Open Sourced Swift- Apple’s Big Gift to Developers

Apple has come forward with innovations in both iOS and Mac OS X in WWDC 2015 mega event. HomeKit, News app, and Siri with Proactive, etc. are some of the indicators showing Apple’s innovative approach.

Watch OS 2 and new APIs are valuable for developers to make native apps for Watch and iOS apps with more features respectively. But, Apple’s big and perhaps the most-awaited gift for the iOS developers is making Swift free for all. Yes, being an open-source language, Swift is now ready for use, modify and expand freely by the developers across the world.

How open-source Swift can benefit developers

Swift, an easy-to-use programming language introduced by Apple, is useful to make rapid iOS and Mac OS X software and programs. With many innovative and handy tools, Swift has gained popularity among developers. As Apple is going to make it open source, it will become more popular. We will mention the reasons behind it in this blog.

Firstly, let us see what Apple wants to do while making Swift an open-sourced language:

• It will release Swift’s source code, compiler, and standard library
• It will contribute ports of the code to iOS, OS X, and Linux platforms
• It will accept the contributions from developers’ community

Developers find this move very beneficial. Let us find out the reasons why they are welcoming this step:

• Swift language has a relation with C++ and Objective-C languages. Therefore, its open sourcing is beneficial to all developers irrespective of platforms.
• Every developer can use and share Apple’s technology for developing better apps
• Developers can readily identify bugs and remove them, thus making Swift flawless and more powerful
• Availability of codes on Linux will open the doors of new opportunities for developers
• Update of Swift will become easier, and it will be done on a regular basis because of open sourcing
• Swift will become more effective and efficient language as it will get myriad of contributions from developers

In brief, open sourcing of Swift is considered as Apple’s big move toward the process of implementing advanced technological concepts with more innovative and focused approach. It is fair to say that Apple joins Microsoft and Google to facilitate innovations in Internet of Things (IoT) and ‘Internet of Everything’ concepts by making Swift language free for the developers.