10 ms·

Winding down the Swift 3 release

70 points by milen 10y ago

augb 10y ago
I wonder what the implications for Linux of the removal of "Portability" from the Swift 3 evolution/Readme.md [1] are? [1] https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/commit/06b69a6e51a71a462c268da60b51a18966dba31b https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/commit/06b69a6e51a7...
- pkaler 10y ago
  It looks like Portability is not a core focus of the core team. It looks like IBM is doing a ton of the Linux compatibility work and has offloaded the core team. (BTW, shameless plug, I send a weekly Swift newsletter here: http://SwiftNews.co http://SwiftNews.co)
  - Someone 10y ago
    Also, defining portability as "porting to UNIX-like OSes that LLVM supports", I don't think portability is a big problem to solve given the current state of Swift (no multi-threading support in the language). For example, Swift was just added to the FreeBSD ports collection (http://www.freshports.org/lang/swift http://www.freshports.org/lang/swift)
  - J0-onas 10y ago
    I hope they suprise us during WWDC. Most of the time im writing simple and small programms (on a windows machine) that manipulate data, interact with the web, or work with files. I really liked Swift from the start. It has all the language features that I like. Sadly, with no Windows support, and Linux being only a second class citizen, I'm not motivated enough to spend a huge amount of time with Swift. I also hope that they provide a documentation like Go. The Swift book is fine but the examples of the Go documentation in addition to the text, the easy navigation between packages/structs, and the aility to jump to the implementation helps a lot while learning the language.
- chrislattner 10y ago
  Portability is still a strong goal for Swift 3. I'll revise the page, thanks!
claudiug 10y ago
Now, with swift 3 around the corner, I will ask some most experience fellow developers the following question. There is golang, swift, rust, dlang. If you will put some energy, what language will be, and why? :)
- AlexeyBrin 10y ago
  The answer is obvious: Swift if you target iOS. Otherwise, use what is best for you.
- pbnjay 10y ago
  Swift for GUIs on OSX / iOS. Go for everything else. Haven't had much reason to play with Rust or D, but also haven't seen nearly as much of them in the wild...
  - coldtea 10y ago
    Go for everything else? Swift is moving for everything too, with the cross platform support, IBM adoption, etc...
    - geodel 10y ago
      Cross platform is not yet there Swift 3. I don't know what to make of IBM adoption of Swift, maybe Websphere Business Component are still a thing and a Swift version might enthrall enterprise users. IBM is already bringing Go on s and z series and writing software in Go like full blockchain implementation.
    - pbnjay 10y ago
      Cross platform isn't there yet though. I'll definitely give it more thought, especially if it does cross-platform GUIs (something Go does not have good libraries for). That said, Go's tooling, documentation, and ecosystem are much friendlier than Swift's. And since most of us spend more time doing that stuff than actually typing code, it's an important point for me in the comparison.
- pjmlp 10y ago
ben_jones 10y ago
Well a whole lot of Swift 2 tutorials probably just go broken (correct me if I'm wrong).
- greenlinux 10y ago
  Why?

70 points by milen 10y ago

augb 10y ago

I wonder what the implications for Linux of the removal of "Portability" from the Swift 3 evolution/Readme.md [1] are? [1] https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/commit/06b69a6e51a71a462c268da60b51a18966dba31b https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/commit/06b69a6e51a7...

pkaler 10y ago
It looks like Portability is not a core focus of the core team. It looks like IBM is doing a ton of the Linux compatibility work and has offloaded the core team. (BTW, shameless plug, I send a weekly Swift newsletter here: http://SwiftNews.co http://SwiftNews.co)
- Someone 10y ago
  Also, defining portability as "porting to UNIX-like OSes that LLVM supports", I don't think portability is a big problem to solve given the current state of Swift (no multi-threading support in the language). For example, Swift was just added to the FreeBSD ports collection (http://www.freshports.org/lang/swift http://www.freshports.org/lang/swift)
- J0-onas 10y ago
  I hope they suprise us during WWDC. Most of the time im writing simple and small programms (on a windows machine) that manipulate data, interact with the web, or work with files. I really liked Swift from the start. It has all the language features that I like. Sadly, with no Windows support, and Linux being only a second class citizen, I'm not motivated enough to spend a huge amount of time with Swift. I also hope that they provide a documentation like Go. The Swift book is fine but the examples of the Go documentation in addition to the text, the easy navigation between packages/structs, and the aility to jump to the implementation helps a lot while learning the language.
chrislattner 10y ago
Portability is still a strong goal for Swift 3. I'll revise the page, thanks!

claudiug 10y ago

Now, with swift 3 around the corner, I will ask some most experience fellow developers the following question. There is golang, swift, rust, dlang. If you will put some energy, what language will be, and why? :)

AlexeyBrin 10y ago
The answer is obvious: Swift if you target iOS. Otherwise, use what is best for you.
pbnjay 10y ago
Swift for GUIs on OSX / iOS. Go for everything else. Haven't had much reason to play with Rust or D, but also haven't seen nearly as much of them in the wild...
- coldtea 10y ago
  Go for everything else? Swift is moving for everything too, with the cross platform support, IBM adoption, etc...
  - geodel 10y ago
    Cross platform is not yet there Swift 3. I don't know what to make of IBM adoption of Swift, maybe Websphere Business Component are still a thing and a Swift version might enthrall enterprise users. IBM is already bringing Go on s and z series and writing software in Go like full blockchain implementation.
  - pbnjay 10y ago
    Cross platform isn't there yet though. I'll definitely give it more thought, especially if it does cross-platform GUIs (something Go does not have good libraries for). That said, Go's tooling, documentation, and ecosystem are much friendlier than Swift's. And since most of us spend more time doing that stuff than actually typing code, it's an important point for me in the comparison.
pjmlp 10y ago

ben_jones 10y ago

Well a whole lot of Swift 2 tutorials probably just go broken (correct me if I'm wrong).

greenlinux 10y ago
Why?