This year the celebration of well known Apple New Year in June in the company hosted World Wide Developer Conference or WWDC became very special with a somewhat ‘larger than usual’ announcement – the launch of Swift, a new multi paradigm compiled programming language for all Apple platforms like iOS and Mac OS X.

Definitely for any developer on Apples devices and platforms the announcement was marked with an unprecedented significance. For a developer or business professional or a user definitely apprehensive curiosity is definitely to rise.

You might already be thinking how this is going to impact the apps development on Apple platforms and how this is going to change the existing apps. Here below we introduce Apple’s Swift and the implications that are likely to come in the due course.

Swift Language

1. What Is Swift?

Swift is multi paradigm compiled programming language which has been designed to replace object oriented programming language of Apple called Objective-C. It will run seamlessly on all Apple frameworks like Cocoa and Cocoa Touch and will work with large amount of Objective-C codes that are written for Apple devices. But, Swift is particularly significant for being least tolerant to erroneous codes. Most important of all, developers do not need to learn all new tools from the scratch as Swift is supposed to run side by side with Objective-C.

2. Does Programming world really need it

Swift has been developed primarily to minimize the erroneous codes by developers. In this respect the syntax of this new programming language is the easiest of all for developers. Swift is more focused on how the syntax is being conveyed than the so called conventions. Moreover, it does not offer a broader learning curve for the programmers already working with Objective-C as it can work side by side and shares a lot of similarity with it. Swift is greatly viewed as a crucial and all encompassing enhancement on Objective-C to address all major time tested issues on Apple devices

3. Highlights of the language according to Apple

Apple describes Swift as modern, fast, powerful, safe and interactive programming language. Let us get inside these so called descriptive adjectives to reveal the benefits of Swift.

  • In a nutshell to speak, Swift is designed to accomplish more in a single line of code than its predecessor Objective-C
  • Apps crashing on your iPhone or iPad device is not uncommon but that is going to be rarer with Swift thanks to its resilience on erroneous codes.
  • Unlike Objective-C there is wide range of inbuilt functionalities within Swift and developers do not need to grope for separate codes from libraries. Developers need to work less for high performance apps when coding with Swift.
  • From a developers perspective seeing the change that the coding incorporates is important to assess the user benefits and Swift makes this possible. Without recompiling a program developers can see the changes instantly while coding with Swift

4. The Five Key Points Swift Improves On Objective-C

From simplifying syntax to effectively making programming resilient to errors, from wider range of inbuilt functionalities to the introduction of a code evaluation feature with REPL, Swift offers some crucial improvements on Objective-C.

  • Much improved enumeration method in Swift makes programming simpler and less prone to errors.
  • Swift offers enhanced type interface on Objective-C by introducing ‘Var’ keyword.
  • Wide range of inbuilt functionalities: With Objective-C developers often needed to find separate codes from other libraries but in Swift you can find a lot of functional codes built in.
  • Evaluation of Codes with REPL: REPL means ‘return-evaluate-print-loop’ which works as a sandbox to evaluate and test codes instantly.
  • Uses the same runtime:With Swift developers can implement new features immediately besides the prevailing Objective-C. It is an adoptive programming language that will either enhance the existing Objective-C features or facilitate new ones.

From a developers point of view the promise of Swift is literally huge, an altogether more rigorous and proactive apps development environment. For apps users the positive implications are to be revealed in the due course of time. From decreasing instances of apps crash to less and less occurrences of unknown errors or shutdowns to faster output, the implications can be equally promising for the users.

Author Bio:

Tejas Jasani is a founder & CEO of a Game Development Company named The APP Guruz. His major focus is on how to improve mobile user’s smart phone experience through development of mobile games and apps.

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