What is the Swift programming language?
By: Lena Charles
Tags: App Development, Swift Programming, Swift

Swift is the modern programming language that was designed to overcome the several challenges of the versatile Apple programming language Objective C. It was introduced on 2 June 2014 by Apple Inc.

Glimpse on Swift Programming Language

Swift is a general-purpose, multi-paradigm, compiled programming language.

Apache License 2.0

Supports all iOS platforms, including iPhone, iPad, Mac or the Apple Watch device.

Inbuilt with open source LLVM compiler framework.

Designed to work with Apple’s Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks and the large body of existing Objective-C code written for Apple product

Declared as a second Apple’s official language.

Declared as a second Apple’s official language. Easy to maintain and manage

Swift is the most preferred iOS programming language as it offers extensive features such as improving the quality of code, simpler syntax, and open source. In order to leverage all the benefits of the Swift development services it is essential for the iOS developers to know it’s pros and cons both.

Let’s know the advantages and disadvantages of the Swift programming language. It will help them to choose the language as per their project requirements.

Advantages of Swift Programming Language

Rapid Development Process

Swift Apple programming language helps developers to read and write code easily and faster. However, it reduces the coding efforts of the developers, which helps to consume less time in the development process. However, less coding leads to the rapid development process. Apart from this, the Swift programming language offers extensive features such as simplified Syntax, detect errors, and manages memory usage.

These features exclude many daunting tasks, which helps developers to speed up the development process.

Scalable

Swift programming language is considered as the most scalable platform. With Swift, developers don’t have limited opportunities, they can extend the feature and functionalities any time in the future or during the development process. It offers wide opportunities for developers to build iOS-based apps.

Interoperable with Objective C

Swift programming language can be easily integrated with Objective C. The code of ObjectiveC can be integrated with the Swift process. If your project is already coexisting with Objective C language, then the additional features and functionalities can be added with Swift without modifying the coding process. Furthermore, if the code is developed with Swift, then the code can be easily interoperable with Objective-C.

Easy to manage

With Objective C developers have to maintain the two different parts — the interface and the implementation. But with Swift, to manage the process becomes easier as they don’t have to face the hurdles and the content of the header (.h) and implementation (.m) files combined in just one file. However, Swift is easy to manage and it also reduces the chances of crashing the code.

Supported by Multiple Devices

Swift supports multiple Apple devices including iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV and Mac devices. This programming language is not limited to the Apple devices but it is also supportive of the Linux and Windows platforms.

Apple developers are continuously working on this language with the motive to support the tech world across. Recently, Google also announced that its upcoming operating system, Fuschia will be based on Swift programming language.

High Performance

As compared to the official Apple programming language known as Objective C, Swift offers 3.4X quicker speed. Even the code execution process is also faster which helps to save a lot of time for the iOS developers. Additionally, it supports dynamic libraries which boost the development process.

Clean Syntax

Swift offers clean syntax to the developers, which turns to read and write code easily and with fewer efforts. However, Swift based codes are similar to the English language.

However, Swift drops many legacy conventions such as semicolons to end lines or parentheses that surround conditional expressions inside if/else statements. It introduces a comma to separate the parts, that turn the code cleaner and simplified.

These were the pros of the Swift programming language, now have a look at the other part and that is cons.

Cons of Swift Programming Language

Modern Programming Language

Swift is known as the most powerful and fastest programming language. Along with this, it offers extensive features to the developers but still, this language is lacking as it is a new language in the industry. For the developers, it is difficult to accept a new language and to learn about it.

Lack of support for earlier IOS Versions

This is the major issue for the developers with Swift that it doesn’t support iOS7 or the later versions released. Swift language doesn’t support older projects or older versions of the iOS operating system.

Conclusion

Swift is the most popular and progressive iOS development language. With time this language will overcome the challenges also. It is considered as the future of Apple programming language. This language is extremely fast, efficient and scalable.

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