Foreign media comment: Apple's Swift language will change everything

The U.S. financial website Motley Fool published a commentary article last week titled "For Good or Bad, Apple, Inc.'s Swift Will Change Everything", saying that despite many advantages and disadvantages, Apple's (645.57, -1.78, -0.27%) newly launched Swift will become a programming language of great significance.

The following is the main content of the article:

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) held last Monday did not release any hardware, which disappointed thousands of Apple fans. But don't forget that the "D" in WWDC stands for "Developer", so the keynote speech of this conference will definitely emphasize new software, including iOS 8 and developer kits focused on smart home and health data collection.

However, as a software developer, I personally think the most important product announced that day was a new programming language called Swift.

advantage

Specifically, Apple says Swift took years to develop. As its name suggests, this programming language looks like it will greatly speed up app development compared to the old Objective-C and C languages. At the same time, Swift is very expressive - just like a scripting language - and feels more natural to read and write. In fact, while Swift will feel familiar to Objective-C developers, it is friendly enough for novices to quickly master it.

Apple also touted Swift's blazing speed, and it includes automatic memory management that it promises will help developers avoid some common programming mistakes.

In addition, Apple has also launched the Playgrounds feature, which saves developers time and can render code effects in real time. In this way, there is no need to waste time compiling it into an executable program, and errors can be found before the code is fully completed.

shortcoming

But Swift is not without its flaws. First, developers need to learn a new language. Since Swift has a lot of similarities with Objective-C and JavaScript, this is not a big problem, but it still takes time to use Swift's new features and unique functions. However, since Swift can be used with Objective-C and C, it is possible to develop mixed language applications.

However, as developers become more comfortable with the language, Apple may exert more control.

Dasein is also exclusive. Swift does not adopt open standards and only caters to Apple developers. Therefore, if you want to develop multi-platform applications, you still need to spend a lot of time and money to develop multiple versions separately. However, this seems to be completely expected.

Finally, some veteran programmers will inevitably complain about Swift's error-proofing and memory management features. After all, this will prevent new developers from learning key programming methods. However, we cannot expect old-fashioned programming methods to remain popular forever, especially when developers need to spend a lot of time testing code for vulnerabilities, resulting in less time to focus on designing applications. If Swift can automatically reduce the burden, developers' innovation and creativity can be promoted.

Swift may still need to be refined gradually, and time will tell how effective it will be in the end. But if all goes according to plan, Swift will help Apple software developers design more stable and efficient applications faster.

Mysterious new device

Apple has been trying hard lately to keep its latest smart device secret, but the secret is out: Some people who have seen the device early say it could have as big an impact on people's daily lives as the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.