"Watch Your Language!": The road to clean code with SwiftLint

Code style is largely unimportant, which is why it's crucial to let tools do the pedantic formatting checks, allowing you to focus on more important aspects of writing code and building apps!

In this talk, you'll learn exactly how to set up SwiftLint in your project to give you just the semantics you want, and help it stay out of your way while being an ever watchful protector of code cleanliness. 🛡

Transcript

1. Watch Your Language! The road to clean code with SwiftLint 1
2. What is SwiftLint? A tool to enforce Swift style and conventions • Integrates into Xcode • Plugins for AppCode, Vim, Sublime Text, Atom, Emacs 2
3. Philosophy ! ! Code style is largely unimportant! ! Which is why it's crucial to let tools do the pedantic formatting checks Allowing you to focus on more important aspects of writing code and building apps! 3
4. GitHub Swift Style Guide github.com/github/swift-style-guide 4
6. Reasons People Use SwiftLint • Intra-Project Consistency • Inter-Project Consistency • Helping Beginners Avoid Bad Practices • Readability • Avoiding Style Debates • Specific Style Choices 6
7. Reasons People Use SwiftLint 7
8. Rules • 60 rules • 16 opt-in • 19 correctable • 19 configurable settings 8
9. Stylistic Rules • Attributes: Rules to place attributes like @objc and @testable • Closure Parameter Position: Where to place closure parameters • Syntactic Sugar: Use syntactic sugar types: [Int] vs Array<Int> • Trailing Comma: Avoid/Require trailing commas: [1,2,3,] • Empty Parentheses Trailing Closure: [].map() {} vs [].map {} • Implicit Getter: Read-only properties avoid using the get keyword 9
10. Hygienic Rules • Function Body Length • Type Body Length • Line Length • File Length • Name rules lengths 10
11. Convention Rules • Empty Parameters: Prefer () -> over Void -> • Void Return: Prefer -> Void over -> () • Legacy Constant: Prefer CGRect.infinite over CGRectInfinite • Comma Spacing: No space before and one after • Colon: Should be next to the identifier when specifying a type • Type Name / Variable Name 11
12. Code Smells Rules (!") • Force Try • Force Unwrapping • Force Cast • Function Parameter Count: Too many parameters might be a sign you should use a type to encapsulate • Cyclomatic Complexity: Too high might be hard to reason about • Nesting: Don't nest types/statements too deeply: Pyramid of DOOM 12
13. Bug Avoiding Rules • Dynamic Inline: @dynamic with @inline(__always) is undefined • Empty Count: Prefer isEmpty over comparing count to 0 • Weak Delegate: Delegates should be weak to avoid reference cycles • Valid IBInspectable • Private Unit Test • Private Outlets 13
14. Great Rules ! 14
15. Empty Parameters Rule // Triggers let abc: Void -> Void = {} func foo(completion: Void -> Void) func foo(completion: Void throws -> Void) let foo: Void -> () throws -> Void) // Corrections let abc: () -> Void = {} func foo(completion: () -> Void) func foo(completion: () throws -> Void) let foo: () -> () throws -> Void) 15
16. Void Return Rule // Triggers let abc: () -> () = {} func foo(completion: () -> ()) func foo(completion: () -> ( )) let foo: (ConfigurationTests) -> () throws -> ()) // Corrections let abc: () -> Void = {} func foo(completion: () -> Void) func foo(completion: () -> Void) let foo: (ConfigurationTests) -> () throws -> Void) 16
17. Legacy CGGeometry Rule // Triggers CGRectIsInfinite( rect ) CGRectStandardize( rect) CGRectIntegral(rect ) CGRectInset(rect, 5.0, -7.0) CGRectOffset(rect, -2, 8.3) CGRectUnion(rect1, rect2) CGRectIntersection( rect1 ,rect2) // Corrections rect.isInfinite rect.standardized rect.integral rect.insetBy(dx: 5.0, dy: -7.0) rect.offsetBy(dx: -2, dy: 8.3) rect1.union(rect2) rect1.intersect(rect2) 17
18. Closing Brace Spacing Rule // Triggers [].map( { } ) // Corrections [].map({ }) 18
19. No So Great Rules ! 19
20. Opt-In Rules • A rule that can have many false positives (e.g. empty_count) • A rule that is too slow • A rule that is not general consensus or only useful in some cases (e.g. force_unwrapping, missing_docs) 20
21. Custom Rules comments_space: # From https://github.com/brandenr/swiftlintconfig name: "Space After Comment" regex: "(^ *//\w+)" message: "There should be a space after //" severity: error force_https: # From https://github.com/Twigz/Game name: "Force HTTPS over HTTP" regex: "((?i)http(?!s))" match_kinds: string message: "HTTPS should be favored over HTTP" severity: warning double_space: # From https://github.com/IBM-Swift/Package-Builder include: "*.swift" name: "Double space" regex: "([a-z,A-Z] \s+)" message: "Double space between keywords" match_kinds: keyword severity: warning 21
22. Configuration: .swiftlint.yml disabled_rules: # rule identifiers to exclude from running - colon - comma - control_statement opt_in_rules: # some rules are only opt-in - empty_count - missing_docs # Find all the available rules by running: # swiftlint rules included: # paths to include during linting. `--path` is ignored if present. - Source excluded: # paths to ignore during linting. Takes precedence over `included`. - Carthage - Pods - Source/ExcludedFolder - Source/ExcludedFile.swift 22
