While I am not new to programming, I am quite new to the Swift language. I am using the Swift Playground app on macOS 26 on an M1 MacBook Air. I am on the lesson about types. Perhaps it's a silly question, but what is a portal? It is never described or pointed out where to find it in the puzzle world. Similarly, the instructions reference a "switch" object without ever defining what it is. I cannot write code to call methods or set properties on objects about which I have no useful information. Can anyone advise, please? Thank you kindly.

I am trying to complete the "Initializing Your Expert" lesson in the Swift Playground. Below I post just a snippet of the code that I wrote, since no matter how many lines of code I write, the turnLock() method has no effect whatsoever. let expert = Expert() /*Create a function that will move the Expert character forward the specified number of tiles. This will make the program easier to code and less verbose. */ func moveExpert(tiles: Int) { for tile in 1...tiles { expert.moveForward() } } /*Create a function to make the Expert do an about face, i.e. orient itself in the opposite direction. */ func aboutFace() { expert.turnRight() expert.turnRight() } expert.turnLockUp() The instructions give no information about this method, such as when or where it can and cannot be called. It states merely that calling it is supposed to "reveal the path between the platforms." I don't see multiple platforms in the 3D puzzle world, just one platform with different levels. No "path between platforms" is ever shown when I call this method, regardless of the location of the Expert character. Why doesn't this method ever do anything at all? Can anyone advise? Thank you kindly.

I am very new to the macOS Shortcuts application. In my opinion, the documentation is sparse and totally inadequate. The internet seems to be the only method of figuring out how to use this application. I have recently created a shortcut that is working well for me. It has several steps and is too large to fit in the Shortcuts editor window, so I cannot grab a screenshot of it for documenation purposes. I also cannot copy the contents of the editor window and paste them anywhere, such as in a new Note or TextEdit document. I do think Apple should add a means to create a PDF document of the Shortcuts editor window's contents. I went to the official Apple feedback page to leave comments but, irony of ironies, the Shortcuts app is not listed there! I have no idea what I am doing at this point but am excited to learn how to use Shortcuts to automate and simplify tasks that I have to perform frequently. Here's hoping the documentation and features for this application will one day be comprehensive, comprehensible, and complete.