Google's upcoming 'Fuchsia' OS to support Apple's Swift language

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in General Discussion edited December 2019
Google's nebulous "Fuchsia" operating system -- still in development -- will apparently support apps written in Apple's open-source Swift programming language.




A Google employee recently created a pull request on Swift's GitHub repository, adding Fuchsia support to the compiler, Android Police noted this week. Fuchsia already supports a Google-created language called Dart, as well as standards like C and C++.

Swift support may make it easier for Apple developers to bring their apps over to Fuchsia. Google has yet to identify the goal of Fuchsia however, and indeed the company could conceivably abandon it as an experiment.

The platform is separate from Android and Chrome OS, and should be more easily scalable, which could let it run on everything from embedded devices through to full-fledged computers.

Swift is primarily intended for iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS -- Apple is in fact heavily promoting the language at colleges and universities. It can also be compiled for Linux however, and as an open-source project it's not strictly under Apple's control.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 23
    wood1208wood1208 Posts: 2,913member
    Swift would gain so much more and fast popularity if ported to Windows,Android and ChromeOS platforms.
    netrox
  • Reply 2 of 23
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    Wtf is this?
  • Reply 3 of 23
    seanismorrisseanismorris Posts: 1,624member
    OK... Fuchsia sounds interesting.  How about a video or a more in-depth description.
  • Reply 4 of 23
    seanismorrisseanismorris Posts: 1,624member
    cali said:
    Wtf is this?
    Fuchsia Isn’t even in alpha stage.

     I watched a video on YouTube, and it’s not something anyone should bother looking into (at this point).


    jbdragoncali
  • Reply 5 of 23
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,213member
    OK... Fuchsia sounds interesting.  How about a video or a more in-depth description.
    https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/05/googles-fuchsia-smartphone-os-dumps-linux-has-a-wild-new-ui/
    https://www.cnet.com/videos/first-look-at-googles-new-fuschia-os-in-action/
  • Reply 6 of 23
    fasterquieterfasterquieter Posts: 90member
    There is a chance that Fuchsia is Google's future. They may leave Android to the OEMs and go it alone with a more modern forward-looking operating system. If I were Samsung, the word Fuchsia would have me quaking in my boots.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 23
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,213member
    fasterquieter said:
    There is a chance that Fuchsia is Google's future. They may leave Android to the OEMs and go it alone with a more modern forward-looking operating system. If I were Samsung, the word Fuchsia would have me quaking in my boots.
    I don't think Google is Samsung's enemy.
    muthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 8 of 23
    mattinozmattinoz Posts: 2,316member
    wood1208 said:
    Swift would gain so much more and fast popularity if ported to Windows,Android and ChromeOS platforms.
    Isn’t it on Windows on Linux already, with various interface libraries for android?
  • Reply 9 of 23
    netroxnetrox Posts: 1,421member
    wood1208 said:
    Swift would gain so much more and fast popularity if ported to Windows,Android and ChromeOS platforms.
    Swift is an open source language so it can be ported to any platforms.
  • Reply 10 of 23
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    fasterquieter said:
    There is a chance that Fuchsia is Google's future. They may leave Android to the OEMs and go it alone with a more modern forward-looking operating system. If I were Samsung, the word Fuchsia would have me quaking in my boots.
    The operating systrm isnt the problem, it is the GUI ontop that is the problem.  Linux as an OS is very good and frankly hardware has scaled to the point you can run it anywhere.    This isnt much different than BSD which Apple runs everywhere.  You just have to throw a UI on the system suitable for the device.  


    muthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 11 of 23
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member

    netrox said:
    wood1208 said:
    Swift would gain so much more and fast popularity if ported to Windows,Android and ChromeOS platforms.
    Swift is an open source language so it can be ported to any platforms.
    On Linux it is already displaying great potential and has seen adoption by the likes of IBM.   That is pretty impressive as it is hard to get people to even consider other languages beyond Linux's core languages of C, C++, and Python. 

