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0 pointsjbverschoor5y ago0 comments

I'd say swift is currently probably the best languages out there. Language features, standard library, performance, memory management.

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blauditore5y ago

I'm curious, how do people judge this?

Personally I have some significant experience with maybe 5 different languages, which is already more diverse than the average software dev as far as I know. But I still wouldn't be comfortable to judge something like this.

For instance, I haven't worked with Swift, but I find it hard to believe it's much better than, say, C#, Scala, or Typescript, regarding those metrics. Do you have experience in those languages?

dimatura5y ago

It's subjective, naturally. I don't know if I'd be that enthusiastic, but I definitely like it a lot.

My main languages are Python and C++. I've also used Java, C#, Javascript but not Typescript, among others.

In my opinion Swift does a pretty good job at striking a balance between expressiveness/usability, safety and performance. If it gets more traction under Linux (including a larger ecosystem and better tooling around it) I'd definitely consider it for projects where Python could become a bottleneck but C++-level performance is not absolutely required.

On the other hand, other languages in a similar niche - Rust, Go, even D or Nim? are already more established outside of iOS/MacOS, so I don't know. My experience with Swift has definitely made me more interested in learning Rust, which seems quite similar in some respects.

DagAgren5y ago

Agreed. I have not seen any other language that is as pleasant to use. It is not perfect, but everything else is even further from perfect.

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