NKorotkov / BriefLayout

BriefLayout is a very simple framework that leverages the power of Swift custom operators to ease the burden of writing autolayout code.

BriefLayout

BriefLayout is a very simple framework that leverages the power of Swift custom operators to ease the burden of writing autolayout code. It's just a syntax sugar, that makes trivial code more "brief".

Let's look at example, shall we?

Here's generic autolayout code:

NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
  myView.leftAnchor.constraint(equalTo: superview.leftAnchor, constant: 10),
  myView.rightAnchor.constraint(equalTo: superview.rightAnchor, constant: -10),
  myView.centerYAnchor.constraint(equalTo: superview.centerYAnchor)
])

And now with BriefLayout:

myView.left => superview.left + 10
myView.right => superview.right - 10
myView.centerY => superview.centerY

Looks much cleaner, right? Yes, there are frameworks that allow getting the same result with even less amount of code, probably a single line. But that was not the goal of BriefLayout. The main goal was to make boilerplate autolayout code a litle less cumbersome and a little more readable without introducing new abstractions.

FAQ

Q: What if I need to keep a reference to an arbitrary constraint instance to change it later?
A: It's easy. The => operator actually returns a newly created constraint, you just need to assign it.

let constraintRef = myView.left => superview.left + 10

Q: Where's constraint activation? Do I have to do it myself?
A: No, you don't! BriefLayout takes care of constraint activation under the hood.

License

MIT License