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Early in the interview Lattner does a great job of selling Swift. Value types (with copy on write), progressive disclosure, ... I think Swift is a great langu

Early in the interview Lattner does a great job of selling Swift. Value types (with copy on write), progressive disclosure, ... I think Swift is a great language but the lack of cross platform development is holding it back.

jb1991 6y ago
I agree, I'm coming around to the fact that Swift is probably the best-designed language in widespread use right now. I've used many and tried many more, and I don't know if it is the original Rust team's involvement with its evolution or just the brilliance of its creator but Swift has really hit a sweet spot in all the many axes of language design. It is just so... productive. Things feel so much easier in Swift, yet it is more flexible than most other popular languages.
- higerordermap 6y ago
  There's no information in this entire comment. Reminds me of clojure people.
  - jb1991 6y ago
    Your vague insult aside, what kind of information are you looking for? The technical summaries of the language are widely available elsewhere, were you expecting those in a comment here? Note that the linked podcast goes into those details directly, so I’m partly assuming readers here are aware of the content before reading the comments.
AnimalMuppet 6y ago
I don't know Swift at all. But I know what progressive disclosure is. Could you explain a bit what you mean for a programming language to have progressive disclosure, and how specifically Swift does that?
- oflannabhra 6y ago
  Chris defines it in the interview, I think, but I think of it as: Swift is a complex language with lots of features, but if you are trying to do something simple, you do not need to engage with the more complex features of the language. As you learn or need to solve more complex problems, those complex features are waiting for you. His example is a Hello World program in Swift vs something like C++.
UncleOxidant 6y ago
Isn't Google pouring lots of money/developers into developing Swift for AI?
- Tainnor 6y ago
  No. Swift for TF is almost dead by now.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]

jb1991 6y ago

I agree, I'm coming around to the fact that Swift is probably the best-designed language in widespread use right now. I've used many and tried many more, and I don't know if it is the original Rust team's involvement with its evolution or just the brilliance of its creator but Swift has really hit a sweet spot in all the many axes of language design. It is just so... productive. Things feel so much easier in Swift, yet it is more flexible than most other popular languages.

higerordermap 6y ago
There's no information in this entire comment. Reminds me of clojure people.
- jb1991 6y ago
  Your vague insult aside, what kind of information are you looking for? The technical summaries of the language are widely available elsewhere, were you expecting those in a comment here? Note that the linked podcast goes into those details directly, so I’m partly assuming readers here are aware of the content before reading the comments.

AnimalMuppet 6y ago

I don't know Swift at all. But I know what progressive disclosure is. Could you explain a bit what you mean for a programming language to have progressive disclosure, and how specifically Swift does that?

oflannabhra 6y ago
Chris defines it in the interview, I think, but I think of it as: Swift is a complex language with lots of features, but if you are trying to do something simple, you do not need to engage with the more complex features of the language. As you learn or need to solve more complex problems, those complex features are waiting for you. His example is a Hello World program in Swift vs something like C++.

UncleOxidant 6y ago

Isn't Google pouring lots of money/developers into developing Swift for AI?

Tainnor 6y ago
No. Swift for TF is almost dead by now.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]