Swift new super power

To me, the most sensational news that came out of this year WWDC is without any doubt Swift going Open Source next Fall. Swift (the compiler and standard library) running on Linux!

I've started on Swift since day one with AeroGear libraries, switching from ObjC to Swift is quite change of paradigm. In my Swift journey, I learnt some "super powers" I like to talk about when I do presentations on Swift. See my slides for more super-hero drawings ;)

Apple told us in 2014 when launching Swift: "It's Objective-C without the C" and it's going to be be its successor. In WWDC 2015, Craig Federighi said Objective-C was around for the last 30 years and Swift will be here for the next 20 years.

It turns out that Swift is not Objective-C at all, but for sure it's here to stay :]

Developers have understood it and it's no surprise to me that Swift is ranked 22nd at Redmonk indice with a fulgurant growth this year.

Why do I like Swift so much?

Its elegant syntax

Just for not having to deal with block syntax agin, I love you Swift.
Some have said Swift wasn't innovative, it got lot of family ressemblance from other langages. True, it takes advantage from the experience hard-won by many other languages said Chris Lattner in his blog.
I like the consistent reusable syntax: I override subscript operator like I write computed properties etc... Easy.

Playground is just fun

Easy too, to get started with Swift. Download the Swift guided tour playground. With some REPL and hands-on, it's fun. I love how you can build your own toolbox with Swift playgrounds: mixing explanations and code snippets. See my previous post about it and I'm happy to share my toolbox with you.

Open the way to new paradigms

Swift opens the way to new paradigms: with a statically type language, generics, functions, closures, we've got the tools to do more functional programming. Immutability is right into Swift's heart. With constants and variables, Swift let you define what is immutable. Besides, almost all types in Swift are value types, including arrays, dictionary, numbers, booleans, tuples, and enums. Classes are the exception rather than the rule. Functional fun is not just for JVM language.

Open Source as a new super power

For the last year, when giving presentations on Swift, I've been regularly asked: What are Apple plans on open sourcing Swift?
At last, we've got the answer!
There is no doubt that going Open Source will fuel Swift progression, it will also, most probably open new opportunities.

Future looks bright and as a Swift developer, we can contribute.



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