Thoughts on Swift

So for an iOS developer like myself Swift is pretty exciting.

When a new language comes along, especially one that is sure to get traction, there is a lot of opportunity to create some exciting new things.  We all know that Swift will make inroads into the mac and iOS app scene, but as a modern language it also has a chance to become something more than that.

Because of the native integration with Objective-C and C libraries Swift offers some interesting opportunities for high performance compiled apps on the server as well.  This is a space that until now has been completely empty on the Objective-C side of things.

The space is wide open to create a Rails inspired web framework for Swift (or Express/Django/Sinatra/etc). All of the key tooling that you have with other languages now can be ported over to Swift.  Things like commandline tool frameworks, APIs for various services, BDD and unit test frameworks.  The space is wide open and everyone right now is on equal footing to deliver the next big thing.

It’s the chance to make a name for yourself in the open-source community by publishing something cool written in swift.