Initiative: Swift Platform Work Group

[stevapple (YR Chen)]

@Paul_Cantrell

To use Swift in an intro class, however, with new beginners for whom even the tiniest install glitch or usability flaw can be crushing, the experience would have to be quite a bit smoother than it is. Even Java + VS Code — a combination with a huge user base and years of work — just barely cuts the mustard on this front! “Suitable for an intro class” is one of the highest bars to which a toolchain can aspire.

I’m running one Swift-based assignment again later this fall, which means a class full of students installing Swift, ~half of them on Windows. I’m wondering: Is there a SPWG forum where I can forward reports of paint points, both large and small? Even if they’re not strictly the fault of the Swift toolchain, but rather some interaction of, say, Swift + Windows defaults, or Swift + VS Code? Even if they’re not strictly bugs, but just points of confusion such as UX slip-ups or bad defaults? I would love to help advance the state of the art on this front, but don’t want to create noise where it’s not helpful.

Both SPWG and the already proposed Swift Tooling Workgroup will be dedicated to improving user experience of Swift on supported platforms. While the areas may unavoidably overlap, I see SPWG more of handling platform-related features and bugs, and STWG focusing on general usability improvements. It seems your requests are mostly related to the tooling side.

I would like to see these two new workgroups come into reality and work together. For user feedback, we may introduce a single Slack workspace for the two workgroups, since the two need cooperation frequently by themselves. There could be platform- or tool-specific as well as general channels for user feedback, and so both workgroups can be involved. WDYT? @0xTim