Weekly Comment
A week ago, I received a notification from the Traffic Police App informing me that it was time to renew my driver’s license. A decade has passed since my last renewal, during which both the regulations governing licenses and the methods for conducting medical examinations have undergone significant changes.
In recent years, the traffic police department has been actively promoting contactless self-service medical examination systems. Influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, this examination method has gradually become mainstream. In my city, there are now about 20 self-service examination stations, while only three traditional manual inspection points remain.
However, self-service examination equipment cannot fully accommodate the needs of all drivers. Due to my color vision deficiency, I can only opt for manual testing. Although Chinese traffic regulations allow individuals with color vision deficiency to hold a driver’s license (only red-green color blindness is disqualified), as a veteran driver with 28 years of experience, I often had to repeatedly explain my condition to doctors during past examinations (as color blindness test cards were the only available testing method) to prove that I could correctly distinguish colors. I expected similar trouble this time, but after understanding my situation, the doctor simply brought out a bunch of colored pencils and asked me to pick out the red and green ones. This seemingly small change delighted me. It not only reflected a more nuanced implementation of the law, improved the examination experience for specific groups, increased efficiency, but also eliminated the possibility of power rent-seeking - truly killing multiple birds with one stone.
On my new license, the next renewal (medical examination) date is marked as 20 years later. This is because by then, I will have reached the age threshold requiring annual examinations. At first glance, annual checks seem troublesome, but upon careful consideration, given the rapid development of autonomous driving technology, the regulations, testing methods, and approaches are bound to undergo revolutionary changes in 20 years.
In a few years, we may witness a major transformation of the driver’s license system: shifting from the current classification based on vehicle size (function) to one based on the vehicle’s autonomous driving capabilities. Meanwhile, the medical examination method might evolve from the current specific self-service equipment to convenient testing based on personal smart devices. Imagine a future where we can complete a comprehensive driving adaptability assessment through smartphones or wearable devices, offering both convenience and real-time monitoring of driver conditions to ensure road safety.
Renewing a driver’s license may seem like a small matter in life, but through this tiny window, we can glimpse a microcosm of social change. In recent years, the comprehensive digitization of various documents such as ID cards, driver’s licenses, and medical insurance cards has quietly transformed our ways of living, working, socializing, and traveling. These changes have brought tangible conveniences to people’s lives.
I eagerly embrace these advancements while looking forward to seeing more humane adjustments like this color vision test. In today’s rapidly developing technological era, we should not forget to focus on the needs of each individual, ensuring that social progress is imbued with warmth and human care.
Recent Selections
Update: Mastering TipKit
At WWDC 2024, the TipKit framework was significantly enhanced. This series of articles (including the Advanced Edition) has been thoroughly revised based on the latest updates. In addition to introducing new features such as TipGroup and network data synchronization, it further clarifies some fundamental concepts, such as the identifier-based Tip recognition mechanism (Tip reuse) and the independence of events from Tips.
Why We All Love the Gucci App on VisionPro
It has been half a year since the launch of Apple Vision Pro, and developers have been continually exploring and creating applications that cater to the nuances of this platform and user needs. Among many trials, the Gucci app stands out with its unique design and narrative approach, setting a new benchmark for fashion and lifestyle applications. Puffinwalker deeply analyzes the allure of the Gucci app in two articles (the second part) and compares it with other similar applications on the market, discussing why users often refer to “Gucci” as a high standard when experiencing other excellent apps.
Impress at Job Interviews by Inspecting their App Bundle
The .ipa file is the packaging format for iOS applications, short for iOS App Store Package. After developing an iOS app, developers typically package all related files into an .ipa file and upload it to Apple’s App Store or distribute it through other means. In this article, Jacob Bartlett explains in detail how to obtain and analyze .ipa files and optimize them. He believes that mastering these skills can help developers showcase their expertise during technical interviews, thereby making a lasting impression on interviewers.
In last week’s article Profiling App Size on iOS, Alexey Alter-Pesotskiy demonstrated methods for detailed analysis of the size of apps or SDKs using other tools.
Send Data Between iOS Apps and Extensions Using Darwin Notifications
Darwin notifications provide a system-wide communication mechanism on iOS devices, particularly suited for transferring information between apps and their extensions. Unlike NSNotificationCenter, which is limited to intra-app communication, Darwin notifications can work across processes but do not support sending notifications with additional data (like a userInfo dictionary). In this article, Rizwan Ahmed not only explains in detail the workings and implementation of Darwin notifications but also highlights their importance and practicality across the app ecosystem.
Using Custom Symbols in iOS 18’s Control Center Widgets
iOS 18 introduced the ability for apps to create their own Control Center widgets. Quentin Zervaas discusses how to use the SF Symbols system to convert ordinary icons into system-compliant custom symbols. This involves using specialized tools (like SwiftDraw) and setting up the proper asset directories for the correct integration and display of symbols. Through these steps, developers can offer a more personalized and dynamic visual experience for their Control Center widgets.
Init() to Win It
The declarative nature of SwiftUI often misleads developers into overlooking the necessity of custom view type initializers, thus fostering a notion that view type initializers are superfluous. In this article, Danny Bolella addresses this misconception and delves into the complexity of SwiftUI view type initializers. The article emphasizes that even within the streamlined framework of SwiftUI, properly managing initializers and state is crucial for building efficient and fully functional apps.
Working with UDP in SwiftNIO
UDP is a simpler protocol than TCP, as it does not perform delivery confirmation, thus providing higher speed in data transmission, though it may result in data loss. In this article, Joannis Orlandos thoroughly explores the differences between TCP and UDP and guides how to build a UDP server using SwiftNIO. The article demonstrates how to implement a simple UDP echo server that receives data packets, reads string content, and sends it back to the client reversed.