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How is the state of developing Swift application on Windows? Last I checked it was using Linux on Windows to compile Swift code. With Linux and Windows support

by ww520 7y ago

How is the state of developing Swift application on Windows? Last I checked it was using Linux on Windows to compile Swift code. With Linux and Windows support, Swift can become viable for cross platform development.

cerberusss 7y ago
It's not great. However, I heard something hopeful in the latest episode of the Swift Unwrapped podcast. It was mentioned how the person working on the Windows build has recently been employed by Apple. https://spec.fm/podcasts/swift-unwrapped/316012 https://spec.fm/podcasts/swift-unwrapped/316012
- slavapestov 7y ago
  Saleem has joined the Swift core team, but as far as I know he’s not employed by Apple.
ken 7y ago
From what I’ve seen, Windows APIs are in C++, and Swift doesn’t really offer any C++ interop. You’d have to wrap everything in C functions first. Plus, Windows isn’t an officially supported platform for the Swift compiler. I wouldn’t hold my breath.
- rrdharan 7y ago
  Most core Windows APIs are C APIs, the only stuff that requires C++ AFAIK are things like ATL and MFC which are just (very thick) wrappers..
  - lenkite 7y ago
    This ignores all the new UWP API's which are the basis for modern Windows applications and will work on all future versions of windows. C++ is the preferred language here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/cpp-and-winrt-apis/intro-to-using-cpp-with-winrt https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/cpp-and-winrt-a...
  - pjmlp 7y ago
    Only the classical API. Since Vista, the plan has been doing in COM what was thought out for Longhorn with .NET. As such, all new APIs introduced since Vista are mostly COM libraries, and now UWP, which is an improved version of COM, after its hard rebirth with WinRT and UA.
- pjmlp 7y ago
  Modern Windows APIs are COM not C++. Any COM aware language should be able to call them without any issue. Naturally the first issue is to treat Windows as tier 1 OS to start with.

by ww520 7y ago

cerberusss 7y ago

It's not great. However, I heard something hopeful in the latest episode of the Swift Unwrapped podcast. It was mentioned how the person working on the Windows build has recently been employed by Apple. https://spec.fm/podcasts/swift-unwrapped/316012 https://spec.fm/podcasts/swift-unwrapped/316012

slavapestov 7y ago
Saleem has joined the Swift core team, but as far as I know he’s not employed by Apple.

ken 7y ago

From what I’ve seen, Windows APIs are in C++, and Swift doesn’t really offer any C++ interop. You’d have to wrap everything in C functions first. Plus, Windows isn’t an officially supported platform for the Swift compiler. I wouldn’t hold my breath.

rrdharan 7y ago
Most core Windows APIs are C APIs, the only stuff that requires C++ AFAIK are things like ATL and MFC which are just (very thick) wrappers..
- lenkite 7y ago
  This ignores all the new UWP API's which are the basis for modern Windows applications and will work on all future versions of windows. C++ is the preferred language here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/cpp-and-winrt-apis/intro-to-using-cpp-with-winrt https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/cpp-and-winrt-a...
- pjmlp 7y ago
  Only the classical API. Since Vista, the plan has been doing in COM what was thought out for Longhorn with .NET. As such, all new APIs introduced since Vista are mostly COM libraries, and now UWP, which is an improved version of COM, after its hard rebirth with WinRT and UA.
pjmlp 7y ago
Modern Windows APIs are COM not C++. Any COM aware language should be able to call them without any issue. Naturally the first issue is to treat Windows as tier 1 OS to start with.