    What Linux needs now is a complete GUI environment built around Swift.   This to address the buggy or behind the times solutions like GTK and QT.   Linux is in the same position the Mac was before Apple bought the current operating system, they need a reboot and Swift could be the answer.  
  • Reply 12 of 23
    alandailalandail Posts: 755member
    wizard69 said:

    netrox said:
    wood1208 said:
    Swift would gain so much more and fast popularity if ported to Windows,Android and ChromeOS platforms.
    Swift is an open source language so it can be ported to any platforms.
    On Linux it is already displaying great potential and has seen adoption by the likes of IBM.   That is pretty impressive as it is hard to get people to even consider other languages beyond Linux's core languages of C, C++, and Python. 

    What Linux needs now is a complete GUI environment built around Swift.   This to address the buggy or behind the times solutions like GTK and QT.   Linux is in the same position the Mac was before Apple bought the current operating system, they need a reboot and Swift could be the answer.  
    Linux is primarily used in servers where it doesn’t need a GUI.  There is great value in using swift on the server side.
  • Reply 13 of 23
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    seanismorris said:
    cali said:
    Wtf is this?
    Fuchsia Isn’t even in alpha stage.

     I watched a video on YouTube, and it’s not something anyone should bother looking into (at this point).


    gatorguy said:
    OK... Fuchsia sounds interesting.  How about a video or a more in-depth description.
    https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/05/googles-fuchsia-smartphone-os-dumps-linux-has-a-wild-new-ui/
    https://www.cnet.com/videos/first-look-at-googles-new-fuschia-os-in-action/

    More iKnockoff garbage. I was hoping it was something new. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 23
    netroxnetrox Posts: 1,421member
    Honestly, after been studying and programming a bit in Swift, Apple still needs a better framework. It's still too complicated. The syntax is cleaner compared to Obj C++ but there is a lot of gotcha's to make an app work. It is still too verbose. 

    Why Apple still have not created a framework that use XHTML, JS, and CSS (like PhoneGap and Titanium) is a mystery. It would offer more stability, better protection, better compatibilty for the future and the past as well, and having the CSS would allow the apps to easily scale to resolutions without having to deal with bizarre constraints in Swift/Obj C++. In fact, I suspect if Apple just use pure XHTML, CSS, and JS, it would be a lot more efficient and more stable.  Programming with Swift is hard... if you code that is missing out something important but it seems to compile fine and you run it, it literally crash hard. It takes only one simple error to make it go all wrong. It's no wonder that apps keep getting updates. 


  • Reply 15 of 23
    Above_The_GodsAbove_The_Gods Posts: 25unconfirmed, member
    netrox said:
    Honestly, after been studying and programming a bit in Swift, Apple still needs a better framework. It's still too complicated. The syntax is cleaner compared to Obj C++ but there is a lot of gotcha's to make an app work. It is still too verbose. 

    Why Apple still have not created a framework that use XHTML, JS, and CSS (like PhoneGap and Titanium) is a mystery. It would offer more stability, better protection, better compatibilty for the future and the past as well, and having the CSS would allow the apps to easily scale to resolutions without having to deal with bizarre constraints in Swift/Obj C++. In fact, I suspect if Apple just use pure XHTML, CSS, and JS, it would be a lot more efficient and more stable.  Programming with Swift is hard... if you code that is missing out something important but it seems to compile fine and you run it, it literally crash hard. It takes only one simple error to make it go all wrong. It's no wonder that apps keep getting updates. 


    Swift is significantly better than html/js/css. Almost everything you said it actually the opposite: it's much more stable than html/js/css, have unbelievably "better protection" and especially with the introduction of stack views, handles scaling much better. You simply need more experience. The point the app crashing at compile time is so it doesn't do so at runtime, which makes is much safer.
    edited November 2017 watto_cobrarandominternetpersonStrangeDays
  • Reply 16 of 23
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    netrox said:
    Honestly, after been studying and programming a bit in Swift, Apple still needs a better framework. It's still too complicated. The syntax is cleaner compared to Obj C++ but there is a lot of gotcha's to make an app work. It is still too verbose. 

