Swift 5.2 Released!
Swift 5.2 enhances the developer experience with improved compiler diagnostics, faster code completion, better debugging, and refined Swift Package Manager dependency handling.
85 posts with the tag “Swift”
Announcing ArgumentParser
The Swift ArgumentParser library simplifies parsing command-line arguments with a type-safe, declarative approach using Swift features like property wrappers and reflection.
Standard Library Preview Package
Swift 5 introduces the Standard Library Preview package, an open-source tool bundling accepted Swift Evolution features not yet in official releases, starting with SE-0270 for subrange operations like subranges(where:) and moveSubranges(_:to:) on collections, plus the RangeSet type.
Library Evolution in Swift
Swift's library evolution support, enabled via BUILD_LIBRARY_FOR_DISTRIBUTION in Xcode or -enable-library-evolution in swiftc, allows framework authors to make additive API changes while maintaining binary compatibility, ensuring clients don't need recompilation.
Introducing Swift Crypto
Swift Crypto is a new open-source Swift package that extends Apple CryptoKit's APIs to non-Apple platforms by using BoringSSL for cryptographic primitives, while deferring to CryptoKit on Apple systems for seamless cross-platform development.
Swift Numerics
The Swift Numerics open-source project introduces a modular Swift package for numerical computing, filling gaps in the Standard Library with modules like Real and Complex.
SSWG Annual Update '19
The Swift Server Work Group (SSWG) has made significant progress in its first year, establishing an incubation process for defining high-quality Swift packages through community pitches, reviews, and acceptance.
New Diagnostic Architecture Overview
Swift 5.2 enhances compiler diagnostics through a new infrastructure that uses 'constraint fixes' to pinpoint type errors more accurately, allowing the type checker to continue solving and report multiple issues with actionable guidance, unlike the old system's vague guesses.
Swift 5.2 Release Process
Swift 5.2 focuses on delivering significant improvements in quality and performance.
Swift 5.1 Released!
Swift 5.1 advances Swift 5 by introducing module stability, enabling binary frameworks that work across compiler versions, alongside library evolution support for resilient APIs.
Thread Sanitizer for Swift on Linux
Swift 5.1 introduces Thread Sanitizer on Linux, enabling runtime detection of data races in multithreaded code, which can cause unexpected behaviour or memory corruption despite Swift's single-threaded safety guarantees.
Swift 5 Released!
Swift 5.0 marks a major milestone with ABI stability on Apple platforms, integrating the Swift runtime into macOS, iOS, tvOS, and watchOS for smaller apps and better performance.
UTF-8 String
Swift 5 changes String's preferred encoding from UTF-16 to UTF-8 for better performance in modern computing, like server-side work and C interop, while keeping efficient Objective-C bridging.
Behind the Proposal — SE-0200 Enhancing String Literals Delimiters to Support Raw Text
SE-0200 introduces custom delimiters for Swift string literals in Swift 5, allowing raw text that ignores escape sequences unless adjusted with matching pound signs, blending features from languages like Rust while retaining Swift's interpolation.
Swift 5.1 Release Process
Swift 5.1 aims to achieve module stability for the language. On Apple platforms, it keeps binary compatibility with Swift 5.0 and future releases because the ABI is now stable.
Evolving Swift On Apple Platforms After ABI Stability
Swift 5.0 achieves ABI stability on Apple platforms, allowing apps to use the OS-provided Swift runtime instead of bundling it, which reduces download sizes and enables better performance through deeper integration.
ABI Stability and More
Swift 5 achieves ABI stability on Apple platforms, ensuring binary compatibility for apps and libraries across future Swift versions without needing to embed the Swift runtime in app bundles.
Introducing the sourcekitd Stress Tester
Sourcekitd powers essential editor features like code completion and refactoring in Xcode and SourceKit-LSP, handling both syntactic and semantic requests for Swift files.
Swift 5 Exclusivity Enforcement
Swift 5 turns on runtime checks for exclusive access to memory by default in release builds.
REPL Support for Swift Packages
The swift run command now includes a --repl option. This lets you start the Swift REPL and import library targets from a package.
How Mirror Works
Swift provides runtime type inspection through the Mirror API. This allows developers to examine arbitrary values and traverse object graphs without prior knowledge of types at compile time.
Swift 5.0 Release Process
Swift 5.0 aims to achieve ABI stability to enable a stable runtime for operating systems, with module stability as a key focus that may land in this release or a later 5.x update.
Swift 4.2 Released!
Swift 4.2 is a major update that enhances compile times, debugging, the standard library, and moves closer to binary compatibility, while maintaining source compatibility with Swift 4 and 4.1 but marking the last release to support Swift 3 compatibility.
Introducing Related Projects to Swift Forums
The Swift community continues to expand, with developers increasingly relying on ecosystem projects to streamline app development for specific tasks. To foster better interaction, Swift Forums has introduced a new top-level category called Related Projects.
Swift Community-Hosted Continuous Integration
Swift.org has expanded its continuous integration testing system to include community-hosted nodes for additional platforms.