Biggest improvements for developers

At WWDC, Apple introduced several significant improvements for developers across various tools and frameworks. Here are some of the key highlights:

1. Foundation Models Framework: This allows developers to use Apple's models to get responses in plain text or as structured Swift Data, enhancing app capabilities with AI features.

2. Swift and SwiftUI Enhancements:

   • Swift 6.2 brings improvements in build times, especially for projects using macro-based APIs.
   • SwiftUI has been updated with features like rich text editing and 3D chart support, improving the development of modern user interfaces across Apple platforms.

3. Xcode Improvements:

   • Xcode 16 introduces faster previews and build processes, with explicit modules improving parallelism and diagnostics.
   • Xcode's download size has been reduced by 24%, and it now offers improved text input latency and workspace loading performance.
   • New features in Xcode include predictive code completion and Swift Assist, which uses natural language to interact with code.

4. Game Development: The Gameporting Toolkit 2 has been updated to help developers bring more advanced games to Mac, with improved compatibility and new features like ray tracing.

5. Performance and Debugging Tools:

   • New performance instruments in SwiftUI help optimize code by analyzing view updates.
   • Xcode now includes a flame graph for visualizing call stacks, aiding in performance profiling.

These updates collectively represent a significant step forward in making app development more efficient and powerful on Apple platforms. For more detailed insights, you can explore sessions like What’s new in Xcode 16 and Platforms State of the Union.