Swift programming language developed by Apple Inc. for iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and Linux. Swift is designed to work with Apple’s Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks and the large body of existing Objective-C (ObjC) code written for Apple products. It is built with the open-source LLVM compiler framework and has been included in Xcode since version 6. With more than 700 million iPhones currently in use, iOS is the second-most popular mobile platform world over. While Android may be at an advantage worldwide market-share wise, in regions, like the US, France and the UK, Apple devices continue to dominate the market. This is why, so many businesses focus solely on iOS platforms for their software products, as they see it is as their key investment opportunity.

If you are one of those businesses looking to follow the iOS app development, then you have a critical decision to make. That is of choosing the right tech stack for your product. What are you gonna go for? If it is the native development instead of cross-platform, then which language will you use? The good ole Objective-C or Swift programming language?

Apple had first introduced Swift as a second official language for macOS, watchOS, tvOS and iOS development  way back in 2014

Despite being very young, Swift made its way up from the ‘Apple’s experiment’ status to the 11’s place in TIOBE’s listing of the world’s most popular programming languages. Ranking 7 positions higher than its older brother or predecessor Objective-C, Swift proves to have completed its initial mission.

Here let’s take at the advantages that helped Swift become a major programming language for iOS app development. We will also analyze the disadvantages that may still hold it back.

Pros and Cons of Swift

Pros of using Swift for iOS development

Transparency

When compared to the syntax of Objective-C, it is closer to the notoriously intimidating syntax of C. Swift owes a lot to the syntaxes of much more elegant Ruby, Python and C#. The language is easily readable, since all of its expressions have transparent meanings, and is very simple to learn. In fact, Apple has been so confident in the simplicity of Swift, they encourage kids to create apps on it via games on Playgrounds.

But there’s more to Swift’s simplicity than being kid-friendly. The transparency that the code provides, enables scaling up any development project easily. New team members can shortly catch up on existing app code and start contributing to it faster than they would do with an Objective-C app.

Conciseness

One of the aims Swift developers pursued was to make the language less verbose or clunky. Thanks to its string interpolation alone, Swift has been capable of reducing the Objective-C mobile app code by almost 70%. A self-explanatory example is a Lyft app, which lost 2/3 of its initial 75,000 code lines after being rewritten on Swift. Less code always states that it causes faster development and testing, cheaper maintenance, as well as fewer resources required for any of these tasks.

Automatic memory management

To achieve the best app performance as well as avoid memory leaks. Swift employs Automatic Reference Counting across all APIs. In other words, it handles memory on its own, enabling the most efficient resource consumption. No manual memory settings are needed. All of this while making the necessary adjustments developers are guided and supported by Swift’s convenient tools.

Safety

Unlike Objective-C, Swift is a strongly and statically typed language, which allows developers to notice bugs prior to compilation and fix them on the fly. Moreover, Swift has smart null-pointer safety measures that prevent compiling errors due to null references.

Interoperability with Objective-C

Although this is not an outright advantage over Objective-C, it definitely merits on its own. Swift isn’t to completely replace Objective-C. It will stay a part of many mobile apps that will need maintenance in the future. The new iOS development language is fully interoperable with its predecessor and can coexist with it in one app, file or code line.

Swift is Brief

One of the aims of Swift developers was to make the language concise. Owing to string interpolation alone, Swift is capable enough to reduce the Objective-C mobile app code by almost 70 percent. Less code means faster development and testing- thus cheaper maintenance and less resource expended.

Easily scalable

The transparency in its code leads to a faster development time. In addition to that, you also get a product that is “future-proof” and can be added with new features. This leads to easier scalability. Plus, for your long-term investments, you need to consider that Apple is more likely to support Swift rather than Objective-C.

Recommended Read: Swift vs Objective C: Which one is better for iOS App Development?

Cons of using Swift for iOS development

Speed

The actual swiftness of iOS Swift development has been a controversial issue since version 1.0, mainly because the initial results weren’t that impressive. But the language has evolved a lot since then, and performance tests results aren’t frustrating anymore. Still, while Apple continues to claim that Swift is 2 times faster than Objective-C.  Actual tests don’t back up this statement.

When compared to Java in benchmark task performance.  Swift does get the upper hand in six tests, shares almost the same result with Java in two tests, and loses to it only in two tests as well. Yet when Objective-C is Swift’s rival, the speed difference between the two is hard to notice.

No backward compatibility… yet

The language is radically evolving and is somewhat unstable since currently, each new version of Swift does not support the previous one. This means that apps written in Swift 1.0 and 1.2 can’t be maintained in Swift 3.0 and can already be considered history. However, Swift 4.0 seems to be finally turning the situation around and providing support for Swift 3.0. So, soon there’ll be no need to worry about backward compatibility.

