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Yeah and it leaves out a lot of details to be desired. For example, no debian build of Swift. And when I ported the ubuntu version to .deb, I ran into odd bugs

by keyle 2y ago

Yeah and it leaves out a lot of details to be desired. For example, no debian build of Swift. And when I ported the ubuntu version to .deb, I ran into odd bugs, like when you kill it, it lives on! Apparently a known issue. Basic _big_ bugs that shows Apple's half assed commitment to open-source on any other platform than their own. I can't blame them, but Swift on linux, beware. Swift is a wonderful language, sadly I'm not seeing the commitment from Apple to make it ubiquitous. Also to note, Apple has basically killed macOS as a server, rendering Swift more towards a system/UI target language; which is a shame, because again, it's a wonderful, safe, language.

justahuman74 2y ago
I find it kind of surprising that they don't put more effort behind swift-on-linux, it would make learning swift a generally more valuable skill. This increases the pool of people who would be willing to write mac software, and in particular, standalone libraries
- Hamuko 2y ago
  I don't find it at all surprising that Apple is not putting any effort into Linux and is instead pooling their developer efforts behind other things. Hopefully things like SwiftUI, a framework that has existed for around five years and still feels a bit immature.
  - jamil7 2y ago
    Yes, SwiftUI, Swift Concurrency and to an extent SPM have been quite frustrating. SwiftUI on macOS in particluar is a major step backwards from AppKit as it is right now.
mannuch 2y ago
Yeah I get that it's frustrating. But it is open source, and there isn't anything stopping you or anyone else from making contributions that bring the language to more places. Sure, various aspects of the project could be improved but that doesn't mean it is "half assed".
jamil7 2y ago
Foundation is going through a gradual open-source rewrite by Apple and the Swift community, which is going to take a while but will eventually open up Swift more to other platforms.
- jurip 2y ago
  Yeah I have high hopes for the new Foundation. The current open source Foundation is OK but it doesn't quite match what's there on Apple platforms and makes it all a bit difficult. Having one shared implementation should improve things.
- frou_dh 2y ago
  By the time the Swift project eventually has a great message to share on that, there could well be hardly any non-iOS/macOS developers listening. Look at the last 5-10 years. The momentum gap between e.g. Rust and Swift in the wider development community is gargantuan. IMO if Swift had had a great multiplatform toolchain/developer-experience in the ~2015-2019 timeframe then it could have established itself as the no-brainer C++ successor. But that moment has passed and they squandered the opportunity.
  - pjmlp 2y ago
    It still has an opportunity to be so, but only in the context of Apple's kingdom. If nothing else, because the King says what tools are allowed.
- neonsunset 2y ago
  It's still funny how this is positively encouraged by HN and yet .NET receives constant stream of FUD and criticism for already being what Swift wishes to be in some 5 to 10 years in terms of being platform agnostic (both the runtime and the tools).
__tmk__ 2y ago
There's a project for using Swift to write GNOME applications, which is fascinating to me: https://github.com/AparokshaUI/adwaita-swift https://github.com/AparokshaUI/adwaita-swift I wish them success but realistically they won't have success.
deleted 2y ago
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by keyle 2y ago

justahuman74 2y ago

I find it kind of surprising that they don't put more effort behind swift-on-linux, it would make learning swift a generally more valuable skill. This increases the pool of people who would be willing to write mac software, and in particular, standalone libraries

Hamuko 2y ago
I don't find it at all surprising that Apple is not putting any effort into Linux and is instead pooling their developer efforts behind other things. Hopefully things like SwiftUI, a framework that has existed for around five years and still feels a bit immature.
- jamil7 2y ago
  Yes, SwiftUI, Swift Concurrency and to an extent SPM have been quite frustrating. SwiftUI on macOS in particluar is a major step backwards from AppKit as it is right now.

mannuch 2y ago

Yeah I get that it's frustrating. But it is open source, and there isn't anything stopping you or anyone else from making contributions that bring the language to more places. Sure, various aspects of the project could be improved but that doesn't mean it is "half assed".

jamil7 2y ago

Foundation is going through a gradual open-source rewrite by Apple and the Swift community, which is going to take a while but will eventually open up Swift more to other platforms.

jurip 2y ago
Yeah I have high hopes for the new Foundation. The current open source Foundation is OK but it doesn't quite match what's there on Apple platforms and makes it all a bit difficult. Having one shared implementation should improve things.
frou_dh 2y ago
By the time the Swift project eventually has a great message to share on that, there could well be hardly any non-iOS/macOS developers listening. Look at the last 5-10 years. The momentum gap between e.g. Rust and Swift in the wider development community is gargantuan. IMO if Swift had had a great multiplatform toolchain/developer-experience in the ~2015-2019 timeframe then it could have established itself as the no-brainer C++ successor. But that moment has passed and they squandered the opportunity.
- pjmlp 2y ago
  It still has an opportunity to be so, but only in the context of Apple's kingdom. If nothing else, because the King says what tools are allowed.
neonsunset 2y ago
It's still funny how this is positively encouraged by HN and yet .NET receives constant stream of FUD and criticism for already being what Swift wishes to be in some 5 to 10 years in terms of being platform agnostic (both the runtime and the tools).

__tmk__ 2y ago

There's a project for using Swift to write GNOME applications, which is fascinating to me: https://github.com/AparokshaUI/adwaita-swift https://github.com/AparokshaUI/adwaita-swift I wish them success but realistically they won't have success.

deleted 2y ago

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