Apple introduced the Swift programming language for the first time in 2014, aiming to be the primary language for developing apps on iOS and macOS, replacing the old Objective-C. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Swift language, which was celebrated in a small way at WWDC 2024 last week. Ted Kremenek, the Director of Languages & Runtimes at Apple, mentioned in the Platforms State of the Union at WWDC that Swift was created to simplify the complexity of using languages like C, C++, and Objective-C. Currently, there are over a million apps built with Swift, not only by third-party developers but also by Apple itself, using Swift for various parts of their operating system down to the hardware level, even implementing Swift in the new Private Cloud Compute server systems.
Kremenek stated that Swift meets the requirements of memory safety, efficiency, and ease of learning, and it can also work seamlessly with C/C++, making it the best language to replace C++. Apple is gradually transitioning from old C++ code to using Swift as the go-to language for the future.
Looking ahead, Kremenek expressed the desire to expand the user base of Swift over the next 10 years. This includes developing Swift extensions on Visual Studio Code and other IDEs that support Language Server Protocol, expanding support for Linux distributions like Debian and Fedora in addition to Ubuntu, CentOS, Amazon Linux, and Red Hat, as well as improving usability on Windows.
Apple has also set up an organization page for Swift on GitHub to host various Swift-related projects in one place, encouraging community involvement without the use of the “Apple” name.
This year, Apple is set to release Swift 6.0 with a key feature like data-race safety to prevent data races and runtime errors. Swift 6.0 is currently in testing and aims to release a stable version by September 2024.
Source: Apple, Infoworld
TLDR: Apple introduced Swift in 2014, celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2024 at WWDC with plans to expand user base, enhance language features, and promote community involvement through GitHub while transitioning from C++ to Swift for future developments.
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