Slashdot Mirror


Swift Vs. Objective-C: Why the Future Favors Swift

snydeq writes: InfoWorld's Paul Solt argues that It's high time to make the switch to the more approachable, full-featured Swift for iOS and OS X app dev. He writes in Infoworld: "Programming languages don't die easily, but development shops that cling to fading paradigms do. If you're developing apps for mobile devices and you haven't investigated Swift, take note: Swift will not only supplant Objective-C when it comes to developing apps for the Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and devices to come, but it will also replace C for embedded programming on Apple platforms. Thanks to several key features, Swift has the potential to become the de-facto programming language for creating immersive, responsive, consumer-facing applications for years to come."

1 of 270 comments (clear)

  1. What is Swift written in? by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 5, Informative

    What is Swift written in?

    It is built with the LLVM compiler framework included in Xcode 6, and uses the Objective-C runtime...

    So... C. Ok, we're done here.

    No wait. One more thing. It's the Objective-C runtime. Which means Objective-C programs will just keep running, as they ever have.

    Swift and Objective-C code can be used in a single program, and by extension, C and C++ as well.

    The new language can't supplant the old one while the old one exists in the same environment. More to the point, compatibility with Objective-C, C, and C++ was an explicit design goal. So you can just pack up all the bullshit about taking over the world.