Apple launches developer blog for new Swift programming language
Apple's march toward transparency continued on Friday with the launch of the Swift Blog, a new developer-focused blog covering the Swift programming language introduced by the company at WWDC.
In a brief introductory post, Apple said the blog will give developers "a behind-the-scenes look into the design of the Swift language by the engineers who created it, in addition to the latest news and hints to turn you into a productive Swift programmer." As it does with most of its oft-updated content, Apple offers an RSS feed for developers and other interested parties to follow along.
The company then took to the new platform to give an update on Swift compatibility. Swift applications will be compatible with the company's current-generation operating systems -- namely OS X Mavericks and iOS 7 -- as well as future releases, but there does not appear to be any plan to make Swift available on earlier versions.
Because Swift is so new, Apple said applications built on the new language will by default include a copy of the Swift runtime to ensure compatibility. This means developers will need to be careful to build every facet of their application with the same version of Xcode and the Swift compiler for at least "a year or two" while the language stabilizes, and they are cautioned to avoid dependence on pre-built frameworks until then.
Apple unveiled Swift, a long-term replacement for Objective C, at its annual developers conference last month. The language was created over a period of three years by a small team within Apple, led by LLVM inventor Chris Lattner, though it is unclear if Apple plans for Swift to follow LLVM's open-source path.
In a brief introductory post, Apple said the blog will give developers "a behind-the-scenes look into the design of the Swift language by the engineers who created it, in addition to the latest news and hints to turn you into a productive Swift programmer." As it does with most of its oft-updated content, Apple offers an RSS feed for developers and other interested parties to follow along.
The company then took to the new platform to give an update on Swift compatibility. Swift applications will be compatible with the company's current-generation operating systems -- namely OS X Mavericks and iOS 7 -- as well as future releases, but there does not appear to be any plan to make Swift available on earlier versions.
Because Swift is so new, Apple said applications built on the new language will by default include a copy of the Swift runtime to ensure compatibility. This means developers will need to be careful to build every facet of their application with the same version of Xcode and the Swift compiler for at least "a year or two" while the language stabilizes, and they are cautioned to avoid dependence on pre-built frameworks until then.
Apple unveiled Swift, a long-term replacement for Objective C, at its annual developers conference last month. The language was created over a period of three years by a small team within Apple, led by LLVM inventor Chris Lattner, though it is unclear if Apple plans for Swift to follow LLVM's open-source path.
Comments
Browser support isn't the only place to support RSS. I think every developer I know still uses them despite Twitter being a common place to announce new articles. Personally, I found Push Notifications in the browser for sites that offer articles to be annoying so I disabled it.
Actually they showed that the version that ships with Yosemite can handle RSS in the Shared Links tab in the sidebar during the keynote. it was very briefly mentioned though and easy to miss.
Honestly, I find the push notifications method extremely annoying.
That is very true, but since RSS links to websites, an in-browser RSS reader seems logical to me.
The lack of support on iOS for browser notifications is annoying imo.
I agree with that. Are there any for Safari's Extensions?
It was mentioned in the last Keynote that RSS feeds will be supported in "Shared Links" in the next version of Safari.
I too find the push notifications a pain and turned them all off.
RSS is alive and well. Personally... I'm using RSS now more than ever.
When Google Reader shut down... I switched to Feedly. And now I follow over 150 different blogs and websites.
Until Apple extends Swift to the LLVM/Clang project, I have absolutely zero interest in it.
Not that I could find. Surprising really since it's been years since Apple dropped it.
Don't I know it. I just don't like keeping another app running & getting in the way to check RSS feeds. Maybe a little menu extra would be nice.
As to feeds and such, id rather they set something up on Reddit.
I don't know how it is on the Mac and Safari since I use Windows and Chrome... but I have Feedly bookmarked on my desktop browser and I use Newsify on my iPhone.
It works well enough for me!
I've been using a Menu Bar-based RSS app for many years. It not what I would call a great app in terms of the developers' abilities but it's exactly the type of un-intrusive yet always in view RSS app that I want.
I find it interesting even if it doesn't solve some of the strangeness associated with Apple development. Given that I think at the very least the need to commit to a language standard, either like they did with OpenCL or via one of the larger standards bodies. However if they are looking at two years before it becomes stabile that might be a problem right now.
As for wrapping it into LLVM/Clang, that would be nice but there are problems. Number one is that the language obviously isn't done yet. By done here I mean implementing the vision the creator has for it. It may simply be too early to go open source. It wouldn't be the first time core developers got to version one or beyond before open sourcing a project. A second issue would be the runtime which apparently Swift is very dependent upon, would Apple release that and give away the keys to the city.
It might be worth offering up questions like these on the blogs web site. I'm pretty certain others are undecided about Swift for similar reasons.
Unless you're an Apple developer you probably wouldn't be that interested in it. If you are an Apple developer and you don't use Swift then it's quite possible that after a number of years you would would find it very difficult to write any apps. Swift is clearly Apple's future development language.
I find it interesting even if it doesn't solve some of the strangeness associated with Apple development. Given that I think at the very least the need to commit to a language standard, either like they did with OpenCL or via one of the larger standards bodies. However if they are looking at two years before it becomes stabile that might be a problem right now.
As for wrapping it into LLVM/Clang, that would be nice but there are problems. Number one is that the language obviously isn't done yet. By done here I mean implementing the vision the creator has for it. It may simply be too early to go open source. It wouldn't be the first time core developers got to version one or beyond before open sourcing a project. A second issue would be the runtime which apparently Swift is very dependent upon, would Apple release that and give away the keys to the city.
It might be worth offering up questions like these on the blogs web site. I'm pretty certain others are undecided about Swift for similar reasons.
What do you think is released for Objective-C in LLVM/Clang? They need to incubate this within the community for standards and get it prime time seeing as they plan on making it the defacto for OS X and iOS. LLVM/Clang ObjC isn't the GNU ObjC Runtime.
Unless you're an Apple developer you probably wouldn't be that interested in it. If you are an Apple developer and you don't use Swift then it's quite possible that after a number of years you would would find it very difficult to write any apps. Swift is clearly Apple's future development language.
I am and as a NeXT and Apple alum we are already pounding them about releasing it.
Everything now is in legal, but like the merging of the ARM64 branch into LLVM/Clang which is now a complete merge of all ARM branches, I would expect The Swift Programming language to be added.
It's suicide not to do so.
By the way, the run-time isn't the keys to the company. It's a run-time. The Cocoa Frameworks are the keys and those are public with private APIs. It's what you do with the tools that are the crowning jewels.
Clang would be DOA if it weren't publicly expanded.
I can't stand much about Google, but they weren't stupid when Developing Go or DART by keeping it limited to Chrome.