Ask HN: Now open source, what will you use swift for?
Now that apple has made it open source I assume swift will be used in server programming now, cross platform development, and etc. What are you most excited for and is swift the right tool for those things?
7 comments
It will in more or less the same amount as Objective-C, meaning, it actually
won't.
ObjC suffered greatly from not having a standard container library. What delivered GNUstep was far, far too little for widespread use, and you needed to actually pull in the whole framework.
Even if Swift will have a container library, it has tough competition that was carried though designing phase, with the result of not being composed purely of edge cases (http://blog.metaobject.com/2015/05/i-am-jealous-of-swift.htm...).
And it's not obvious how would Swift interact with C or C++ libraries (meaning: ABI and/or an equivalent of FFI).
All in all, I don't see any reason at all to use Swift as a server-side language. Extracting it from MacOS simply cripples it too much, and the language itself adds virtually nothing to the landscape.
ObjC suffered greatly from not having a standard container library. What delivered GNUstep was far, far too little for widespread use, and you needed to actually pull in the whole framework.
Even if Swift will have a container library, it has tough competition that was carried though designing phase, with the result of not being composed purely of edge cases (http://blog.metaobject.com/2015/05/i-am-jealous-of-swift.htm...).
And it's not obvious how would Swift interact with C or C++ libraries (meaning: ABI and/or an equivalent of FFI).
All in all, I don't see any reason at all to use Swift as a server-side language. Extracting it from MacOS simply cripples it too much, and the language itself adds virtually nothing to the landscape.
Maybe it will be exciting for mobile multiplatform technology. Where Swift is the technology blanket where my templating technology will be.
It's in a interesting moment because react.js native is here and it's looking for that space as well, maybe it's Apple's latest shot into trying to make a technology popular.
I want whatever technology to have a Gulp package, after there's something in Gulp I can look at it, otherwise I'm not looking into it, I'm a Gulp addict :).
Best Regards,
It's in a interesting moment because react.js native is here and it's looking for that space as well, maybe it's Apple's latest shot into trying to make a technology popular.
I want whatever technology to have a Gulp package, after there's something in Gulp I can look at it, otherwise I'm not looking into it, I'm a Gulp addict :).
Best Regards,
Gulp package? Gulp is a task runner, why would you need some kind of "Swift Gulp Package". It can exist on it's own.
The open questions in my view: At the end of 2015 what sort of tool support will be available and how much library support will there be? Those are the things that will make or break Swift once it has to compete for adoption outside Apple's closed ecosystem.
Unless it's faster than Java or offers an amazing feature i doubt it.
I see less and less Golang :)
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