Export SwiftUI code from Figma designs

I don't think SwiftUI will be stable until another two years or so. Swift 1 and 2 were alpha and beta tests, Swift 3 code kind of was the final language where 4 and 5 were cleaning up the API's and syntax and incrementally improving the language. SwiftUI has the same roughness to it and I expect the same kind of breaking changes.

Good luck supporting this code until then!

But really nice. Once SwiftUI starts working properly it's true WYSIWYG in Xcode and exporting it from Figma really could help speeding up the front-end process.

Re: Export SwiftUI code from Figma designs

#6

Post by mkchoi212 » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 5:45 PM UTC

This is insane. If the exported code is somewhat read-able, functions correctly, and the library gets updated as SwiftUI evolves, this is a game changer for iOS devs.

However, these are big IFs. Handling navigation, view hierarchy, and view category identification may be very hard to solve.

Re: Export SwiftUI code from Figma designs

#7

Post by traviskirton » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 6:33 PM UTC

mkchoi212 wrote: post #6

This is insane. If the exported code is somewhat read-able, functions correctly, and the library gets updated as SwiftUI evolves, this is a game changer for iOS devs. However, these are big IFs. Handling navigation, view hierarchy, and view category identification may be very hard to solve.

@insomnie Nicely done! Are your hopes to really take this to the next level? It would be awesome to see.

Proper export is definitely hard to solve. It's one thing to export bits of color and positioning. But, really making an export that devs can use, and includes the stuff that mkchoi212 mentions, is a definite challenge.

Re: Export SwiftUI code from Figma designs

#8

Post by favorited » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 6:36 PM UTC

dep_b wrote: post #5

I don't think SwiftUI will be stable until another two years or so. Swift 1 and 2 were alpha and beta tests, Swift 3 code kind of was the final language where 4 and 5 were cleaning up the API's and syntax and incrementally improving the language. SwiftUI has the same roughness to it and I expect the same kind of breaking changes. Good luck supporting this code until then! But really nice. Once SwiftUI starts working…

Swift 1 and 2 didn't have to be stable – SwiftUI does. It's a system library, so it can't do things like change method names, at least not without keeping the old symbols around.

Of course, there will be bugs, and behavior will change as the library evolves, but shared library vs language evolution is fundamentally different.

Re: Export SwiftUI code from Figma designs

#9

Post by tradertef » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 6:52 PM UTC

dep_b wrote: post #5

I don't think SwiftUI will be stable until another two years or so. Swift 1 and 2 were alpha and beta tests, Swift 3 code kind of was the final language where 4 and 5 were cleaning up the API's and syntax and incrementally improving the language. SwiftUI has the same roughness to it and I expect the same kind of breaking changes. Good luck supporting this code until then! But really nice. Once SwiftUI starts working…

I've ported my apps to Swift in the first year. Looking back it was not the best approach, but for new applications it makes perfect sense to start with swift only. Regarding SwiftUI, I will wait at least 1 year :).

Re: Export SwiftUI code from Figma designs

#10

Post by adam_fallon_ » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 7:03 PM UTC

mkchoi212 wrote: post #6

This is insane. If the exported code is somewhat read-able, functions correctly, and the library gets updated as SwiftUI evolves, this is a game changer for iOS devs. However, these are big IFs. Handling navigation, view hierarchy, and view category identification may be very hard to solve.

It's not. Design tools have had this kind of functionality for UIKit for years. Making views is absolutely not the hard part of mobile development.