MyViewController.swift

//
//  MyViewController.swift
//  TypedTableViewControllers
//
//  Created Chris Eidhof on 23/03/15.
//  Edited by Stan Serebryakov on 25/03/15.
//

func undefined() { fatalError("undefined") }

func when(@autoclosure condition: Void -> Bool, @autoclosure trueBranch: Void -> Void) {
    if condition() { trueBranch() }
}

class Box<A> {
    let unbox: A
    init(_ val: A) { unbox = val }
}

import UIKit

class MyViewController: UIViewController {

    @IBOutlet weak var tableView: UITableView!

    override init() {
        super.init(nibName: "MyViewController", bundle: nil)
    }

    required init(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        super.init(coder: aDecoder)
    }

    var items: [Any] = [] {
        didSet { when(tableView != nil, tableView.reloadData()) }
    }
    var item: (Int -> Any?) = { _ in undefined() }
    var configureCell: (UITableViewCell, Any) -> () = { _ in undefined() }
    let cellId = "CellId"

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        tableView.registerClass(UITableViewCell.self, forCellReuseIdentifier: cellId)
    }
}


extension MyViewController: UITableViewDataSource, UITableViewDelegate {

    func tableView(tableView: UITableView, didDeselectRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) {
        NSLog("\(item(indexPath.row))")
    }

    // MARK: - Table view data source

    func tableView(tableView: UITableView, numberOfRowsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
        return items.count
    }

    func tableView(tableView: UITableView, cellForRowAtIndexPath indexPath: NSIndexPath) -> UITableViewCell {
        let cell: UITableViewCell = tableView.dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier(cellId) as! UITableViewCell
        configureCell(cell, items[indexPath.row])
        return cell
    }

    class func newMyViewController<A>(items: [A], configure: (UITableViewCell, A) -> Void) -> MyViewController {
        var vc = MyViewController()
        vc.items = items.map { Box($0) }
        vc.configureCell = { cell, obj in
            if let value = obj as? Box<A> {
                configure(cell, value.unbox)
            }
        }
        vc.item = { i in
            if let item = vc.items[i] as? Box<A> {
                return item.unbox
            } else {
                return nil
            }
        }
        return vc
    }
}

The fact you cannot subclass UITableViewController and init with XIB in Swift is a known bug, here is workaround from Xcode release notes:

@import UIKit;
@interface UITableViewController() // Extend UITableViewController to work around 19775924
- (instancetype)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil NS_DESIGNATED_INITIALIZER ;
@end

What's the reason for defining when here?