Apple’s new iPad app, Swift Playgrounds, to make learning to code ‘easy and fun for everyone’ with the Swift programming language is now available to download, free.
Apple says its new Swift Playgrounds app brings to life ‘real coding concepts with an interactive interface that allows students and beginners to explore working with Swift.’
Swift is Apple’s easy-to-learn programming language launched in 2014, now in version 3.0 as part of Apple’s Xcode 8 programming environment, and is what Apple proudly bills as being ‘used by professional developers to create world-class apps.’
Apple explains that its ‘Swift Playgrounds app is approachable enough for students with no previous programming experience to begin exploring key coding concepts, but also powerful enough for skilled programmers to experiment and express their creativity using Swift.’
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Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering said: “Everyone should have the opportunity to learn coding, and we are excited to bring Swift Playgrounds to the next generation of programmers looking for a fun and easy way to explore key coding concepts using real code.
“More than 100 schools around the world have already committed to adding Swift Playgrounds to their curriculum, and we can’t wait to see what students create with it.”
So, how does the app work?
We are told that ‘Swift Playgrounds includes Apple-developed programming lessons that guide students through a series of challenges and puzzles to guide three on-screen characters through an immersive graphical world as they learn core coding concepts, like issuing commands, creating functions, performing loops and using conditional code and variables.’
Apple says it will also ‘regularly release new standalone challenges so users can continue learning new skills.’
To make learning even easier, Swift Playgrounds also features ‘built-in templates that users can modify and build on to create their own programs with graphics and touch interactions.’
Users can then ‘share their creations with friends using Mail or Messages or even by posting to the Web. And since Swift Playgrounds uses real Swift code, projects can be exported directly to Xcode and ultimately be turned into full-fledged iOS and Mac apps.’
If you have an iPad able to run iOS 10, and have upgraded your iPad to iOS 10 (which is available free from today), then you can download Swift Playground right now.
It’s a 267MB download, and you’ll find plenty more info including videos, images and demos at Apple’s site here, including a download link (which will open up the App Store).
So, if you’ve ever wanted to learn how to code, especially for iOS devices and the Mac, then now’s your chance to start learning in the easiest way possible!