    Why Apple still have not created a framework that use XHTML, JS, and CSS (like PhoneGap and Titanium) is a mystery. It would offer more stability, better protection, better compatibilty for the future and the past as well, and having the CSS would allow the apps to easily scale to resolutions without having to deal with bizarre constraints in Swift/Obj C++. In fact, I suspect if Apple just use pure XHTML, CSS, and JS, it would be a lot more efficient and more stable.  Programming with Swift is hard... if you code that is missing out something important but it seems to compile fine and you run it, it literally crash hard. It takes only one simple error to make it go all wrong. It's no wonder that apps keep getting updates. 


    This is rubbish. 

    The combination of XHTML/JS/CSS cannot provide anything approaching the protection of any compiled, type-safe language. The only time that any error is caught in JavaScript is when the runtime trips over it. I remember a day spent tracking down a bug in an AngularJS app because someone had mistakenly dumped the wrong object into a list. Because the list wasn’t type-checked we had to figure observe usage for a few hours before we could narrow down the problem. 

    Oh, and your ‘suspicion’ that JS is more efficient than Swift is also wrong. Swift is compiled and optimised for the hardware it’s running on. JavaScript is optimised for running inside a browser, compiling as it goes. That browser is also running on top of an operating system, essentially doubling the layers of interaction between the user and the device. 

    I ‘suspect’ the problem is that you lack experience more than anything else. 
    tycho_macuserwatto_cobrahubbaxrandominternetpersonStrangeDays
  • Reply 17 of 23
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member

    Above The Gods said:
    netrox said:
    Honestly, after been studying and programming a bit in Swift, Apple still needs a better framework. It's still too complicated. The syntax is cleaner compared to Obj C++ but there is a lot of gotcha's to make an app work. It is still too verbose. 

    Why Apple still have not created a framework that use XHTML, JS, and CSS (like PhoneGap and Titanium) is a mystery. It would offer more stability, better protection, better compatibilty for the future and the past as well, and having the CSS would allow the apps to easily scale to resolutions without having to deal with bizarre constraints in Swift/Obj C++. In fact, I suspect if Apple just use pure XHTML, CSS, and JS, it would be a lot more efficient and more stable.  Programming with Swift is hard... if you code that is missing out something important but it seems to compile fine and you run it, it literally crash hard. It takes only one simple error to make it go all wrong. It's no wonder that apps keep getting updates. 


    Swift is significantly better than html/js/css. Almost everything you said it actually the opposite: it's much more stable than html/js/css, have unbelievably "better protection" and especially with the introduction of stack views, handles scaling much better. You simply need more experience. The point the app crashing at compile time is so it doesn't do so at runtime, which makes is much safer.
    My apologies. I just repeated your post. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 18 of 23
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member

    cali said:
    cali said:
    Wtf is this?
    Fuchsia Isn’t even in alpha stage.

     I watched a video on YouTube, and it’s not something anyone should bother looking into (at this point).


    gatorguy said:

    More iKnockoff garbage. I was hoping it was something new. 
    Well, here’s something they didn’t copy from Apple:

    https://qz.com/1131515/google-collects-android-users-locations-even-when-location-services-are-disabled/

    the notion that they have a right to your data, even when you’ve asked them not to record it. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 19 of 23
    palegolaspalegolas Posts: 1,361member
    So they're finally developing their own OS from the ground up?
  • Reply 20 of 23
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,213member
    Rayz2016 said:

    cali said:
    cali said:
    Wtf is this?
    Fuchsia Isn’t even in alpha stage.

     I watched a video on YouTube, and it’s not something anyone should bother looking into (at this point).


    gatorguy said:

    More iKnockoff garbage. I was hoping it was something new. 
    Well, here’s something they didn’t copy from Apple:

    https://qz.com/1131515/google-collects-android-users-locations-even-when-location-services-are-disabled/

    the notion that they have a right to your data, even when you’ve asked them not to record it. 
    Well gosh, you finally noticed I mentioned that yesterday. 
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