Fatbobman’s Swift Weekly #054 | Security, Convenience, and Privacy
Weekly Comment
Security, Convenience, and Privacy
In the digital age, security, convenience, and privacy remain perpetual challenges. According to a recent report from The Register, Apple has proposed a significant change to SSL/TLS certificate lifespans, planning to reduce them from the current 398 days to 200 days in 2025, 100 days in 2026, and ultimately to just 45 days by 2027.
While this proposal is unlikely to pass the vote in the CA/B Forum, tech giants including Apple and Google will likely proceed with this policy anyway. Indeed, strengthening internet security is an inevitable trend, but the additional workload of frequent certificate updates will undoubtedly pose new challenges for many developers and IT operators.
Today, everyone is forced to master an increasing number of passwords and install various authentication applications. Taking my personal experience as an example, in recent months, my Microsoft account has faced login attempts almost daily. Fortunately, with two-factor authentication enabled, my account security is reliably protected. However, the frequent authentication notifications on my phone and watch have indeed caused some annoyance.
As a long-time Safari user, my preference for it largely stems from its seamless integration with Apple’s Keychain (now renamed to “Passwords”). Additionally, Apple’s anonymous account feature allows me to enjoy a convenient login experience while protecting my privacy when registering for various services.
Biometric authentication technology has undoubtedly provided users with a more relaxed verification method, but unfortunately, many service providers and hardware manufacturers have yet to gain users’ full trust.
Whenever I look at the various authentication apps on my phone, I can’t help but feel a hint of worry. We will eventually enter old age, and our memory and management capabilities will gradually decline. Will we then transform from active participants in the digital world to mere observers left behind by the times? Imagine when we reach our twilight years, we might gradually lose connection with this digital world because we can’t remember complex passwords, struggle with multi-factor authentication procedures, or even have difficulty reading verification codes.
I sincerely hope this situation can be improved, and we can build a unified digital living environment that ensures privacy while maintaining security and convenience.
If you had to make a trade-off between security, convenience, and privacy, which one would you choose to sacrifice?
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Originals
Reinventing Core Data Development with SwiftData Principles
In modern application development, an efficient persistence framework is crucial. The emergence of SwiftData once caught the eyes of many Core Data developers, who anticipated the advent of a new era integrating modern programming concepts. This article will explore how to apply SwiftData’s way of thinking within Core Data, focusing on data modeling and concurrent programming.
Recent Selections
Copy On Write and the Swift-CowBox Macro
Copy On Write (COW) is a technique that optimizes memory usage by delaying the duplication of data until it is modified. If the data remains unchanged, it shares references, thereby improving performance and reducing memory consumption. Swift heavily relies on value types, and COW becomes a crucial mechanism for enhancing efficiency. Natan Rolnik explains the principles of COW in detail and introduces the Swift-CowBox macro, developed by Rick Van Voorden, which simplifies the implementation of COW for custom types, reducing the need to write repetitive code.
So how does this whole @preconcurrency thing work?
Many developers encountered challenges adapting their existing code to the new concurrency requirements in Swift 6. The @preconcurrency attribute offers a powerful tool for simplifying concurrent code and improving API compatibility. In this article, Matt Massicotte thoroughly explores the three main use cases of @preconcurrency and its practical applications. Massicotte warns that while the attribute is effective in handling protocol isolation, legacy API compatibility, and cross-module imports, developers must use it cautiously to avoid hiding design flaws that could lead to complex debugging in the future.
Visualizing SwiftUI Animations
SwiftUI provides two primary animation models: UnitCurve and Spring. UnitCurve animations are based on curves between points (0,0) and (1,1), allowing developers to adjust animation speed with styles such as linear and ease. The Spring model simulates natural motion using parameters like mass, stiffness, and damping to achieve more realistic effects. よぺ offers an in-depth analysis of these models, accompanied by code examples and visual demonstrations. The author emphasizes that when aiming for natural motion, Spring animations outperform traditional linear and ease types and are recommended for use.
Exploring Cursor
Cursor, an AI-powered code editor, quickly gained popularity among developers. With the help of plugins and third-party libraries, developers in the Apple ecosystem can now use Cursor to build iOS projects and enjoy the benefits of AI-enhanced development. In his series of articles, Rudrank Riyam offers practical insights into using Cursor to optimize workflows, along with setup guides and time management techniques. These strategies help developers reduce context switching and enhance productivity.
Beware UserDefaults: a tale of hard to find bugs, and lost data
UserDefaults offers a simple, thread-safe API for persisting and serializing non-sensitive, lightweight data, making it widely used. However, Christian Selig warns developers through personal experiences that improper use of UserDefaults can lead to severe bugs and data loss. Selig explains that with the evolution of iOS features like prewarming and Live Activities, the behavior of UserDefaults has become more complex and unpredictable. Developers must understand its risks and carefully choose appropriate storage solutions to minimize errors and prevent data loss.
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