The iOS app development has gone through an exceptional evolution of sorts in the past few years. It has a loyal audience and has been dominating the smartphone industry like crazy. Most businesses plan and launch their products/apps on the iOS platform to maximize their profits.
While providing users with the highest quality products, selecting the appropriate technology stacks to develop these applications and come up with exemplary performances from them is of great significance.
The iOS app development started with Objective-C and for the big time. This programming technology was used to build dynamic, high-quality iOS applications. Soon, it became a preferred choice for every iOS app development company due to its mature and stable functionalities.
However, Apple launched Swift in 2014 to replace Objective-C as the standard programming language to develop native iOS applications. Swift is a relatively easier, faster and more innovative programming technology.
This write-up will throw some light on Apple’s Swift programming language, its benefits and features, and why it is the most preferred technology over Objective-C.
Swift- Overview
As explained by Apple, Swift programming technology is the “Objective without the C”, or in simple words, we can say that it’s not based on the C language. Although it is highly compatible with the frameworks and libraries of C. Oftenly, developers worldwide call it an intuitive language, as Swift is easy to learn, understand, and use.
The syntax is simple, smooth, and consolidated, which is very crucial for any programming technology. Swift programming technology. Swift offers modern coding features like closures, type inference, and generics etc. It also has various powerful tools to improve app safety and system performance.
Using Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks, Swift can build impressive UI/UX for iOS applications.
Comprehensive Functionalities of Swift
Quick/Swift App Development
True to its name, the programming technology is relatively superfast compared to its rivals like Python or Objective-C. In fact, Swift was built with the objective of faster app performance and speed.
The performance of Swift is comparable to that of C++, which is by far the quickest in solving arithmetic problems.
Easy Maintenance and Code Readability
Perhaps it is one of the most significant reasons why Swift is preferred over its predecessor. It is straightforward to understand and build the code, even for beginners. To implement a specific piece of logic, you have to write a few code lines in Swift as compared to Objective-C. It looks pretty similar to basic English due to the removal of conventional coding expressions like parenthesis, semicolons, etc. Hence, the syntax seems easily readable and cleaner.
Due to fewer code requirements, Swift is compact in nature and is reusable to a great extent. Also, this comprehensive programming language got rid of maintaining two different sets of documents. Implementation and header – which was the case in C carried forward to Swift’s predecessor, Objective-C. Besides this, Swift maintains almost everything in a .swift file, thereby lowering your development team’s headache for the maintenance of two separate sets of documents for a single code.
Compatible With Objective-C
As mentioned earlier in this write-up, even though Swift has no significant connection with C or Objective-C, it still supports the frameworks and libraries of Objective-C. Swift’s language interoperability enables you to import frameworks from Objective-C with the help of its intuitive syntax. It allows programmers to utilize Objective-C classes and APIs inside the Swift code.
Multiple Device Compatibility
Even though Swift was specially built for Apple devices, it hasn’t limited itself to only the iOS development platforms. Swift, as an effective cross-platform technology, can also be used on Linux and Windows operating systems with the help of an iPhone app development agency.
Enhanced Performance
As seen earlier, Swift’s performance is at par with the likes of C++, which means this is one of the quickest performing technologies beating Python, Objective-C, etc. Some recent studies show that its execution speed is eight times faster than Python whereas three times faster than Objective-C.
Dynamic Libraries Linking
Swift, now, is relatively easy to update from one version to another with Dynamic Libraries compatibility. These comprehensive libraries are codes that execute to save the new version codes in the memory.
Safe & Less-Error Prone
One of the most exclusive benefits of the Swift programming technology is that it eliminates errors during the time of compilation itself. This makes it easier for an iPhone app development company to fix it immediately, unlike Objective-C that doesn’t provide any notification before compilation errors. Instead, Objective-C throws a large set of bugs while executing the program at a later stage. Swift helps developers create, compile and fix errors simultaneously while implementing the code, thus providing enhanced quality control.
Integrated Memory Management
The seamless syncing with Cocoa frameworks allows Swift to use the Cocoa APIs for maintaining memory management. It readily executes across the entire code to manage the memory of various objects by doing Automatic Reference Counting(ARC).
Wrapping Up
While various comprehensive frameworks like Flutter or React Native develop cross-platform applications on Android and iOS, native iOS applications are relatively better performing. Swift is also graduating towards becoming an entirely functional cross-platform technology with already achieving massive popularity with Linux and Windows. You can use this comprehensive technology with the help of a reliable iOS app development company to enhance the quality of your next app development project.