Posted on 12/04/2015 2:50:36 PM PST by Swordmaker
As promised earlier in the year, Apple’s Swift team has now posted source code for the Swift compiler and standard library functions and objects. Open-sourcing Swift is a big win for the developer community as it means Swift can now be setup to run on a server and many other use cases, bringing Apple programming talent and expertise beyond ‘just’ making apps iOS devices and Macs.
Making Swift open-source also gives the developer community as a whole more confidence in the language. Theoretically, if Apple ever decided to move away from Swift (which is unlikely), the language could be picked up by others and continue development and existing codebases could continue to be supported.
By open sourcing the language, Apple is also inviting the community to help make Swift better, by contributing to the language itself. It is yet to be seen how open Apple approach accepting significant community pull-request however. The Swift site says the project prefers ‘small incremental improvements’.
For those interested in finding out more, check out the documentation on the Swift.org site. The code itself is hosted on a GitHub repository. The repo is currently 404ing but the code should be up shortly.
Apple is publishing code for the raw language compiler as well as the Swift standard library and parts of Foundation, which many developers did not think would happen. Frameworks like AppKit and UIKit remain exclusive to Mac and iOS app development as expected. The published ‘core libraries’ include some of the most important components from AppKit and UIKit, like a networking stack, threading, and common data types, however. Apple says these features are actually planned for official release in the as-yet-unannounced Swift 3, but is including them now for feedback in the early development stages.
Pinging dayglored and Shadow Ace for their lists.
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As an open source language, the broad community of talented developers — from app developers to educational institutions to enterprises — can contribute to new Swift features and optimizations and help bring Swift to new computing platforms. Introduced in 2014, Swift is the fastest growing programming language in history and combines the performance and efficiency of compiled languages with the simplicity and interactivity of popular scripting languages. Apple today also launched the Swift.org website with detailed information about Swift open source, including technical documentation, community resources and links to download the Swift source code.
Hair Force One“By making Swift open source the entire developer community can contribute to the programming language and help bring it to even more platforms,†said Craig “Hair Force One” Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, in a statement. “Swift’s power and ease of use will inspire a new generation to get into coding, and with today’s announcement they’ll be able to take their ideas anywhere, from mobile devices to the cloud.â€
Swift is a powerful and intuitive programming language that gives developers the freedom and capabilities they need to create the next generation of cutting-edge software. Swift is easy to learn and use, even if you’ve never coded before, and it’s the first systems programming language that is as expressive and enjoyable as a scripting language. Designed for safety, Swift also eliminates entire categories of common programming errors.
The Swift open source code is available via GitHub and includes support for all Apple software platforms — iOS, OS X, watchOS and tvOS — as well as for Linux. Components available include the Swift compiler, debugger, standard library, foundation libraries, package manager and REPL. Swift is licensed under the popular Apache 2.0 open source license with a runtime library exception, enabling users to easily incorporate Swift into their own software and port the language to new platforms.
Source: Apple Inc.
What kind of language is Swift?
Functional, Procedural, OOP ?
All of the above?
A big non-event since it only runs on OSX and IOS. C# did that years ago. Apple again is way behind the curve.
SWIFT
Secret Way Into Financial Transactions
Sorry.
I am so /s and so /cynical these days that I don’t believe anyone.
After Apple open sources it, IBM puts Swift programming in the cloud
By Kevin Tofel for Mobile Platforms-- ZDNet -- December 4, 2015 -- 15:38 GMTIBM has already put the Linux port of Apple's Swift programming language to good use, releasing the IBM Swift Sandbox: A way to code in the cloud.
That didn't take long: As soon as Apple released its Swift programming language to the open source community, IBM created a way to code with Swift in the cloud.
Big Blue released its IBM Swift Sandbox that runs your Swift code on a Linux server using a Docker container.
No, you're not going to create the next big Swift program in the Sandbox, but for those wanting to get their feet wet with Apple's newest object oriented programming language, the IBM Swift Sandbox is worth the look.
And it underscores IBM's continued partnership with Apple.
The company is on-board to create enterprise apps for iOS devices and is already saving thousands of dollars in support costs by deploying Apple hardware within its own ranks. IBM says "we love swift here" so I'd expect the company to highlight additional Swift implementations in the future, helping Apple further its cause to make Swift a go-to language for modern app development.
Perhaps best of all, by putting a Swift environment in the cloud, you can use the language on any device running a modern browser.
