Swift Overview

Introduction to Swift Programming Language

Swift is a new generation programming language developed by Apple Inc. for iOS and OS X development. Swift adopts the best of C and Objective-C, without the constraints of C compatibility. Due to modern syntax, safety features, and optimized performance Swift is fast, concise, expressive and easy to use. It makes the development process easier by providing features like automatic memory management, type inference, etc. Using Swift we can create dynamic applications for mobile, desktops or even for server-side applications. Its main aim is to provide a seamless and robust development experience to its users.

History of Swift

The history of Swift began in 2010 when an Apple engineer named Chris Lattner started working on a new programming language. His main aim was to craft a programming language that is easy to use and more expressive just like high-level languages and provides great performance like low-level languages.

He achieves his goal by creating Swift programming language. So in 2014, Apple unveiled Swift to the world for the very first time at WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference) to replace Objective-C for iOS and macOS development.

After that, the evolution process went on and created the following versions of Swift with updates and improvements. The latest version of Swift is 5.9.

Characteristics of Swift

Swift offers various characters to its developers which will help them to develop optimized and dynamic applications for the Apple platform and the key characteristics are −

• Modern Syntax − Swift provides clean and expressive syntaxes so that the developer can develop concise and easy-to-read programs. It makes it a more approachable language for both beginner and experienced developers.

• Safety − It increases safety by removing common bugs and errors. It incorporates modern programming techniques which makes it more secure and reliable.

• Performance − It provides high performance just like low-level languages while maintaining the safety and expressiveness of the code.

• Interoperability − Swift is an interoperable language. It works seamlessly with other languages like Objective-C. Developers are allowed to use Swift and Objective-C code together in the same project.

• Open Source − Swift is an open-source programming language that enhances the collaboration, innovation and ongoing improvements of Swift.

• Optionals − Swift provides great support to the optionals so that developers can explicitly represent the absence of value. It handles null or undefined values very well without the risk of runtime crash.

• Type inference − Swift supports a strong type system but it also incorporates with type interface to reduce the requirement of explicit type annotation. This means the Swift compiler is capable of analyzing the variables and expressions and determining their type.

• Automatic Memory Management − Swift uses Automatic Reference Counting to manage memory. It handles memory allocation and deallocation automatically without any lag. Because allocating memory manually is the common source of errors for the developers.

• Closures − Swift provides great support to the closures. Closure is a block code that can be referenced, passed around and executed later. They enhance the modularity and flexibility of the program.

• Protocol-Oriented Programming − Swift encourages protocol-oriented programming. It emphasizes the use of protocols to create blueprints for functionality. It creates reusable, modular and composable codes.

Application of Swift

Swift is primarily used for developing applications for Apple’s platform but it can also be used in developing applications for other platforms. Although Swift has numerous application which is impossible to note down, so we provide some of the major applications of Swift −

• iOS App Development − It is the most preferred language for developing applications for iOS devices like iPad, iPhone, etc.

• macOS Development − It is also used for creating applications, utilities, and software for the macOS operating system.

• watchOS App development − Using Swift we can also create a wide range of health applications for Apple Watch.

• tvOS App Development − With the help of Swift we can also create various entertainment apps for tvOS.

• Cross-Platform Development − Swift is not limited to Apple's platform, we can also create applications for other platforms using cross-platform development. For example, the SwiftUI framework is used to create applications or interfaces that run on both Windows and iOS.

• Server-Side Development − Swift is also used in server-side development. It allows developers to develop web applications, APIs, and services using server-side Swift frameworks such as Vapour, Kitura and Perfect.

Disadvantages of Swift

Every programming language has its pros and cons. Similarly, Swift also has various advantages and disadvantages. So, some of the major disadvantages of Swift are −

• Swift is primarily developed for creating applications for Apple’s devices. So outside Apple’s ecosystem, it has limited use because developers have many alternative options for the cross-platform language.

• Swift is a new programming language so it does not have mature tools like other programming languages.

• As compared to Java, JavaScript or Python it has a small developer pool.

• The compatibility with non-Apple platforms is limited.

• Swift supports type inference and optimization, so if the project is larger then the compilation time is long.