APPLE’S NEW PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE: SWIFT

Apple has added a new name to the list of programming languages. Its called the ‘SWIFT’ programming language. Swift, Apple’s new programming language took about 4 years to get developed. Swift will replace the Objective-C programming language in few months to come.

Apple’s Swift is a multi-paradigm programming language developed to use with IOS and OS X. Swift provides new, cleaner and more robust tools for developing applications. Craig Federighi, Apple’s chief of engineering says that Swift is ‘safe, modern and powerful.’

Design of swift

The Swift programming language combines features from other modern languages such as Python, C# and Haskell and at the same time includes the best features of Objective-C and C.

Swift is built with the LLVM : Low Level Virtual Machine compiler included in Xcode 6 beta. It uses the Objective-C runtime, so that it allows Objective-C, Objective-C++ and Swift code to run within a single program. The compiler is optimized for performance while the language is optimized for development without compromising on either.

Swift was described as “Objective C without the C” by Apple’s VP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi during its debut. Also, Swift will provide a speed advantage for developers.

Swift is similar to Objective-C in terms of basic numeric types, C operators, Closures, Control statements and so on. While it differs from Objective-C in that header files are not required, statements don’t end with semi-colon, operators can be redefined for classes, generic programming, no exception handling and many more.

It won’t be wrong to say that Swift is a language which includes almost everything that developers may need to build their softwares.

The tools Swift includes

This not only includes an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) – an interface where coders can write code for their software—but also several other tools, like a debugger that can help weed errors from their code.

It also provides what’s known as “inferred typing,” which basically means that coders don’t require to spend more time in defining what types of variables they are using.

Swift is a wonderful way to write iOS and OS X apps, and will continue to develop with new features and capabilities.

So, lets see how Swift will make the tasks of developers easy to build apps for iOS and OS X platforms. 🙂