Top 6 reasons why Swift programming language is better for iPhone App development

Objective C was the primary programming language for iOS apps development since 1980s. But, faster advancement in both hardware and processing software raised demands for a better performing programming language, which lead to the arrival of Swifta programming language developed by AppleinJune-2014.

Developers can use this programming language to develop apps for iOS, OS X, Watch OS and tvOS. Some of the most popular apps built using Swift include Yahoo Weather, LinkedIn, Lyft and Clear. Within a year of its launch, Apple’s new programming language managed to find its rank amongst top 20 programming languages.

Considering this fast-rising popularity of Swift in the developers’ space, Apple rolled out Swift 2 at WWDC 2015 further simplifying the iOS application development process. The company aims to make Swift available for all other platforms to ensure that one code works flawlessly on all platforms. And soon, this will be a reality with the anticipated release of swift 3 in fall this year, 2016.

What makes Swift outshine other programming languages
When it comes to iPhone app development, there are many benefits of choosing Swift over other programming language. But, in this post, I decided to reveal the top 6 benefits Swift offers.

Quick Learning Curve
Swift’s design and syntax rules are largely influenced by modern programming languages Ruby and Python. In order to make Swift easier to learn for greenhorns, Apple has further simplified its syntax rules and increased its readability making it almost same as English. The company has considered some most common errors developers were making with Objective-C and has ensured that the design of Swift is found easier to understand even by the beginners.

Short Codes
An app called Lyft was rewritten using Swift. As a result, the development team could make same app work in 25000 lines of code which was75000 lines of code earlier. There is no compromise done on the functioning of the app during this migration. That’s what Apple’s most up-to-date programming language helps you do – make your code compact!

Improved speed
Being a statically-typed programming language, Swift is certainly faster than other dynamically-typed programming languages like Objective C.
Apple is keen on making Swift faster than C++, which is regarded as the fastest algorithm calculation arithmetics. Simply put, Swift lets you define things more clearly so while running the app the processor of the device won’t invest time in finding definition of something in the code.

Open-source language with a huge community support
Apple made Swift open-source in December-2015 to inspire developers use the language to build apps for other platforms like Android, Windows and Linux. There are several other initiatives taken by the company to open Swift for larger community.

The larger the community, the faster support you get to help yourself thorough any difficult phase of your iOS app development. Swift community has more than 40,000 members across the world and the numbers are increasing really fast!

Fewer errors
Unlike Objective-C, the syntax of Swift lets you check for errors before it develops the code for your app. As a statically typed language, it also helps you define things more precisely, which will ultimately reduce the chances of unusual and unexpected errors. There are fewer crashes and fewer errors, so you will find it easier to maintain long and complex codes.

There is a bright future ahead!
Apple have partnered with IBM to increase scope of Swift in the market and generate more opportunity for the Swift community. IBM cloud lets developers share Swift resources and allows them to use Swift sandbox for experimental purposes. Apple has made some changes in Objective-C only to make its code import in Swift easier. It’s not difficult to predict that Swift is a major programming language for the coming years.

Building a new iPhone app? Now you know why Swift makes a right choice as a programming language for your iPhone app development.

Ketan Chavda

With in-depth knowledge in International Business Management and Information Technology, he can effectively craft business enhancement strategies and can skillfully untangle technical complexities. This has laid the path for him as the Co-Founder and MD of Prismetric . Writing about the new age technology and sharing his thoughts on the continuously evolving business trends keep him content.