Apple launches new programming language ‘Swift’


Not content with unveiling the new OS X Yosemite and iOS 8 operating systems, Apple has unveiled a new programming language dubbed Swift.


Designed for the nine million registered Apple developers, Swift is being tipped as ‘Objective C, without the C’.


“We have a new programming language,” Craig Federighi, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering said in unveiling Apple’s latest programming contribution. “The language is called Swift and it totally rules.”


Blowing Apple’s trumpet a little bit, he added: “Swift is fast, it is modern, it is designed for safety and it enables a level of interactivity in development that you’ve never seen on a platform.”


Detailing some of the base benefits of the new Swift programming language, Federighi highlighted a number of features, with speed and its modern nature being tipped as the core benefits.


When it comes to speed, Swift is great. Objective C is fast but Swift is faster still,” he stated.


“Swift is also modern with features like Closures, Generics, Type inference, multiple return types and Namespaces.”


Native to the Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks, Swift will used to develop iOS 8 apps and Swift developed apps will be able to be submitted as soon as the new iOS 8 platform launches this autumn.


What’s more, in a bid to ease devs into the new language, Swift will be compatible with some existing languages.


“Your Swift code can sit right alongside your Object C and C code within the same applications,” Federighi stated.


He added: “Swift also enables a dynamism and level of interactivity never seen before that we call Playgrounds.”


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