Apple’s Swift Programming language made open source

By Andre Revilla June 8, 2015

This story is part of our complete Apple WWDC coverage

apple takes the swift programming language open source — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Apple has announced at todays World Developer Conference that it will be launching version 2.0 of its Swift programing language, as well as the huge announcement that Apple will be making Swift open source.

Apple launched Swift, a programming language of its own design, at the 2014 World Wide Developers Conference as a proprietary language for mobile app development on both the iOS and OS X platforms. Swift was designed to be a next step and an improvement upon ‘Objective C’ and provide a programming language that was more resistant to error.

Swift was built at Apple borrowing ideas “from Objective-C, Rust, Haskell, Ruby, Python, C#, CLU, and far too many others to list.” It was originally available only for development use on Apple’s Cocao and Cocoa Touch API’s. Now however with Apple making Swift open source, developers will have the brand new opportunity to develop applications on Linux based operating systems outside of Apple’s product lineup.

swift 2 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

More importantly than non-Apple development, Swift being made open source will drastically speed up its development. The goal of Swift was to provide an easier, quicker, and more intuitive programming language not only to iOS and OS X developers, but to the world. “We think Swift is the next big programming language,” said Apple’s Craig Federighi, “We think Swift should be everywhere and used by everyone.”

This marks an important step forward in the developer community as it signals a strong message to developers that Apple is invested in growth of the language and the support of their work.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Andre Revilla is an entrepreneur and writer from Austin, TX that has been working in and covering the consumer tech space for…

Mobile

Apple WWDC 2019: How to watch the keynote and see the latest announcements

why does apple only update apps annually tim cook wwdc 2018 1

Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) kicks off Monday, June 3 at 10 a.m. PT or 1 p.m. ET -- and it's safe to say that we're excited to see what Apple has to offer.

We've already shared what we expect to see at the event, and while nothing is certain, it's safe to assume we'll be taking a look at the next generation of the iPhone's software in iOS 13, improvements to MacOS, and even the possibility of a new Mac Pro desktop -- a product line that hasn't seen a refresh since 2013. We'll be covering each and every twist and turn in our live blog, and you can follow us on Twitter (@DigitalTrends) as well as our mobile editor Julian Chokkattu (@JulianChokkattu), who will be on the ground.

Computing

Apple sends out invites for WWDC 2019, and unicorns are involved

WWDC 2018

It's official: Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will take place June 3 through June 7 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. This will be the 30th WWDC, and Apple is expected to show off iOS 13, macOS 10.15, watchOS 6, and more. The company just sent out invites to media.

Knowing a date for WWDC 2019 is excellent for remote viewers who will be standing by to soak up the news, but developers who wish to attend will still most likely need to do so through Apple's lottery system. Even then, most developers in attendance will need to shell out $1,600 for a prized ticket. According to Apple's blog post, tickets will be issued through a random selection process, with developers being notified of their application status by 5 p.m. PT on March 21. Those interested in registering to attend will need to do so before March 20 -- otherwise you'll have to make do with the livestream.

Computing

4 CPUs you should buy instead of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D

AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D sitting on a motherboard.

The Ryzen 7 7800X3D is one of the best gaming processors you can buy, and it's easy to see why. It's easily the fastest gaming CPU on the market, it's reasonably priced, and it's available on a platform that AMD says it will support for several years. But it's not the right chip for everyone.

Although the Ryzen 7 7800X3D ticks all the right boxes, there are several alternatives available. Some are cheaper while still offering great performance, while others are more powerful in applications outside of gaming. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D is a great CPU, but if you want to do a little more shopping, these are the other processors you should consider.
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D