What is Swift Language?
4 min read
Today Mobile App Development are seeing a continuous rise in demand. And iOS is one of the most popular mobile operating systems. Which makes learning it more fun and necessary as well. Today we will learn about Swift Programming Language. The language behind Apple Eco System's Software.
Swift is a general-purpose, multi-paradigm programming language developed by Apple Inc. It was first introduced in 2014 as a replacement for the Objective-C programming language, which was previously the primary language for developing applications on Apple's platforms, including iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS.
Features of Swift Programming Language
Swift is designed to be fast, safe, and expressive. It incorporates modern programming concepts and features, making it easier for developers to write efficient and maintainable code. Some key features and characteristics of Swift include:
Safety: Swift was built with an emphasis on reducing common programming errors, such as null pointer dereferencing. It includes features like optionals and type inference to make code safer.
Performance: Swift is designed to be highly performant and efficient. It often outperforms Objective-C and is optimized for use on Apple's hardware.
Expressive: Swift offers a clean and concise syntax that is easy to read and write. This makes it more approachable for both new and experienced programmers.
Interoperability: Swift is fully compatible with Objective-C, meaning you can use both languages in the same project. This allows developers to leverage existing Objective-C codebases while transitioning to Swift.
Open Source: In 2015, Apple open-sourced Swift, which has led to its adoption on platforms beyond Apple's ecosystem. This has also encouraged community contributions and the development of Swift for other use cases.
Cross-Platform: While initially developed for Apple platforms, Swift can now be used to write server-side code, and there are efforts to make it more cross-platform compatible.
Swift has gained popularity among developers for its modern features and the support it receives from Apple. It has become the language of choice for iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS app development and is also used in other domains, including server-side programming, thanks to projects like SwiftNIO and Vapor.
Here is a timeline of the development and key milestones of the Swift programming language:
July 2010: Development Begins
- Apple began the development of the Swift programming language under the project name "Swift."
June 2, 2014: Swift is Introduced
- Swift is officially announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). It is described as a modern, fast, and safe programming language for iOS and macOS app development. A beta version is made available to developers.
December 3, 2015: Open Sourcing
- Apple makes Swift open source, allowing developers to contribute to its development and use it on platforms beyond Apple's ecosystem. The code is hosted on GitHub.
September 13, 2016: Swift 3.0 Released
- The first major version of Swift, Swift 3.0, was released. It introduces significant changes and improvements and focuses on source compatibility.
September 19, 2017: Swift 4.0 Released
- Swift 4.0 has been released, introducing key features like the Codable protocol for easy data serialization and deserialization.
June 4, 2018: Swift 4.2 Released
- Swift 4.2 is released as a part of Xcode 10, bringing enhancements and improvements to the language.
March 25, 2019: Swift 5.0 Released
- Swift 5.0 is a major milestone, introducing ABI stability, which allows binary compatibility with Swift libraries across different versions of the language. This release also includes new features and improvements.
September 20, 2019: Swift 5.1 Released
- Swift 5.1 introduces features like property wrappers and improvements to the language, making it more powerful and expressive.
March 24, 2020: Swift 5.2 Released
- Swift 5.2 brings various enhancements and improvements, including new language features like improved error messages and more expressive syntax.
November 2, 2020: Swift 5.3 Released
- Swift 5.3 includes new features and improvements, such as multiple trailing closures and the introduction of opaque result types.
March 20, 2021: Swift 5.4 Released
- Swift 5.4 introduces language enhancements and stability improvements, including concurrency support, which is a significant step forward for Swift.
March 2022: Swift 5.6 Released
- The development of Swift continues with new features and improvements.
September 2023: Swift 5.9 Released
- Swift is actively maintained by the open-source community and Apple.
This is the first article in the Swift Series. Follow for more such content.