When Chris Lattner set out to design Swift, he had one thing in mind, total domination.
Imagine how easy and clean a language has to be to break into the top 25 list in the language rankings, let alone the top 10. Swift managed that in as little time as 4 years. Safe to say that Chris’ creation lived up to the expectations.
The hype train of Swift iOS development is only going faster since Swift changed the way developers understood the concept of app development when it came to apple products.
A Summa Swift
The language was created by Apple way back in 2014 for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS, and Linux applications. Later, Apple came up with the idea of making Swift an open-source code for better adoption.
According to stats, the Apple Store has around 1.96 million applications that are available for download and have been written in Swift partially. Some of the most notable applications include the likes of Uber, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Slack among others.
There have been countless cases where the coding of the application has been changed from the traditional way, Objective-C. Take into the application of Lyft, an application where the coding stretched to 75,000 lines of code with Objective-C while the firm was able to create the same application within a third of that number by moving to Swift.
Time moves fast they say and it surely doesn’t stop for anyone either. As we have it, the community welcomed Swift with open arms and parted ways with Objective-C to a better and more modern language and is easier to learn on top of that.
In case you run a business and still feel doubtful about swift app developers, here are some of the major pros of Swift that will help you make up your mind.
Major Perks of iOS App Development with Swift
Maintenance- As Easy as You Like
While working with C, one always had to maintain two code files so to ensure improved build time and efficiency of the code, which was done with the use of the header file and the implementation file. Gone are the days when one had to worry about this since Swift combines both the files in one, giving developers more time to focus on other important areas such as application logic.
Swift is Speed
Speed thrills, but kills. Obviously, this was quoted way before Swift came into existence. The language offers various speed advantages which in turn, can also help save costs. For instance, something like a complex object sort runs almost 4X than the implementation for the same algorithm in Python. Apple has come up with plans to dedicate resources to improving the speed at which app logic can be run on Swift.
The Support of Dynamic Libraries
In case you don’t speak coding, dynamic libraries are those that help in linking one version of Swift with other versions of the application through executable codes. The role of libraries in Swift is to ensure that the apps are up to date.
The initial size of the Swift app gets reduced since the new version code gets uploaded to the memory, enhancing the performance of the app.
Open Source is Swift-er
One of the major benefits of the Swift language is that it is open-source, which further increases its chances of being turned into a much more developer-friendly programming language. Not only does it allow Apple developers to come up with enhancements while exploring the language, but it also gives them the freedom to fix bugs, add new features and platforms, and many other options. It is also the reason behind the steady rise of Swift in the community.
Multiple Devices Support Swift
Earlier we mentioned that Swift was developed by Apple Inc. but what made the language boom, in reality, was the fact that it is compatible with Linux and Windows as well. According to recent updates regarding the latest operating system of Google, Fuschia will support Swift, Apple’s very own programming language.
Swift isn’t just here to take on Apple, it is here to take on the rest of the world as well.
Easier to Read
If one has to choose, iOS development with Swift would be the ultimate preference in terms of ease of writing and reading a language. Many may claim that Swift is pretty similar to the conventional Objective-C but the former isn’t made with the use of C.
One can maintain a simple and clean syntax throughout the coding without having to write dozens of lines of code, something that Objective-C is not known for. Another major difference is that the addition of parenthesis at the end for conditional statements was a must when writing in Objective-C. Turns out that things aren’t the same with Swift. Say Bye-Bye to compiling issues that one encountered due to missing semicolons.
Compatible Language
The coaction factor of Swift gives it the upper hand. This makes it possible for a developer to write code in one language and use the code in another. This is pretty common among Apple developers as they begin by taking the framework of the Objective-C language and then make use of the classes and the methods with the use of Swift syntax. This further makes it possible for developers to use the APIs of Objective-C.
(Little) No Room for Error
Using Objective-C and calling a method with a nil pointer variable may not return anything but it can lead to a world full of bugs that even the developer didn’t know of, ultimately rendering the whole thing inefficient.
Things are a bit different in the case of Swift. In Swift, developers get the option of defining the values as optional types or value types. In simpler terms, it means that the Apple app developer gets to decide whether the value actually exists or is it null.
If by chance, the developer takes the nil optional value, a run time crash will be triggered by Swift. All of this forces the developer to fix the bug at the exact same moment.
In Conclusion
The future is now. Swift has rapidly risen in the language market and is likely looking to become a giant whenever the term “secured apps” will come up. With the kind of benefits that are in store for developers using Swift, safe to say that Swift is not far away from becoming a table topper in the coding community.