Swift is Open Source

[)roi(]

[)roi(]

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If you're interested, have a look here:
https://github.com/apple
https://swift.org

Biggest surprises:
1. Scope of open source includes the entire NS Foundations frameworks redeveloped in Swift and supported for iOS, OSX and Linux -- bear in mind most of these are still work in progress re mammoth task. You can help if like.
2. Swift team has been working on Github since ~September 2014, and the full Git history has been maintained covering e.g. compiler fixes, etc.
 
Thor187 said:
Is this apple's code?
Click to expand...

Yes. Full source for Swift (compilers, standard libraries, etc.)

It also includes: a new cross platform Foundation library and Package Manager.

Btw 1:
the original NS foundation was developed in Objective-C (that has not been open sourced), however a new 100% compatible NS foundation is being built in Swift without any of Objective-C plumbing (objc_msgsend).
Why? ... to make a foundation that is cross platform i.e. OSX, iOS, Linux, ... and very likely Windows re Microsoft's drive around the WinObjc project.

Here's the link to the new foundation source (in Swift): https://github.com/apple/swift-corelibs-foundation/tree/master/Foundation

Note: UIKit is not part of this, basically because UI aside from being extremely complex is also tied closely to a particular hardware platform e.g. SIMD, OpenCL, OpenGL., Metal ...(basically CPU / GPU drivers) This will most likely show up in future, but the key goal for now is to focus on the key aspects that are needed for cross platform foundation portability.
Swift on Linux can however tap into the existing libraries , example GLibc, GTK+, ...

Btw 2:
IBM are also onboard, pushing Swift for servers. This website was also launched today:
https://developer.ibm.com/swift/
They have a Swift REPL up and running on linux for you to try out.
 
Last edited:
[)roi(];16661659 said:
Yes. Full source for Swift (compilers, standard libraries, etc.)

It also includes: a new cross platform Foundation library and Package Manager.

Btw 1:
the original NS foundation was developed in Objective-C (that has not been open sourced), however a new 100% compatible NS foundation is being built in Swift without any of Objective-C plumbing (objc_msgsend).
Why? ... to make a foundation that is cross platform i.e. OSX, iOS, Linux, ... and very likely Windows re Microsoft's drive around the WinObjc project.

Here's the link to the new foundation source (in Swift): https://github.com/apple/swift-corelibs-foundation/tree/master/Foundation

Note: UIKit is not part of this, basically because UI aside from being extremely complex is also tied closely to a particular hardware platform e.g. SIMD, OpenCL, OpenGL., Metal ...(basically CPU / GPU drivers) This will most likely show up in future, but the key goal for now is to focus on the key aspects that are needed for cross platform foundation portability.
Swift on Linux can however tap into the existing libraries , example GLibc, GTK+, ...

Btw 2:
IBM are also onboard, pushing Swift for servers. This website was also launched today:
https://developer.ibm.com/swift/
They have a Swift REPL up and running on linux for you to try out.
Click to expand...

What an amazing time to be alive.

How would jobs feel about this thou?
 
Thor187 said:
What an amazing time to be alive.

How would jobs feel about this thou?
Click to expand...

SA's usually slow on the adoption of new technology, however any iOS / OS X job in SA is a guarantee for Swift; Linux i.e. server oriented Swift is hot off the press so I'd expect at least 2 - 3 years for SA demand.

Internationally you'll have your pick of opportunities in Swift.
 
element1 said:
It's not their core business so it should benefit Apple in the long run.
Click to expand...

Sorry I can't agree re not core business.
Software is by definition is the core business of Apple, Microsoft, Google, IBM, Facebook and others.

Where people get confused with Apple is that their revenue is derived primarily from hardware sale, however without great software (i.e. great developer tools), none of that would be possible.
 
[)roi(];16661659 said:
Yes. Full source for Swift (compilers, standard libraries, etc.)

It also includes: a new cross platform Foundation library and Package Manager.

Btw 1:
the original NS foundation was developed in Objective-C (that has not been open sourced), however a new 100% compatible NS foundation is being built in Swift without any of Objective-C plumbing (objc_msgsend).
Why? ... to make a foundation that is cross platform i.e. OSX, iOS, Linux, ... and very likely Windows re Microsoft's drive around the WinObjc project.

