Installation

Easy installation

This option gives a simple iOS app that integrates swix:

  1. Dowload the repo or this file
  2. The iOS app is swix_ios_app/. Open it up and play with it!

This method gives a command-line tool that can be run on OSX.

  1. Download the repo or this file
  2. You’re done! You’ll have your project structure in swix-master/swix/, complete with a .xcodeproj and all that. The two files you care about are swix.xcodeproj and swix/.
  3. Open up swix.xcodeproj and run the tests.

Running Python/NumPy on iOS

Two projects exist that allow Python to run on iOS, kivy-ios and beeware.

kivy-ios:As of 2016-05-02, a new xcodeproj can be created by exactly following the instructions in the readme. Importantly, don’t forget to run ./toolchain.py build numpy then updating the xcodeproj. On GitHub, they have instructions to get kivy-ios running.

This tool can run NumPy.

When creating a GUI with the Kivy framework in your app “main.py”, the GUI looks like Kivy, not native. This is suitable if you’re trying to create the same application across many devices, which the Kivy framework allows.

beeware: An example iOS project can be found at beeware-ios-template. In this, the app is written completely in Python and can call native APIs naturally (i.e., you have access to all possible iOS APIs).

The BeeWare framework can not run NumPy as of 2016-05-02, but it’s on the roadmap. This depends on Python-iOS-support and there’s issue #23 tracks it.

Manual installation

This method can be generalized to any Swift project, whether it be iOS or OSX.

  1. Download the repo or this file
  2. Include the folder swix-master/swix/swix/swix in your project. The folder you want is right next to a main.swift
  3. Add (or modify) your Swift bridging header to include some Objective-C/C functions. Essentially, this means copying the image below to include swix/objc/swix-Bridging-Header.h in “Swift Compiler – Code Generation” under “Project”.
_images/header.png

  1. Done! To test, try inserting in main.swift or in viewDidLoad

    var x = arange(10)
var y = sqrt(x)
print(x)
print(y)

How to creat a new iOS app that includes swix

This is a more detailed version of the section on manual installation.

  1. Open Xcode and select to make a new iOS project.
  2. Be sure to select the source language as Swift
_images/swift.png
  1. Add the swix folder to your iOS app and copy the files. The swix folder is in the same folder and right next to a main.swift. The path should be swix-master/swix/swix/swix/
_images/add.png

3a. Make sure to check the box “Copy files if needed”!

_images/copy.png
  1. Go to your main project settings (the blue thing file at the very top of the left sidebar) and change the Swift bridging header in “Swift Compiler – Code Generation”
_images/header.png
  1. Build your project with ⌘R!

Optional

These steps are optional but can have nice results.

  1. Change your compiler optimization flag which can lead to incredible speed gains. Be careful – this skips assert. I would recommend testing with -Onone before switching.
  2. If you plan on using read_csv, write_csv, savefig, imshow you need to change the S2_PREFIX in numbers.swift. This should point to the swix folder; something like the/path/to/yourXcodeProjectName/swix/

Notes

  • I have not spent time on package management. There should be an import swix and is not (but I welcome pull requests!)
  • During my testing, swix doesn’t work in Playgrounds although it’s possible.

Possible bugs

I have marked other installation issues on GitHub with the “question” tag, viewable with the search is:issue label:question

  • Xcode can’t find the functions but seems to compile/etc correctly.
    • Cleaning before building can help with this . More details are described in issue #24. Part of this is making sure “Copy if needed” is selected copying swix into an Xcode project.
  • "Unresolved identifier *_objc"
    • The bridging header probably hasn’t been added correctly. Ensure swix/objc/swix-Bridging-Header.h has the correct path.
  • Unresolved identifier vDSP_* or similar,
    • The Accelerate framework hasn’t been added to Build Phases/Link Binary with Libraries.
    • The Accelerate framework can’t be found when running an iOS xcodeproj in the iOS simulator. For me it works on a physical device.
  • ".../swix/objc/OpenCV.h:12: 'opencv2/opencv.hpp' file not found".
    • Under Build Phases/Link Binary with library add swix/objc/opencv2.framework. If you don’t see the “Link Binary with Libraries” hit the plus button in the upper left (at least for XCode 6).
    • When clicking on “Add files to *” and in the diaglog that came up I should have hit the checkbox next to swix-OSXTests.