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iOS

Posted by Michael Thomas
Michael Thomas
10,910 Points

Apple announce Swift will become Open Source, what does this mean for the future of Swift?

Amit... Pasan... anyone... would love to hear your initial thoughts?

1 Answer

Jayden Spring
Jayden Spring
8,625 Points
Jayden Spring
Jayden Spring
8,625 Points

Hi Michael,

Open Source is what lays the foundation for many things - for example the GCC compiler which Obj C used which was originally the GNU C compiler and extended to CPP some 30 years ago. These open source languages were the major influencers for Objective C.

So by Apple marking Swift and the compilers as open source will allow others to essentially (give some time) create compilers for other platforms which would allow swift to become a multi platform language. For example, I use a program (as well as XCode) called RAD Studio which allows me to write my program in C++ and the program's compilers for Windows, OSX, iOS and Android (32/64bit) compile the application for each platform. Had C++ not been an opensource language, these compilers would not have been available nor would the cross-compatibility in this IDE.

What I hope is that some wonderful person out there decides to make Swift truly cross platform - which I'm pretty sure will happen given the elegance of swift and its adoption rate. I think Apple are trying to make Swift the C++ of the 21st Century by doing this!

Jayden

Michael Thomas
Michael Thomas
10,910 Points

Hey Jayden

Thanks for sharing, this all sounds very exciting. I've been learning Swift since January and now I feel like my hard earned skills will quite possibly one day be applicable to opportunities beyond just iOS...

Mike