When Tim Cook announced Swift in 2014, he declared that it would be the subsequent big programming language. He also asserted that every iOS app development company would be using this language to create apps shortly.
It has eventually turned out that Tim Cook was correct. At present, apart from being a success story, Swift will also be the future for iOS app development. It has been possible for Swift to capture most of the market ever since it was introduced. If you do not agree with this statement, this article will help you change your opinion.
What is Swift?
Swift can be defined as a pro-developer programming language intended for beginners. One can also consider it similar to the English language since it is simple to comprehend and code. Apart from this, it can be used for creating applications for all products of Apple.
Swift was introduced in the market to replace Objective-C that existed since 1984. It is quite simple to maintain Swift since Xcode(IDE) can sense any code error in real-time automatically. One more notable advantage is that Swift happens to be an open-source language. The good thing is that Swift can be used to create apps for iOS and iPhones, MacBook, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV.
A brief history of Swift
A team began to work on Swift in 2010 before Apple publicly launched it in 2014 at the Worldwide Developers Conference.
Several startups and indie developers started experimenting with the features of this language, including brief syntax and reduced crashes. Swift had been created to be a clear and short language that was powerful and simple to understand. Nevertheless, to many individuals, it appears to be an evolution of Objective-C.
• The initial version of Swift had been 1.0, which was upgraded to Swift 2 in 2015.
• On 3rd December 2015, an updated version, namely Swift 2.2, become available as an open-source application for Linux and Apple’s platforms.
• The 3rd version, namely Swift 3.0, likewise underwent a significant evolution where there was a modification in its syntax.
• Afterward, Swift went through lots of changes in the 4.0 version where it is possible to update the code written with earlier versions by making use of migration functionality.
In a nutshell, it can be rightly asserted that Swift has turned out to be a powerful and extremely popular iOS programming language at present. In case you have any doubt, we have mentioned the main features of Swift to convince you that it is the future for iOS app development.
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Top features of Swift
1. Open-Source
Swift.org, which performed the Swift application development, is a site dedicated to the Swift community. It has been created with a bug tracker, source code, normal development lists, and mailing lists.
A Linux version is likewise provided by Swift.org and a Linux toolset consisting of the LLDB debugger, package manager support, and the REPL. Using Swift, you will hire iOS app developers and create applications for iOS, tvOS, OS X, and watchOS. However, it runs only on a Mac.
Put simply; Swift helps to make the process of developing applications faster and safer.
2. Advancement in syntax
It will be feasible to write more expressive code using the innovative syntax features of Swift. In addition, innovative features of Objective-C, like generics explanations, have been used by the SDKs, which help to make code cleaner and safer.
3. Interactive playgrounds
Playgrounds of Swift are extremely beneficial for professional programmers. It enables them to test out new algorithm routines or graphics without building an entire iPhone application.
Apple has likewise added inline code execution to playgrounds that assist the developers in writing an algorithm or creating lots of codes while receiving feedback. Again, this will help to enhance the speed of writing the codes to a great extent.
4. Safety
Swift helps to remove entire concept code groups. For example, variables will be initialized before usage, integers will be verified for overflow, and memory will be handled automatically.
One more positive aspect regarding Swift is that it is impossible for the Swift objects to be zero, implying that a compiler error can be produced once you write a bad code. Put simply, it will be feasible to fix any problem while the code is written, and this will minimize the money and time that you will be spending on fixing glitches.
5. Powerful and fast
There has been a significant improvement of Swift by dropping legacy C conventions. Instead, it uses an extremely powerful LLVM compiler to convert Swift code into highly optimized native code.
Object categorization has become considerably faster, unlike Python with the help of Swift. It offers essential object-oriented features to the programmers, such as protocols, generics, and classes.
6. Objective-C Interoperability
The complete compatibility of Swift with Objective-C enables you to create a project that consists of files created in any of the two languages. Thus, it is possible to build up applications having a mixed-language codebase. Moreover, elements of the functionality of your app can be implemented by making use of the most recent features of Swift, and you can add it easily into the current Objective-C codebase.
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Benefits offered by Swift
Below, we will highlight the significant benefits provided by the Swift programming language at present.
1. Reduces development time
Any developer will appreciate a programming language that can be read by them easily. Swift provides this because it features a clean syntax, which helps make writing, reading, and modifying much simpler.
A lesser number of code lines will also be required by it for executing an option. This is because it eliminates legacy conversations. According to the experts, Swift is almost similar to plain English, which helps to make the entire process more natural. This helps in saving money as well as time which makes the development process of applications more enjoyable.
2. Does not require much maintenance
It is not everything to develop an application and launch it to the users. It has to be regularly updated such that it will be possible for the users to enjoy it for quite some time.
The developers needed to sustain a couple of code lines while using Objective-C if they desired to enhance the code’s efficiency. However, it is not the case right now, given that Swift combines (.h) and (.m) files into one (.swift) file.
3. Built for safety
Safety happens to be the primary concern for an individual trying to create an app. And the good thing is that there is no need to handle any risky code while working with Swift.
It likewise uses the most recent programming conventions for helping the programmers to maintain tight security on the applications developed by them.
Bear in mind that Swift allows an individual to describe valuables as optional types or value types. This signifies that a professional programmer will be free to classify whether the value is null or exists.
This implies that if a developer takes the NIL optional value by mistake, a runtime crash will be activated by Swift. This will enable a programmer to take care of glitches right away. Put simply; Swift will not create any possibilities for you to create malicious bugs.
4. Open-source
Apple declared in 2015 that Swift was open-source. Many programmers appreciated this since it implies that it will be possible to use Swift across various platforms out there. It is one of the main reasons why many developers like to use it rather than other programming languages available on the market.
At present, one can consider Swift to be one of the leading programming languages on the planet. Moreover, it also appears that Swift will be able to grab the first position in the future.
5. Experiment possibilities
An innovative playground mode is featured by Swift, which allows developers to work easily on some app concepts. Moreover, it helps to make things simpler since it will provide you with a genuine picture of how the application will be turning out such that you will be able to understand whether you should proceed or not. Apart from this, we like to mention that Swift also supports dynamic libraries.
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Conclusion
After going through this article, you will easily agree that Swift happens to be the future of iOS app development. This open-source language received lots of assistance from the community to develop over the last several years. Although the app development from Mac OS and iOS modified significantly with this, the question is that how good is it going to be eventually?
It is only possible for Apple to assert what the plan is for Swift; however, after several years, Swift has become more mature than before and more popular. It is a fact that developers creating native apps will not abandon this language in the future since nothing can be compared to a native app having a decent flow and performance.
Thus, it is evident that Swift will become the future of iOS app development without any doubt whatsoever. Due to this reason, the rivals of Apple are likewise adopting Swift at present. With all the innovative features provided by it, Swift will remain on top for quite some time now.
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