This programming language is designed primarily for developing applications on iOS and MacOS. It is a general-purpose NPS, that is, it can be used to develop not only mobile applications, but also programs for desktop platforms.
The history of creation
Swift was launched in 2014. The creator of the programming language is Apple. According to officials, Swift was incorporated into the NeXt platform, which was released in the early 90s of the last century. It was this platform that became the ancestor of modern iOS and MacOS.
Apple employees have been developing the current version of the language since 2010. It is noteworthy that this language does not have one “parent” as such. Instead, the creators of Swift took a little bit from different languages, such as Object-C, Haskell, Python, C#, CLU and a number of others.
Swift's presentation took place in 2014. At the same time, developers now have access to official language documentation on 500 pages of printed text. Exactly one year later, the second version of Swift was released. Unlike the first one, it has become more productive. In 2019, the latest version 5 of the YAP was released to date.
Swift features
Taking into account the fact that Swift was developed not so long ago, it takes into account many of the disadvantages that are characteristic of older programming languages. For example, Swift is well suited for a quick start and development.
When developing this NP, the team had such goals as ease of learning and speeding up the development cycle. In addition, Swift, unlike Objective-C, has a simpler and more concise syntax, which saves time by writing less code.
Another important feature is that Swift has high performance. Even though it is a high-level language aimed at rapid learning, it is quite fast. According to its creators, Swift is almost three times faster than Objective-C and almost 8 times faster than Python. Work is currently underway to get ahead in terms of speed C++.
In addition to speed, Swift has another important advantage — the availability of modern libraries and frameworks for writing functional code.
The Swift language, like most other SNPs, is fully open and free. Moreover, it is open source. Despite the fact that, in general, many NPS offer open source code in modern times, this is rather strange for Apple, since this company usually does not take such steps. However, this developer's behavior is fully justified. Almost immediately, a large community formed around the language, where developers offer solutions to problems, fix bugs, and make some useful adjustments.
Another distinctive feature of Swift is safety. Thanks to many innovations, as well as syntax upgrades, Swift has become much more secure than obj-c. For example, by improving memory management, developers have reduced the possibility of unauthorized access to data to almost no extent. Also, due to more efficient scenario processing, the number of critical scenarios has decreased.
An important point to pay attention to is the ability to visualize the result. Swift has a special sandbox called Playground, which allows you to demonstrate how the program works. Sometimes this approach is very useful, as it allows you to quickly find problems in the code and reduce development time.
Where is Swift used? As noted above, the language is designed to work with iOS and MacOS platforms. That is, it is not universal. However, this does not mean that the applications of this YAP are very limited and the demand for developers is low.
With Swift, you can develop any application for an iOS mobile device. Some time ago, there were rumors that it was planned to transfer Android to Swift as well. However, so far this information has not been confirmed by anything. Moreover, Android developers have their own programming languages and it is unlikely that such a global transfer would contribute to the popularization of the platform.
What kind of mobile apps can be developed with Swift? If you open App.Store and carefully study the content, you can conclude that developers have an unlimited field for imagination. Everything can be here, from the simplest widgets for mobile platforms based on iOS to the most complex programs.
Does this programming language have drawbacks? Yes, and one of them is that a special “bridge” is used to interact with Objective-C, which greatly slows down the process of building any application. Also, the disadvantages of this language include the fact that it is constantly changing. On the one hand, this is good; on the other hand, if Apple hadn't structured the process in a certain way, the old code might not have worked.
An example of the simplest Swift code
In order to introduce the reader to this programming language at least a little bit, here is an example of simple code written with Swift. This will be a “Hello world” line.
print (“Hello, World”)
This is what it looks like in the Swift programming language. As you can see, nothing complicated. Of course, to write even the simplest applications, you will need a lot more time and lines of code. But our example gives a basic idea of the simplest elements of the language's syntax.
Outlook
Now let's look at the prospects of this programming language for those who want to work with Swift today or are just starting to learn it. At the moment, you can find quite a few ads recruiting developers who own Swift. This is due to the fact that the number of applications and features of the iOS mobile platform is constantly growing, as is the number of macOS users.
Accordingly, requests for writing certain applications for mobile and desktop devices are also growing. Therefore, it is not difficult for a Swift developer to get a job today. There are quite a few vacancies in Russia that require just such specialists.
As for the future, from the point of view of language development, it is unlikely that Apple will abandon it in the next 5-10 years. That is not why it was developed and large resources were spent on it. Swift is likely to continue to develop, and given the growing community and the openness of the YAP code, the process of moving forward will be much faster.
But is it worth sending your child to Swift courses today? It is difficult to give a definite answer to this question. Swift is not a universal and cross-platform language. That is, if you or your child wants to study Swift, you need to consider the risks that may be associated, for example, with the company's future activities. Without iOS or macOS, Swift developers are not in demand today. Accordingly, in the future, everything will depend on Apple's development.
Looking ahead today, iOS devices are leading the way in the US, and they are also very popular in Europe and Asia. However, only one company produces them. As for Android, this platform is available on devices from many manufacturers from Asia, including China and Korea.
Yes, Swift is a kind of easy way to get into IT with minimal time when compared to languages such as Java or C. However, these are also certain risks that in the future the market will be oversaturated or even face a decrease in demand for developer services.
In this regard, cross-platform and universal languages that can be used in various fields have much more prospects. Therefore, as an alternative, you can choose Python, for example, which has a wider range of applications. Although Swift is faster than Python, the latter is more interesting from a perspective.
Yes, Apple is a real giant from Cupertino. On the other hand, learning a language that is directly related to only one company and its product is quite risky. Of course, on thematic forums, you can find lots of positive opinions about Swift and its prospects. But such comments come mainly from those who are already working with Swift and are simultaneously promoting this language for community development.
There is one more important point. For further development, knowledge of not only Swift, but also Objective-C will be required. Moreover, development should be studied in the following order — Objective-C=>Swift, since in many projects the code is partially written in Objective-C.