Also Read: Importance Of Developing iOS Application For Your Business

Conclusion

Swift has introduced many advantages to iOS development:

    its conciseness makes mobile apps more lightweight,

    the simplicity enables fast project upscale,

    full interoperability with Objective-C enables convenient maintenance or further development of previous projects.

Just like Kotlin for Android development, Swift simply needs time to mature. Hopefully, with a couple of further releases, Swift will achieve its declared performance speed and become a completely stable development tool.

So this was a blog on Pros and Cons of Swift.

Apple launched Swift, a new programming language in 2014. This language can be used for mobile app development and has given iOS developers an alternative to the existing and age-old language that is Objective-C, an object-oriented superset of the C programming language that has been the core of iOS development thus far over the years. Swift has been designed from the ground up to be compatible with the existing iOS development tools- XCode, Objective-C, and the Cocoa framework- but because of its ease of use and improved features mean that it is quickly starting to replace Objective-C. In this article, we are going to explore some of the few reasons why you should get on-board with the Swift language for your next iOS app development (Swift vs Objective C) project if you haven’t already.

Swift is Faster, and easier, lets developers become more productive during work

Much of what OS X operating system is based on is developed and comes from the inherited technology that dates back to Apple’s humble beginnings, and OS X’s new components have all been based on the Objective-C that includes mobile apps. Objective-C strengths lie in its stronger graphical user interfaces and feature rich frameworks. But when you compare it with the newer Swift language- it is a clunky one to write.

As the hardware and software of the iOS operating system has evolved over the years and improved with better memory and processors. Apple has been successful in developing a streamlined language that was far better suited for fast-paced app development, and also to solve and address some of the Objective-Cs disadvantages. By unloading some of the Baggage that comes with the 30+- year old language like C, Swift has been designed to make the iOS developer’s life easier and more productive.

Compatibility with the Cocoa Touch Framework as well as The Objective-C Language

Frameworks are nothing but libraries of coded modules that makes developing applications faster and much more streamlined for developers. The frameworks that are associated with Apple’s operating system are Cocoa(for OS X) and Cocoa Touch( For iOS). When the modules are written in Objective-C language, Cocoa Touch is specifically designed and geared towards touch-based devices such as iPhones and iPads. So what should this mean for a newer language like Swift?

Swift is fully compatible with Objective-C and when it comes to developing apps in Cocoa Touch, for the mobile framework for iOS. It works along with Objective-C so that developers can interface with the two languages, create mixed-language apps, and it takes advantage of Cocoa Touch classes with Swift, and Swift classes with Objective-C. The interchangeable classes, design patterns, and APIs have thus made it easier for the developer to pick and choose.

Migrating code from Swift to Objective-C is easy too, and vice versa. Developers can take advantage of Swift’s advanced features by replacing chunks of app code written in Objective-C with Swift.

Swift has been designed from the ground up with the Cocoa Touch framework, you only need to set up a Swift development environment in XCode and then import Cocoa frameworks, APIs and Objective-C code modules in order to get started.

Advantages of Swift:

1. Swift Runs Faster, almost as fast as C++, And with the newer versions of Xcode released in 2020, it is much faster than before.

2. Swift is easier to read and implement, and is easier to learn than Objective-C: Objective-C is over 30 years old now and that means that it has a more clunky syntax. Swift is able to streamline code and more closely resembles readable English, similar to C#, C++, JavaScript, Java, and Python. Developers that are experienced in these languages can easily pick up swift pretty quickly. Also Swift requires less code. Compared to Objective-C which is verbose when it comes to string manipulation, Swift employs string interpolation without the use of tokens or placeholders.

3. Unified files make code easier to maintain: Again, an age-old standard is holding the C language holds Objective-C back. This is the two file requirement. This means that programmers and developers need to update as well as maintain two separate files of code, compared to Swift, this becomes one. That means less work for programmers and developers, but this does not come at the cost of speed for the front end.

4. Better Compilers means a better coding experience for developers and programmers: Swift is built-in with a Low Level Virtual Machine(LLVM), this is a compiler that is used by languages like Scala, Ruby, Python, C# and Go. The LLVM is smarter and faster than previous C compilers, so more workload is transferred from the programmer to XCode and the compiler.

Recommended Read: iOS 13 vs iOS 12: Which Apple Operating System Is Better?

5. No pointer means Swift is more secure: Objective-C similar to C language makes use of pointers, a method that exposes values more directly to data. The problem with using pointers is that it makes and causes vulnerabilities in security. They also create a barrier for finding and fixing bugs. However using Swift, your code’s pointer is missing a value(a nil value) instead of continuing to run the app, it causes the app to crash and allows you to find and fix the bug on the spot. You will also have cleaner code and you will spend less time looking for bugs down the road, as time passes by.

