I've been using Swift to create iOS apps for a while now, after working on web for a while.

And for some reason, I just feel like UIKit is made in a way that makes it very difficult to use.

For example, when using a UIStackView, I thought it would be really nice to just stack views right on top of each other.

But then I realized there's no easy way to make them stack that way, and instead it makes them fill the available space automatically. To make them stack with their regular height, I have to constrain them to that height.

Compare that to Android's LinearLayout - it stacks the way I intend, and has options to do it the way iOS's UIStackView does as well.

Or take the way iOS connects with Storyboard. It's a little confusing to have to put an IBOutlet or IBAction whenever you want to connect to a storyboard element (until you get used to it, of course).

I also wish iOS made it easier to edit Storyboards as XML, because sometimes it's just easier to use than drag-and-drop.

It just feels like nothing else I've ever used, and it took me quite a while to get a handle on how everything was connected.

On that note, I definitely like where Apple is headed with SwiftUI, announced at WWDC this year.

I just about jumped out of my seat when I saw the demo! The live update in the simulator, the way the syntax works (similar to Flutter), I can't wait for it...

...except my mid-2007 iMac is going to have some trouble running macOS Catalina...

But back to my main point, the current UIKit has been really bothersome for me, and I'm wondering what other people's thoughts are.

Personally, I kind of wish mobile app development worked more like HTML/CSS/JS with WebComponents...which I suppose you could do with a WebView, but...

...that just feels hacky on a whole new level.