Apple Swift Lead Discusses Swift 5 in New Podcast

Apple is currently working on Swift 5.0, the next major version of its the coding language the company first introduced in 2014. As Apple prepares to release Swift 5.0, Ted Kremenek, who is leading the project, recently sat down for an interview with John Sundell on his Swift by Sundell podcast.

The new episode, titled "Pragmatic Priorities," is available to listen to starting today on iTunes and through the Podcasts app on iOS devices.

swift banner
Kremenek is Apple's senior manager of languages and runtimes, and he is overseeing the release of Swift 5 and is Apple's voice on the project.

In the podcast, Kremenek covers topics that include how Apple plans new features for Swift, the process by which pitched ideas turn into release features, and of course, Swift 5.

Swift 5's major focus is long-awaited ABI stability (Application Binary Interfaces), and Kremenek goes into detail on how ABI stability was ultimately implemented and what changes needed to be made for Swift to become ABI stable.

With Swift 5, apps created with one version of the Swift compiler will be able to interface with a library built with another version, something that is not the case now.

The Swift by Sundell podcast with Ted Kremenek will be of interest to developers and those who use the Swift language and want to learn more about the changes and features coming in Swift 5.

Tag: Swift

Popular Stories

iPhone SE 4 Vertical Camera Feature

iPhone SE 4 Rumored to Use Same Rear Chassis as iPhone 16

Friday July 19, 2024 7:16 am PDT by
Apple will adopt the same rear chassis manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 that it is using for the upcoming standard iPhone 16, claims a new rumor coming out of China. According to the Weibo-based leaker "Fixed Focus Digital," the backplate manufacturing process for the iPhone SE 4 is "exactly the same" as the standard model in Apple's upcoming iPhone 16 lineup, which is expected to...
iPhone 16 Pro Sizes Feature

iPhone 16 Series Is Just Two Months Away: Everything We Know

Monday July 15, 2024 4:44 am PDT by
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
bsod

Crowdstrike Says Global IT Outage Impacting Windows PCs, But Mac and Linux Hosts Not Affected

Friday July 19, 2024 3:12 am PDT by
A widespread system failure is currently affecting numerous Windows devices globally, causing critical boot failures across various industries, including banks, rail networks, airlines, retailers, broadcasters, healthcare, and many more sectors. The issue, manifesting as a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), is preventing computers from starting up properly and forcing them into continuous recovery...
iphone 14 lineup

Cellebrite Unable to Unlock iPhones on iOS 17.4 or Later, Leak Reveals

Thursday July 18, 2024 4:18 am PDT by
Israel-based mobile forensics company Cellebrite is unable to unlock iPhones running iOS 17.4 or later, according to leaked documents verified by 404 Media. The documents provide a rare glimpse into the capabilities of the company's mobile forensics tools and highlight the ongoing security improvements in Apple's latest devices. The leaked "Cellebrite iOS Support Matrix" obtained by 404 Media...
Apple Watch Series 9

2024 Apple Watch Lineup: Key Changes We're Expecting

Tuesday July 16, 2024 7:59 am PDT by
Apple is seemingly planning a rework of the Apple Watch lineup for 2024, according to a range of reports from over the past year. Here's everything we know so far. Apple is expected to continue to offer three different Apple Watch models in five casing sizes, but the various display sizes will allegedly grow by up to 12% and the casings will get taller. Based on all of the latest rumors,...
tinypod apple watch

TinyPod Turns Your Apple Watch Into an iPod

Wednesday July 17, 2024 3:18 pm PDT by
If you have an old Apple Watch and you're not sure what to do with it, a new product called TinyPod might be the answer. Priced at $79, the TinyPod is a silicone case with a built-in scroll wheel that houses the Apple Watch chassis. When an Apple Watch is placed inside the TinyPod, the click wheel on the case is able to be used to scroll through the Apple Watch interface. The feature works...

Top Rated Comments

Cosmosent Avatar
71 months ago
FYI, the Highest-Perf apps in the iOS App Store are (still) written in an mix of Objective-C & "C".
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
az431 Avatar
71 months ago
Well swift makes it easy to rewrite Obj-C code piecemeal... I would not sit on decade old code... I would always learn form it and invest in modern code.
Code is not like milk. It doesn't go bad after a certain amount of time.
[doublepost=1551212910][/doublepost]
IMHO, Swift is a colossal mistake. They should have continued improving Objective-C instead of indulging in what amounts to a compiler programmer's pet project.
That statement shows you know very little (nothing) about software development.

Swift reduces the time to create an app by nearly half, and reduces the complexity of the code. Swift code also runs faster than objective-c code, especially in math intensive functions. It also takes advantage of memory management functionality that is absent in Objective-C.

There is no way to "improve" Objective-C to make it equivalent to what Swift is today.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mamcx Avatar
71 months ago
Developer here with 20+ years of experience:

FYI, the Highest-Perf apps in the iOS App Store are (still) written in an mix of Objective-C & "C".
What is the point of say this? Imply that swift is not for fast apps?

What does this mean for average Joe? Does that meant that more apps will get iOS release also (like Zbrush?) or something else? Sorry, coding is not my area of knowledge :)
For that, is necessary that Swift have a better support for non-Apple platforms. If I need to have something across many platforms is necessary to use a low-level lang like C/C++/Rust or a runtime like Java/.NET or similar.

This is certainly the biggest problem with swift, IMHO. I wish Apple get serious here and provide first class support for at least linux/windows of the core library:

https://www.reddit.com/r/swift/comments/8zb9y1/state_of_swift_for_androidlinuxwindows_on_2018/

----
Is important to note than instead of
IMHO, Swift is a colossal mistake.
The colossal mistake is C/C++. Both of them are massive bugs-friendly, security-impossible piece of languages that are behind almost all the problems of crashes, weird bugs and security problems for decades now. Costing billons not only in damages but in the amount of time and effort required to workaround them.

The problem is that all the OS today are on top of the "C ABI" ie: Eventually you need to lower your hopes to whatever C can do, not matter how problematic. However, is possible to reduce the surface area and use a better language, like Rust or Swift for most of the tasks and only lower to C for compatibility or to access the vast ecosystem around it.

Swift, like Rust and others, are far from a mistake. Is what is necessary to move the industry forward. Stay forever with C/C++ is like stay with Cobol, but worse.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Frank Dalton Avatar
71 months ago
IMHO, Swift is a colossal mistake. They should have continued improving Objective-C instead of indulging in what amounts to a compiler programmer's pet project.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mdriftmeyer Avatar
71 months ago
Well, both of those have many, many years head start on Swift. Not surprising. I'd like to see stats another five years from now. And perhaps a breakdown of apps that are older than 2014 vs new ones since.
That's not it. Swift has 40 years of OOA/OOD, Structural and Functional programming research behind it. They should have enhanced ObjC to go to 3.0, then 4.0 and dropped this idea from the start.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Gobie74 Avatar
71 months ago
Waiting for swift to have something like async / await. Nested callbacks are such a pain
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)