About the Swift programming language, what is trending?
“In a world in which it’s incredibly difficult to break into the Top 25 of language rankings, let alone the Top 10, Swift managed the chore in less than four years.”, said RedMonk analyst Stephen O’Grady in his recent report.
So, this becomes a topic to discuss this more in detail about how Swift proves to be beneficial for developing iPhone apps and many others.
Key Benefits of Swift Programming Language
1. Super Open-Source Community
On 3rd Dec 2015, Apple announced Swift to be an open source iOS programming language.
The benefit of a programming language being an open source is that there are a lot more chances to make it a developer-friendly programming language.
The developers for iPhone applications can explore and enhance Swift language, contribute to bug fixes, add new features & platforms, and much more.
Swift, being an open source, made it evolve through the years with the strong community of developers.
2. Easy Code Readability
Swift is one programming language whose code is easiest to read and write.
This is just a simple syntax for using the For-In method with iPhone app development language – Swift.
Did you find it similar to Objective C?
Yes, it is. But, Swift is not made using C. You have to write so few lines of code compared to Objective C and can have the simple and clean syntax throughout the code.
Also, in Objective C, we add semicolons at the end of the parenthesis for conditional statements. Sometimes, we even get errors while compiling just because we forgot to add the semicolon in some lines. This is not the case with Swift.
Also, now in Swift, you don’t need to add commas at the end of the parenthesis within the parenthesis. So, no loops of [[[]]].
This has made Swift more simple and clean compared to C/C++. Hence, almost all language programmers can easily grasp Swift and develop iOS applications using the same.
3. Easy Code Maintenance
C always had this drawback to maintain two code files to improve the build time and the efficiency of the code developed using C – (.h) header file and (.m) implementation file. This even carried forward in the Objective C language.
But, with Swift, all the content of the header (.h) and implementation (.m) files are combined in just one file that is (.swift).
So, iPhone app developers don’t need to maintain two code files in Swift and can work on more functional areas such as app logic.
4. Speedy App Development
When we talk about speed, this is a must-read post by Maxim Zaks on “10 thousand times faster Swift”. Here, he explains how he brought FlatBuffers to Swift which proved Swift to be much, much faster than any other language.
Have a look at the below image as well. It says that Swift programming language is around 2.6x faster than Objective C.
So, looking at the expert opinion and industry research, Swift proves to be super-fast for iPhone application development.
5. Compatible with Objective-C
Like we discussed above that Swift is similar to C, but it is not made out of C programming language.
But, interoperability is something that allows the developer to write code in one language and use it in another language. This is possible between Swift and Objective-C.
iPhone app developers import the framework of Objective-C and use its classes and methods using Swift syntax. So, interoperability of Swift with Objective-C let the developers utilize the Objective-C APIs.
Here is how you can do that:
6. Less error-prone
Nil (null) pointers are handled in different ways in Objective-C. Whenever you call a method with nil pointer variable, nothing returns. But, it becomes the source of a huge list of bugs which the developer is unaware of and bring his efficiencies to the zero level.
But, this is not the case with the Swift programming language. Swift comes with an option to define the values as optional types or value types. This means, while defining the method, the iPhone app developer can define whether the value exists or it is nil (null).
So, if the developer has by mistakenly taken nil optional value, Swift triggers the runtime crash. This crash remains on the line of code with the nil pointer optional value and forces the iPhone app developer to resolve the bug right away.
Hence, Swift does not give any chance to the iPhone app developer to develop the bug and exception-free apps.
7. Supported by Multiple Devices
Swift is a programming language developed by Apple Inc. that supports iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV and Mac devices.
Swift is not just limited to, support Apple devices, but, Linux and Windows devices as well.
In fact, the latest news by Google about its new upcoming operating system, Fuschia to support Apple’s Swift programming language.
So, Swift is not going to just limit it to Apple devices. It will support multiple devices across the technology world.
8. Supported by Dynamic Libraries
So, what happens when you cannot update your current OS without uninstalling it from your device? Well, we used to do years ago.
Dynamic libraries can save with this kind of emotions. LOL.
What are Dynamic Libraries?
Dynamic libraries are executable codes that help to link one version of the Swift app to different versions of the app.
In Swift, dynamic libraries work to update the apps. The new version code is uploaded to the memory. This reduces the initial size of the Swift app making it the most performing app.
9. Backed by “Playgrounds”
Playgrounds is a Swift application that makes your iOS app development learning easy and entertaining.
The beginners can initiate learning Swift with data visualizations without having the in-depth knowledge of the Swift programming language. And, the experts use Swift Playgrounds to write the code and test it without creating an entire app. This eases the life of iOS app developers because they can speed up their development cycle and create super-ly functional apps.
10. Improved Performance
As per Apple’s announcement, Swift is 3.4X quicker than Objective C. Also, some research and study of tech experts prove code execution is more quicker than Objective C. Moreover, Swift supports dynamic libraries and multiple devices that improve the speed at which the apps are developed and updated.
This ultimately improves the performance of the Swift apps to a great extent.
Conclusion
The Swift programming language seems to be the future of developing high-performing and secured apps. And, this is the reason it is being adopted by Apple’s competitors as well. Looking at the benefits Swift offer, sooner it will reach the top of the app development charts.
