Swift Development

What is Swift?

First released in 2014, Swift is Apple’s very own programming language for building apps across the Apple ecosystem, including iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS. Designed to be fast, safe and most importantly - easy to work with, it helps you build reliable, high performance applications without the unnecessary complexity of some languages.

What can Swift be used for?

As we have covered above, Swift can be used to build applications for various parts of the apple ecosystem. Let's take a closer look at how this might fit into your business ambitions:

App development for iOS - You can use Swift to build apps for iPhone, iPad and other iOS devices which as we all know, are some of the most popular on the market. With millions of active devices worldwide, it gives you access to a huge audience and a platform users already trust.

watchOS & tvOS apps - Swift is also used to build apps for Apple Watch and Apple TV. This might be companion apps, fitness tools or media experiences and Swift lets you extend your product outside of the standard phone and onto more Apple devices helping you to diversify your offering.

macOS application development - If you’re creating desktop software, Swift can be used to build fast, modern applications for macOS, giving you and your users a consistent experience across Apple’s desktop and mobile platforms.

Back end development - Swift isn’t just for front end apps. You can also use it to build server side applications and APIs, allowing you to use one language across your app and backend if that suits your architecture.

The upsides of Swift

Like most Apple technologies, Swift comes with some serious advantages if you’re building for Apple platforms. Let's take a look at them:

It's like, really fast

Swift lives up to its name. Its modern compiler and clean syntax makes it easy for you (or your developers) to write solid code that runs quickly. It's a great choice for creating responsive and high performing apps without sacrificing readability.

It encourages safe coding

Swift is designed to help you avoid entire categories of bugs. Strong typing, optionals and inclusive safety checks mean fewer crashes caused by things like null references or memory issues which leads to more stable applications and subsequently, fewer of those unwelcome runtime surprises.

It’s easy to read

Swift has a syntax that’s closer to plain English than most languages which makes code much easier to read and write. It ditches a lot of the boilerplate you’ll find in older languages which makes maintaining and collaborating on code a far more pleasant experience - even for the newbies.

It’s fully open source

Surprisingly to some, Swift isn’t locked away inside Apple’s ecosystem. It’s open source, with a growing community behind it, making it more accessible for experimentation and use outside of just iOS or macOS.

Great tooling and integration with Xcode

When used in its natural habitat, Swift integrates incredibly well with Xcode. You get access to perks including code completion, integrated debugging, UI previews and performance tools -  all of which help speed up development and reduce context switching.

It keeps evolving for the better

Frequent updates might be a downside for some, but there’s a flip side - Swift is actively maintained and constantly improving. New features, language refinements and tooling enhancements are released regularly keeping Swift ahead in the world of app development.

The downsides of Swift

With pros come cons and there are some downsides to using Swift to develop applications - particularly outside of the apple ecosystem. Let's take a look at it's key drawbacks:

It is focused on the apple ecosystem

Unsurprisingly, this programming language is heavily geared towards the apple ecosystem and whilst it is possible to use it to develop applications for Linux and Windows, the tooling is not as advanced as on apple platforms.

It's not as well established as some veteran technologies

Owing to the fact it is a relatively new language, Swift hasn't yet amassed the volume of libraries, frameworks and resources nor the community size of older, more established technologies.

Updates are frequent and often inconvenient

Again, because of it's short time in existence, Swift receives regular updates in order to help it evolve and become mature. Whilst not inherently bad by any means this can cause issues with compatibility, knowledge gaps, third party integrations and can force developers to make significant adjustments to code when new versions are released.

Lack of backward compatibility

A developers worst nightmare, Swift is not exactly well known for it's smooth backward compatibility. In fact, it has historically been quite the opposite. It can be extremely difficult to upgrade older projects in Swift without significant changes and whilst apple have taken measures in recent versions of Swift to make this easier, it is still not always plain sailing.

How can we help?

At Cool Code Company, we immersed ourselves in Swift back when it was first released and now know a thing or two about how to utilise this modern language to produce quality results. So, whether you're looking to build a brand new app for the apple platform, upgrade an existing one or something in between - we're in a good position to help. Our Nottingham based development team will work closely with you to understand what you want to achieve, assess your current environment and determine the best path forward - come and have a chat with us today!