The World Needs a Better Core Data

Lots of WWDC predictions out there this week. Here’s a dream of mine. Sadly one that I’ve given up on, at least from Apple.

A Better Core Data.

• Tracking state is 1970s thinking. We should be tracking changes over time and rendering the current state of the object graph.
• Migrations, the number one feature. As you add new entities to a store, you do so through a migration. Change a column name, you do it through a migration. The current Core Data migration story is embarrassingly complex and very fragile. We need to have trust in our migrations.
• A single, focused, persistent store format. Allowing people to choose between XML, Binary, SQLite, InMemory and Custom adds more pain than it solves. Keep things simple. One on-disk format.