When Apple first unveiled Swift, the successor to Objective-C, at the Worldwide Developers Conference in 2014, the developer community was elated: Finally, a language that writes with the expressive power and syntactic ease of a laconic scripting language, but with all the type safety and overall security of an industrial programming language.
Above all, its low barrier to entry earned it praise as the language that would “remake computer programming,” ushering in a new era of developer productivity.
Three years and four versions later, how has Swift stacked up to the hype? Not too bad, as it turns out. Swift just entered the hallowed ranks of the IEEE Spectrum’s Top Ten Programming Languages of 2017. Similarly, Swift ranked 11th on Upwork’s most recent quarterly ranking for the 20 fastest growing skills for freelancers.
Why use Swift?
If you’re looking to build software for the Apple ecosystem in 2017, Apple has made it pretty clear that Swift is the de facto language of choice for starting new projects in macOS, iOS, watchOS and tvOS.
That said, there are still millions of lines of Objective-C code in the Apple ecosystem to account for, and Apple’s own Craig Federighi has stated in interviews that “Objective-C is forever.” It’s safe to assume there’s still a compelling case for sticking with Objective-C.
So why make the switch?
In “9 Reasons to Choose Swift for iOS App Development,” mobile app development company Applikey gives solid reasons why even the most grizzled Objective-C veteran might willingly make the leap to Swift:
“Based on a detailed analysis of the experience and practical results of our programmers’ work, we consider the syntax and capabilities that are provided by a programming language the key parameters for an educated choice. Let us consider how these two factors concern Swift.
“Syntax. The notion of syntax in programming refers to a set of rules that describe the order and interdependence of alphabetic characters and grammatical structures in a program listing. Swift syntax was originally based on Obj-C; there are a number of differences between them, which has increased over the years: for example, with respect to the method invocation methods, as well as the declaration of constants, conditions, cycles, classes, and enumerations (as for the latter, they are not assigned integer values, by default). In general, the structure of the code is noticeably simpler than that of Objective-C.
“Capabilities. Among the possibilities absent in Obj-C is the integration of open source dynamic libraries. Such libraries contain the ready solutions for routine tasks and allow decreasing of the size of applications, saving space in the memory of user devices.”
Indeed, Objective-C veterans were probably among the earliest adopters of the language; Swift incorporated many of their requests in its on going open-source development process. The article goes on to explain nine reasons why Applikey has made the crossover to Swift for their web development projects. Learn more by reading the full article…
Not a programmer? Hire a Swift developer instead
Sold on the benefits of incorporating Swift into your next Apple project, but not a developer yourself? In “Write a Great Swift Developer Job Description with These Tips,” Carey Wodehouse explains what you should look for in a Swift developer:
“A Swift developer is much more than an app programmer—they’re pros on the forefront of the iOS ecosystem, and experts at mobile app development as a whole.
“A Swift developer will be integral at every phase, from wireframing the screens of your app and software planning through to user interface (UI) design, coding and integrations, and testing and submission to the App Store.
“If you have an existing Objective-C based app, they’ll be the developer who can help migrate that app code into Swift 3 so your app is as close to future-proof as possible.”
Wodehouse goes on to cover the tools and technologies you might look for in a potential Swift developer, from the basics like experience with the Xcode IDE and the Swift Package Manager, to specific frameworks like Cocoa Touch. She details how to take those job requirements and turn them into a job description that can help you find the Swift developers you’ll need to bring your next iOS project to life. Learn more by reading the full article…
Eager to learn more about Swift? Check out more articles about the Swift in the Hiring Headquarters >>
The post Why You Should Use Swift for Your Next Apple Software Development Project appeared first on Upwork Blog.
from Upwork Blog http://ift.tt/2kJ3FpH
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