Swift by Sundell
123: “The evolution of Swift”, with special guest Nick Lockwood
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
- Swift combines high-level syntax with performance features similar to Rust.
- Swift's strong conventions lead to a more distributed ecosystem of dependencies.
- Transitioning to Swift Package Manager poses challenges but offers benefits like update control.
Deep dives
The Evolution of Swift Compared to Kotlin and Rust
Kotlin and Rust are contemporary peers to Swift but differ in their approaches. While Kotlin is superficially similar to Swift in syntax, Swift aims to address memory and safety issues from C and Objective-C. Swift emphasizes the use of static types and static dispatch, distinguishing it from its predecessors like Objective-C.
Syntactic Comparison of Swift with Rust and JavaScript
Swift aims to combine high-level syntax comparable to JavaScript with strong typing and performance features, similar to Rust. Rust offers more control and responsibility to the developer, especially in performance-critical scenarios. Swift's balance of approachability and performance sets it apart from Rust's emphasis on system-level control.
Swift's Consistency and the Future of Foundation
Swift's strong conventions, combined with Apple's shift towards using Swift Package Manager for delivering new functionality, create a more distributed ecosystem of dependencies. While this approach allows flexibility and ease of updates, some concerns exist regarding the fragmentation of dependencies and potential complexities in managing interdependent packages. Apple's considerations to split the Foundation framework into smaller packages signal a move towards a more modular approach, enabling selective inclusion of functionalities.
Challenges and Trade-offs of Package Management in Swift
Transitioning towards a more package-driven development approach poses challenges regarding dependency resolution, compatibility, and library fragmentation. While the shift to Swift Package Manager offers benefits like greater update control and customization, it also introduces potential issues such as dependency conflicts and increased complexity in managing third-party libraries. Balancing the advantages of a distributed ecosystem with maintaining API coherence and stability remains a key consideration in evolving Swift's development landscape.
The Future of Foundation in Swift
The podcast episode discusses the future of Foundation in Swift. Apple recently published a blog post outlining how the Swift implementation of Foundation will become the default going forward. The new version of Foundation will be entirely written in Swift, offering exciting possibilities for both Linux platforms and Apple platform users. By splitting Foundation into smaller libraries, users can select specific functionality they need, contributing to a more modular approach.
Swift's Evolution and Potential Use Cases
The podcast also delves into Swift's evolution and its potential use in various contexts. Swift's expansion into new use cases, such as on servers and for scripting, is highlighted. The discussion touches on the language's progress, like supporting Swift on different platforms and its adoption outside the Apple developer sphere. While Swift is viewed as an iOS language, its potential as a general-purpose language continues to be explored and its adoption in various domains remains a topic of interest.
On this final episode of 2022, Nick Lockwood returns to the show to discuss the overall evolution of Swift and its ecosystem of tools and libraries. How has Swift changed since its original introduction in 2014, how does it compare to other modern programming languages, and how might the language continue to evolve in 2023 and beyond?
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Links
- Nick on Mastodon
- John on Mastodon
- ShapeScript
- Kotlin
- Rust
- NSProxy
- Lisp
- Macros in C and C++
- Reflection in Swift
- PHP
- The Result type
- Classes vs structs
- Swift’s API design guidelines
- Swift Concurrency
- Swift Async Algorithms
- The Future of Foundation
- Swift Collections
- Swift Evolution proposal for function back deployment
- Building editable lists with SwiftUI
- The Swift features that power SwiftUI’s API
- Publish (static site generation in Swift)
- swift-sh by Max Howell
- Swift Evolution proposal for adding macros to the language
- Accessing a property wrapper’s enclosing instance
- Intro and outro music by Dariusz Dziuk
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