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ON TOUR
Michael Shaw
Demystifying Observation
The Observation approach to state management is highly productive, but at times mysterious and spooky. In WWDC the Observation API surface area continued to increase, and more UIKit functions are now Observation friendly, it’s a standard part of iOS development. It’s not just for Apple frameworks though, when properly mitigated, the approach can be very attractive for broader app wide state management. Together we’ll demystify Observation by walking through a minimal implementation in Swift. We’ll evaluate the tradeoffs for its usage at a broader app level and look at the decision-making process that led to its adoption in Procreate. We’ll also look at how Swift language features and SwiftUI API choices have made Observation ergonomic and safe, weaving in Property Wrappers, Result Builders, TaskLocal and laziness.
About the presenter
A software engineer for life, Michael joined Procreate in 2017 leading work on Procreate Dreams from conception through to present day, winning an ADA in 2024. Michael serves as Procreate’s CTO and is passionate about bringing simplicity and uncompromising performance to app development.