I whipped a few lines of code together in Safari on the iPad Pro - my full time computing device - and was able to run them without a problem or any lag. The text editor highlights common code errors just as you'd expect in an Integrated Development Environment or code creation tool.
That's super useful in a classroom setting where students can tinker with Swift to learn app development.
This will tell you more about it:
Apple unveils Swift, a new programming language for iOS and Mac
Really???? What is on the curve, Okie? Java?
Sweet. Have to check this out.
It also runs on Linux, Now that it is open source expect Windows will come soon enough. If you care about mobile, it is a bigger event and more relevant the C#.
I guess that arouses my curiosity: what sort of limitation is that, effectively?
Didn’t know you had one, let alone that you were all in for it. Did you post that link as an FR thread, and I not catch it?I’ve wondered about getting one for my wife, who uses “my” iPad 2 for surfing and solitaire games. Does the Pro default to a bigger font size and display in Safari? If you’ve already posted a thread on it, point me to it, please.
Tain't me. . . Look again. I posted an article by Kevin Tofel from ZDNet. I haven't done any serious programming for at least fifteen years. I am entering this reply on my new iPad Pro, and it's great. The clearest screen of any tablet I've seen (my old eyes love that!) and yes, it has larger display fonts. You aren't trying to read itty-bitty text on the screen.
I haven't posted a thread on my experiences with it yet as I've only had it a few days and I'm still trying things and the Apple Pencil is on back order. Im trying to get used to a new keyboard layout. There is a learning curve with that.
“A big non-event since it only runs on OSX and IOS. C# did that years ago. Apple again is way behind the curve.”
As someone pointed out, Apple’s provided Linux SDKs also.
There will definitely be a Windows port soon, as Swift is based on the LLVM which is already available there.
It’s a very big deal, as Swift has few competitors - it’s a modern language that will meet or exceed C++ efficiency with no GC pauses. That makes it suitable for developing, among other things, server apps, desktop apps, games, simulations, scientific apps, embedded systems (robotics, IoT) and even hard realtime.
In other words, it’s a true general purpose systems language.
It actually relaxes derivative works from providing attribution to Swift/Apple under certain circumstances:
Most of that is covered under the standard Apache license, but Federighi tells us that Apple has also included a more permissive runtime exception, “so that if you build code in Swift and parts of the Swift library are generated in your own code, you don’t have to provide attribution in that case.â€http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/12/craig-federighi-talks-open-source-swift-and-whats-coming-in-version-3-0/
Swift is a big deal to Apple. Objective C was very long in the tooth.
Swift when compared to Java and C# is just a minor improvement. It’s well know Apple doesn’t play well with others, and will take their ball and go home with the slightest provocation. For example their iCloud sync issue with Outlook 2015.
I have to admit I enjoyed the copy past answer you got. Kind of Apple’s own Bagdad Bob.
Swift is fully OOO and a Functional Language to. The biggest thing is the Tuples support. To me it like a cross between C# and Python.
Tain't me. . . Look again. I posted an article by Kevin Tofel from ZDNet.Didn't know you had one, let alone that you were all in for it. Did you post that link as an FR thread, and I not catch it?
I saw that the article was by someone else, but you used your declaration of your own commitment to the iPad Pro as the hypertext for that link. I thought I was responding to that.I am entering this reply on my new iPad Pro, and it's great. The clearest screen of any tablet I've seen (my old eyes love that!) and yes, it has larger display fonts. You aren't trying to read itty-bitty text on the screen.
Congrats, sounds super. My wife really isn’t nearsighted enough for the small text; I would like very much for her to have something that was easier on her eyes. Hopefully, such that the text is automatically in a decent-sized font. I will note that my iMac has handicapped access setting to limit how small the font will get, but in my experience that tended to mess up FR web page displays. Otherwise, I’d be using it instead of continually having to bump up the font size.I haven't posted a thread on my experiences with it yet as I've only had it a few days and I'm still trying things and the Apple Pencil is on back order. Im trying to get used to a new keyboard layout. There is a learning curve with that.
. . . as is to be expected. I take it you are using the separate keyboard?Time was, OS X had macro capability so that you could assign text strings to key combos. I used that for awhile, but it seemingly went away a few upgrades ago. Sure would be nice, pending John Robinson’s finding the gremlin which is making the HTML hash up my quotation marks and apostrophes. Really wouldn’t be a true substitute, because even if I do put in ’ instead of ’ the character altho displayed correctly does not come out right if someone tries to copy and paste it in a reply.
So, is Swift interpretive or compiled?
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