Here's the link to the new foundation source (in Swift): https://github.com/apple/swift-corelibs-foundation/tree/master/Foundation

Note: UIKit is not part of this, basically because UI aside from being extremely complex is also tied closely to a particular hardware platform e.g. SIMD, OpenCL, OpenGL., Metal ...(basically CPU / GPU drivers) This will most likely show up in future, but the key goal for now is to focus on the key aspects that are needed for cross platform foundation portability.
Swift on Linux can however tap into the existing libraries , example GLibc, GTK+, ...

Btw 2:
IBM are also onboard, pushing Swift for servers. This website was also launched today:
https://developer.ibm.com/swift/
They have a Swift REPL up and running on linux for you to try out.
Click to expand...

[)roi(];16656961 said:
If you're interested, have a look here:
https://github.com/apple
https://swift.org

Biggest surprises:
1. Scope of open source includes the entire NS Foundations frameworks redeveloped in Swift and supported for iOS, OSX and Linux -- bear in mind most of these are still work in progress re mammoth task. You can help if like.
2. Swift team has been working on Github since ~September 2014, and the full Git history has been maintained covering e.g. compiler fixes, etc.
Click to expand...

Known about the Swift being open source since they announced it at WWDC. I've been developing in Objective-C for about 3 years now and my projects are all in that language. However I've decided all new projects will be in Swift. Thanks for the informative posts! :D
 
Tander said:
just use Safari, it really isn't that big of a deal.
Also if having to use Safari puts you off developing for Apple products, well, that's your loss. ;)
Click to expand...
It's their proprietry nature on everything.
 
AntiGanda said:
This is what puts me off developing for Apple. I'm trying to watch a Swift video from WWDC and it's telling to use Safari. They become more MS-like every day.

https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2015-102/
Click to expand...
Just ignore that, it works from other browsers;

Here's a bit of humour at the expense of Apple / Safari. The Apple Swift Documentation urls take forever to load in Safari, whereas in Google Chrome it's practically instantaneous (problems relates to a relatively long standing bug in DNS prefetching).

Moral of the story, don't believe everything they say, occasionally it's far faster in a competitor's browser.
 
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Swift's now open source, meaning it's already on Linux. Windows will follow soon, so basically keep what you feel comfortable with.
 
Some updates since Swift's open sourcing:

It's now the top developed language on Github, ahead of 26 other languages:
Ruby, D, Julia, Rust, Java, Scala, Elixir, Objective-C, C, LiveScript, Haskell, Scheme, CoffeeScript, Nimrod, F#, JavaScript, Racket, Erlang, Go, Dylan, Frege, Dart, Chapel, C#, Red, and C++.

Very surprising considering Microsoft has a big stable of open source project on Github, to name a few: .NET (in 2014), Visual F#, and more recently Visual Studio Code (Cross platform IDE).

Alternative IDEs to Apple's Xcode:
1. http://www.elementscompiler.com/elements/silver/
2. https://www.jetbrains.com/objc/download/

Eclipse support is work in progress.

As for Linux IDE support, it's a toss up between who will be first Jetbrains or Eclipse (both have current Linux IDEs)
Until then your probably better off coding on either OS X or Windows or using something like Gedit or VIM on Linux; a few swift plugins for vim are available for download from Github.
 
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Oh btw happy to help if anyone needs help getting started or figuring out some Swift code.
 
[)roi(];16664651 said:
Sorry I can't agree re not core business.
Software is by definition is the core business of Apple, Microsoft, Google, IBM, Facebook and others.
Click to expand...

Spearheading the development and direction of a programming language isn't their core business.



[)roi(];16664651 said:
Where people get confused with Apple is that their revenue is derived primarily from hardware sale, however without great software (i.e. great developer tools), none of that would be possible.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
 
I believe Swift is going to be one of the top languages in a few years time. All my new projects will be in Swift. Objective-C had a good fun however I find myself saying " oh I wish objective c had this" a lot in my current project and wishing Swift has come by a year sooner. Swift 2 has had some advances over 1.0. Cannot wait to be coding in it every day!
 
That is pretty sweet. Seems like all the big names are trying to get devs to use their programming stack but making them cross platform!

I've been wanting to learn swift for some time now but am too caught up with my C# and JS. Busy learning to build some Universal Windows Apps.

The thing that caught my eye is being able to create cross platform apps using swift via http://www.elementscompiler.com/elements/silver/. Perhaps mid-2016!
 
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