most popular was none other than the “Cat God” Wei Wang. This year, workshops with hands-on teaching were introduced for the first time, but spots were limited, so you had to act fast… Those busy eating and chatting missed out.
Sponsor Booths and Ask the Speaker Area
With the larger venue, networking was easier and there were more activities. From the iChef booth #iCHEFxiPlayground, I got an eco-friendly straw and a dorayaki. At the Dcard booth, having received stickers and an eco-cup sleeve last year, this year I also got a wet wipe with cynical quotes. Filling out a survey at 17 Live entered me into a draw for Airpods 2. I picked up stickers at the weak self podcast booth. There were also interactive booths from Grindr, CakeResume, and Bitrise. Attached is a partial photo of my loot.
Incomplete Loot
Food and After Party
Both days featured exquisite boxed meals, with unlimited iced coffee and tea available all day. Last year felt more like a true After Party, like listening to senior developers share stories in a bar, which was very fun. This year was more like afternoon tea (still served alcohol, and the shumai and desserts were delicious!). People mingled on their own, and I actually made new friends this year.
A Must-Have for Foodies: Bento Photos
Top 5 Takeaways from the Sessions
1. Wei Wang (貓神)’s Network Request Component Design
This part resonated with me because our project does not use third-party networking libraries; instead, we encapsulate methods ourselves. Many design patterns and issues mentioned by the speaker are exactly the optimizations and refactoring we need to do. Applying what the speaker said:
“Trash needs sorting, and so does code…”
This part needs a thorough study when I get back. I will organize everything properly <( _ _)>
p.s Didn’t manage to get the KingFisher sticker QQ
2. Japan’s Expert kishikawa katsumi
Introducing the new method UICollectionViewCompositionalLayout introduced in iOS ≥ 13, which lets us avoid subclassing UICollectionViewLayout or nesting CollectionView Cells inside CollectionViews to achieve complex layouts as before.
I can relate to this because our app used the latter approach to achieve the desired design. The peak was nesting a CollectionView Cell inside a CollectionView inside another CollectionView (three layers), resulting in messy and hard-to-maintain code.
Besides explaining the structure and usage of UICollectionViewCompositionalLayout, the speaker created a project based on this pattern to support the same effect on apps running iOS 12 and earlier — IBPCollectionViewCompositionalLayout. Amazing!
3. Ethan Huang Greatly Developing Apple Watch APP with SwiftUI
I previously wrote an article “Let’s Build an Apple Watch App!” based on watchOS 5 using the traditional method; I didn’t expect that now we can develop with SwiftUI!
Apple Watch OS 6 supports generations 1 to 5, so there are fewer version issues. Using watch apps to practice SwiftUI is a good starting point (simpler); I’ll find time to update it.
p.s. I didn’t expect watchOS developers to be so niche QQ. I personally find it fun and hope more people will join!
4. APP Security Topics by TinXie-易致 and 羊小咩
Regarding the security issues of the APP itself, I had never seriously studied it before, holding the preconceived notion that “Apple is very closed and secure!” After listening to the presentations of two speakers, I realized it is fragile rather than strong, and I understood the core concepts of APP security:
“When the cost of cracking exceeds the cost of protection, the APP is secure.”
There is no completely secure APP, only increased difficulty in cracking to discourage attackers!
Other than the paid app Reveal, there is also the open-source and free Lookin for viewing app UI; we use Reveal frequently. Even if you don’t inspect others, it’s very convenient for debugging your own UI issues!
Regarding connection security, a few days ago I posted an article titled “APP uses HTTPS for transmission, but data was still stolen.” I used mitmproxy, a free tool for man-in-the-middle attacks by replacing the root CA. Through the speaker’s explanation of man-in-the-middle attacks, their principles, and protection methods, I was able to verify the accuracy of my content and better understand this technique!
It also opened my eyes… I learned there are jailbreak plugins that can intercept network requests directly without even needing to replace certificates.
5. Pei-Yao Ting’s Optimization of Compilation Speed
This has always been a frustrating issue for us—slow compilation. Sometimes when fine-tuning the UI, it can be really maddening. You adjust by just 1pt, then wait, see the result, adjust another 1pt, wait again, then change it back… while(true)… very frustrating!
The speakers shared their experiments and experiences, which are definitely worth exploring for use in your own projects!
There are many more sessions (e.g., Colorful Topics A_A, which previously covered some color-related pitfalls)
However, the notes are scattered, and I have no related experience or did not attend that session.
All content can wait for the release of the iPlayground 2019 recorded sessions (for sessions that were recorded), or refer to the official HackMD collaborative notes.
Soft Gains
Besides technical gains, I personally had more soft gains than last year. It was my first time meeting Ethan Huang, and while discussing Apple Watch development, I also had a brief chat with the Cat God. I also met many new developers, including my colleague Frank, George Liu’s classmate Taihsin, Spock Xue, Crystal Liu, Nia Fan, Alice, Ada, old classmate Peter Chen, former colleague Hao Ge 邱鈺晧, and many other new friends!
yes!
More highlights can be found on Twitter #iplayground
Thanks
Thanks to all the staff for their hard work and the speakers for their sharing, which made these two days full of valuable gains!
Thank you for your hard work! Much appreciated!
Comments