Is ARKit By Tutorial still useable, or is there an update?

i am looking at buying the ARKit by Tutorial however it is for Swift 4.2. my current XCode swift version is 5 and I think ARKit is up to 3 now. will this book still work in relation to coding in it or is there a lot of deprecation now?

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I am also interested in ARKIT with Reality Kit. Will there be an update or a seperate Book?

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Having recently purchased ARKit by Tutorials, but not having started it yet, I’m very curious about this as well. @thebelg’s question is also great.

it’s still actual question

@zoran @thebelg @briansipple @krissense We are working on the book update and it will be ready in the fall.

You can read more about the whole thing over here:

https://www.raywenderlich.com/4669119-will-our-ios-books-be-updated-for-swift-5-1-and-ios-13

Thank you!

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Looking forward. Will there also chapters about reality kit or a book

seems the simple answer is NO. bought it anyway and thought I should be able to work any minor needs for code adjustment. first couple of projects are fine, however when you hit RazeAd it goes off-rail pretty quick… am stopping on this one until the update as getting very frustrating now. some minor…ish quibbles about the book as is,

  1. the code in book differs from the working code samples. spent hours looking, retyping etc only to give up and copy in code from sample… and its different, after chapter 11 it tends to be a common occurrence. not sure why it differs as it is meant to be Swift 4.2 anyway, not 5.

  2. annoyingly you have to start afresh at most new chapters and have to import the starter code. I learn by placing notes within the code to remind me why I do things… however this gets wiped every time I have to import a new starter chapter.

  3. some starter chapters have whole sections of code commented out and you just need to uncomment them as “they are similar to code written earlier”. this doesn’t really help in learning as reiteration is better… at least I know what is similar if I actually write it rather than just uncomment it or cut and past things.

  4. some starter chapters differ or have pre-coded sections that weren’t there previously to “help you along”. in some cases its hard to work out why it is there… easier to know if you physically have to write it in rather than just have it there with a brief explanation.

  5. the imported starter code is sometimes restructured for you… would be better to have done the structure and know why it was done from the beginning.

  6. Swift by Design was great because you wrote the complete project from start to finish and had to go back and find mistakes… this format makes it easy to just get next chapter starter without knowing why the previous failed.

though long winded, the book isn’t that bad… easy to read and understand generally. just frustrating (maybe just currently). may next reissue could remedy some of these faults (as I see them).

going to another book for now and leave this in limbo for a bit.

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Hey. Will we have also some “Chapters” about the “Reality Composer”?

Hi, zoran.

Sorry to hear that you’re struggling and frustrated with the book. Also, thank you for your thoughtful and detailed feedback. I’m not sure why you’re running into these issues, like code samples not being the same. I’ve not heard of these types of issues with the book, so I’m not sure what’s happened. Maybe the version of the chapter text isn’t matched with the code version? That might be.

Where did you get the book and download the code from? Directly from our site? Is this the printed book or the PDF? What edition?

Regardless of your answers to these questions, I’m sorry. Also, as you may know, we are working on an updated version of the book, which is expected to be released very soon. Perhaps that will solve many of these problems.

Hi Paradox927

thanks for response.

I purchased books (iOS Apprentice and ARKit by Tutorial) direct from Raywenderlich site under my account. I downloaded the full set with book and code.

I don’t think it is an error specifically, Xcode has updated numerous times since books published, and since I purchased, so I just assume it’s an issue of swift terminology depricated… the provided code was probably updated with adjustments to swift, but the book (PDF) remained at the base 4.2 version… again, not a huge issue, but results in a lot of hair pulling in trying to work out why I get constant errors when I follow code word for word. As final resort I compare sample/final code line by line in case I missed something else and then the highlighted errors on mine don’t coincide with the sample code lines. as one area, the “willMove” portion in Sample section below,

FROM THE CODE

func restoreFromFullScreen() {
guard let billboard = billboard else { return }
guard billboard.isFullScreen == true else { return }
guard let mainViewController = mainViewController else { return }

guard let mainView = mainView else { return }

willMove(toParent:  **nil** )
view.removeFromSuperview()
removeFromParent()

willMove(toParent: mainViewController)
mainView.addSubview(view)
mainViewController.addChild( **self** )

billboard.isFullScreen =  **false**

self .mainViewController = nil
self .mainView = nil
}
}

FROM THE BOOK

func restoreFromFullScreen() {
guard let billboard = billboard else { return }
guard billboard.isFullScreen == true else { return } guard let mainViewController = mainViewController else { return }
guard let mainView = mainView else { return }

// 1

willMove(toParentViewController: nil)
view.removeFromSuperview()
removeFromParentViewController()

// 2

willMove(toParentViewController: mainViewController)
mainView.addSubview(view)
mainViewController.addChildViewController(self)

// 3

billboard.isFullScreen = false
self.mainViewController = nil
self.mainView = nil

}

As the book progressed I got more and more (a few before this part as well). The code for the images component in relation to literals also caused some grief, but worked out if I commented the lines out while writing the code then uncomment them afterwards the code changed itself to work without the additional “words”… again I assume change in swift.

Again not really an issue, just frustration… which would fix itself at next publication I assume. Typically this was what I was trying to avoid when I asked in the forum if the older (4.2) code was still compatible for learning or wait for new release… however no-one answered.

I only get an hour or so free time here and there so it makes it hard when I need to search web or forums or sample code to work out where (if) I went wrong. My issue of frustration, no malice intended…. otherwise books are 99.9% good

Was looking at buying swift apprentice as well, but may wait til swift 5.1 version is out.

Thanks again

Zoran

@zoran The updated version of the book is now available in the store:

https://store.raywenderlich.com/products/arkit-by-tutorials

I hope it helps!

@thebelg You can read more about what the new version of the book contains over here:

https://www.raywenderlich.com/5722842-announcing-our-ios-fall-sale

Thank you!

Thanks. Perhaps there will be a separate Book about Reality Kit …