Some interesting replies in this thread! I want to expand on my flippant "Xcode is so bad" a bit.
A lot of the stuff I dislike about Xcode impacts large, complex, multi-team, multi-language projects, with nib files and storyboards and other resources. I guess a lot of that is simply irrelevant to Swift Playgrounds, so it could be better just by dropping those features!
On the other hand, another big complaint I (and others) have is that the Swift compiler is too slow. That does affect Playgrounds; I've tried using playgrounds within Xcode and been very underwhelmed, so I'm skeptical that the standalone app would be any better.
But people here are reporting how much their kids enjoy using Playgrounds. I do like Swift on the whole, but I wouldn't have thought it to be pleasant as a first language for beginners. So I'm curious!
I wonder how big a difference good hardware makes -- recent iPad hardware is very good indeed, so I can see how a more focused app on an iPad might outperform Xcode on an x86 Macbook "Pro".
A lot of the stuff I dislike about Xcode impacts large, complex, multi-team, multi-language projects, with nib files and storyboards and other resources. I guess a lot of that is simply irrelevant to Swift Playgrounds, so it could be better just by dropping those features!
On the other hand, another big complaint I (and others) have is that the Swift compiler is too slow. That does affect Playgrounds; I've tried using playgrounds within Xcode and been very underwhelmed, so I'm skeptical that the standalone app would be any better.
But people here are reporting how much their kids enjoy using Playgrounds. I do like Swift on the whole, but I wouldn't have thought it to be pleasant as a first language for beginners. So I'm curious!
I wonder how big a difference good hardware makes -- recent iPad hardware is very good indeed, so I can see how a more focused app on an iPad might outperform Xcode on an x86 Macbook "Pro".