23. Commands /**** Regions ****/ // swiftlint:disable colon let noWarning :String = "" // swiftlint:enable colon let hasWarning :String = "" /**** Local ****/ // swiftlint:disable:next force_cast let noWarning = NSNumber() as! Int let hasWarning = NSNumber() as! Int let noWarning2 = NSNumber() as! Int // swiftlint:disable:this force_cast let noWarning3 = NSNumber() as! Int // swiftlint:disable:previous force_cast 23
24. Enforcement • Xcode Build Phase • Use in AppCode, Vim, Sublime Text, Atom, Emacs • Travis has SwiftLint installed on their Xcode images • Jenkins • Hound CI • HTML reporter 24
25. Auto-Correct/Auto-Format 25
26. Usage Strategies • The Incremental Code Stylist • The Skeptic • The Completionist • The Commander In Chief • The Vagabond • The Sniper 26
27. The Incremental Code Stylist • Start with lots of rules disabled or very loose thresholds • Start with a small portion of your code base • Slowly start fixing violations & enabling those rules • Great for larger teams or projects 27
28. The Skeptic • You "don't believe" in linters ! • ...or rather the value they add to your project • Just enable the most reliable / obvious of rules 28
29. The Completionist • ENABLE ALL THE RULES! • RUIN YOUR CODE TO CONFORM TO ALL RULES! • LINT EVERY SINGLE FILE IN YOUR PROJECT! • LINT ALL DAY EVERY DAY! • ...srsly don't do dis... ! • Just because a rule exists doesn't mean you should use it 29
30. The Commander In Chief • Use comment commands liberally throughout your code • // swiftlint:disable one_rule_here • // swiftlint:enable another_rule_there • Doing this a little is fine • Doing this a lot won't help you get the consistency in your project you're after 30
31. The Vagabond • Occasionally revisit running SwiftLint on your code • This is great if you don't want the burden and churn of always linting • Of if you're prototyping something / exploring ideas and don't want distractions • Can do this with SwiftLint as a whole, or with specific rules • An additional config file is great for this: .swiftlint_hard_mode.yml 31
32. The Sniper • Just enable a small number of very specific rules in your project to prevent very specific bugs to creep in • Don't need to be bothered with pesky style rules • You're a style master, always consistent, always readable code... or just don't care ! 32
33. Tips ! From The Trenches 33
34. Don't Bend To The Will Of The Machines 34
35. Don't Bend To The Will Of The Machines // Persist your data easily let realm = try! Realm() try! realm.write { realm.add(mydog) } User Comment: Its kind of ironic that Realm's first example in docs does not work with swiftlint. 35
36. SwiftLint Will Be Wrong! Being 100% right is a compiler's job 36
37. Don't Bend To The Will Of The Machines • Disable Rules in Configurations • Use Nested Configurations • Disable Rules In Source Code 37
38. Companies Using Swiftlint • Kickstarter (OSS !): github.com/kickstarter/ios-oss • Lyft • Khan Academy • Tumblr • Venmo • IBM • PSPDFKit (PDF Viewer) 38
39. OSS Projects Using Swiftlint • Facebook SDK Swift: github.com/facebook/facebook-sdk-swift • ReduxKit: github.com/ReduxKit/ReduxKit • Aerial: github.com/JohnCoates/Aerial • LTMorphingLabel: github.com/lexrus/LTMorphingLabel • Moya: github.com/Moya/Moya 39
40. Alternatives • Swift Format: github.com/nicklockwood/SwiftFormat • swift-format: github.com/apple/swift/pull/3439 • Swimat: github.com/Jintin/Swimat • SwiftClean: swiftcleanapp.com • Tailor: github.com/sleekbyte/tailor 40
41. ! Nearly 100 Contributors! Aaron Daub, Aaron McTavish, Alex Culeva, Andrea Mazzini, Andrew Rahn, Andrius Janauskas, Angel Garcia, Ankit Aggarwal, Benjamin Otto, Berik Visschers, Bill Bagdon, Blair McArthur, Blaise Sarr, Brandon Kobilansky, Brian Hardy, Brian Lu, Brian Partridge, Carl Hill-Popper, Chris Eidhof, Craig Siemens, Cristian Filipov, Daniel Beard, Daniel Duan, Danilo Bürger, David Paschich, David Potter, David Rönnqvist, Denis Lebedev, Diogo Guimaraes, Eric Bailey, Eric-Paul Lecluse, Erik Aigner, EyreFree, Fabian Ehrentraud, Francisco Costa, George Woodham, Gilles Grousset, Goktug Yilmaz, HaloZero, Isaac Greenspan, J. Cheyo Jimenez, JP Simard, Jake Craige, Javier Hernández, John Estropia, Johnykutty 41
42. ! Nearly 100 Contributors! Keith Smiley, Kepler Sticka-Jones, Krzysztof Rodak, Lars Lockefeer, M. Porooshani, Marcelo Fabri, Matt Taube, Matthew Ellis, Maurício Hanika, Michael Skiba, Michał Kałużny, Mickael Morier, NachoSoto, Nadohs, Neil Gall, Nikolaj Schumacher, Norio Nomura, Oleg Kokhtenko, Olivier Halligon, Patrick A Wallace, Philip Webster, Raphael Randschau, Reimar Twelker, Robin Kunde, Ruotger Deecke, Samuel E. Giddins, Samuel Giddins, Sarr Blaise, Savio Mendes de Figueiredo, Scott Hoyt, Sean Hussey, Sebastian Grail, Shipeng Xu, Stanislav Dombrovsky, Syo Ikeda, Tom Wilkinson, Tony Li, Will Fleming, Yasuhiro Inami, Yuya Tanaka, ZX, akirahrkw, bootstraponline, crimsonwoods, dbeard, 42
43. Think of a Rule you'd like to see? You Should Contribute Next! 43
44. Thank You! Questions? JP Simard, @simjp, realm.io 44