6. Better management of memory: Memory leaks can occur in object-oriented programming, and apps and they are known to decrease the available memory for an app to run causing the app to fail. Typically, Cocoa Touch APIs are used to support Automatic Reference Counting(ARC). This is a streamlined way to handle memory management. But when looked upon in the context of the core graphics API, ARC is not available, it is up to the developer. This is a common pitfall when an app is using big data buffers, video or graphics. When the amount of memory being used is just too much during a memory leak, the app can be shut down by the operating system. In order to fix this Swift supports ARC across APIs and this stability means that programmers have to spend less time focusing on memory management.

The future of Objective-C

While many existing apps that are written in Objective-C will need to be maintained and this means that Objective-C will not be obsolete any time soon. Apple’s existing APIs require a bit of code adaptation in order to work with Swift. Xcode updates have caused this to change along with newer releases as well.

Also Read: What’s the best way to learn iOS development with Swift?

Conclusion:

There is no doubt that Swift is the future for iOS apps development. It is time that Objective-C took a back seat and enjoyed the show being put up by its successors. If you liked this Swift vs Objective-C article, then do check out our other blogs as well. If you are looking to hire Swift developers or looking to develop an iOS app then do contact us at enquiry@nimapinfotech.com. We have talented developers ready to onboard your project in the best budget for you.

It is said that the newer version of any software is better than the older version of the software that is available. This is true for all kinds of software including operating systems that are available. In this article, we are going to discuss which operating system is better for you for your iPhone. Why you should choose to upgrade your software for your iPhone.

iOS 13 vs iOS 12: Availability and compatibility

iOS 13 was in public beta for quite a while now. After testing it has confirmed to be the newest operating system for iPhones. iOS 13 will not be compatible with phones running iOS 12. You should have an iPhone 6S or an iPhone SE or later devices or an iPod touch 7th Generation.

Following are the devices that are incompatible with iOS 13: iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, all of these devices can easily run the latter operating system easily that is iOS 12.

iOS 13 vs iOS 12: Signins and Dark Mode

The two of the most highly touted features as well as these features being the biggest provided for iOS 13 are Dark Mode and Sign In with Apple. The Dark Mode is a feature that enables a black midnight color theme that can be used by any app of your smartphones and works with all of your native apps. This will also be available for third-party developers to integrate into their apps.

This mode is designed to go light on your eye as well as to make using your phone easier and more battery-friendly. This low light mode can be configured to come active at sunset or at a specific time that you can set. There is a quick toggle that you can activate in the control center. Of course, you can also decide to use this theme all the time.

The sign is also a new feature that is included with iOS 13, this feature is similar to FaceBook Sign in or Microsoft sign in or Google’s Sign in. Any app that you use will be able to use this custom Apple sign feature that the developers can use to integrate with your applications.

iOS 13 vs iOS 12: Performance

iOS 12 offers significant performance boosts over iOS 11 in comparison, but iOS 13 takes the things to the next level. Apple claims that apps launch upto 2 times faster-using iOS 13 while the Face ID is upto 30% faster. App downloads and updates are set to become a lot smaller from this update, and this will apply to iOS 12 as well.

iOS 13 vs iOS 12: Siri

Siri aims to get better and better with every newer version of the Operating system. iOS 12 is known to enhance translation skills, massively improved its ability to make suggestions, Added Siri shortcuts and that lets you create custom actions that the user can trigger using a specific phrase. Siri is even capable to suggest some shortcuts that you might like as it tries to learn your routine.

With iOS 13 all of the above still apply, but it is even better than ever, as Siri can ask to follow up questions when you are running a shortcut if any extra information is needed. The ability of Siri to make suggestions has also been improved further. For example, it can suggest some shortcuts based on time and locations.

And you are going to enjoy interacting with Siri much more because its sound has been enhanced to make it sound more natural. All thanks to the neural text to speech technology.

Recommended Blog: Steps to become iOS Developer

iOS 13 vs iOS 12: Camera and Photos

The camera and photos are two of the main areas that have been given a lot of focus on iOS 13. These features were not the main focus in iOS 12 but they were not completely ignored either.

The camera has got a portrait Lighting mode as a part of iOS 12, while QR code reading has been automatic, as well as the ability to search for specific photos has been improved and you can search by events and as well as use multiple search terms at once.

Now in iOS 13 you can change the intensity of light in Portrait Mode, as well as a new monochromatic feature has been added, that is photos can now be taken in black and white color. There also has been a redesigned editing experience that allows you to review each individual effect. It makes use of new editing tools right in the Photos app such as “Vibrance”, “Noise Reduction”, “Perspective correction”

The biggest change comes from how the photos are displayed with a new photos tab that can highlight shots from specific days, months or years.

iOS 13 vs iOS 12: Maps

Apple has added more details to Maps in iOS 12 along with things like more accurate location entrances and much more up-to-date information, as well as switching to using its own mapping information instead of relying on third parties.

With iOS 13 through Maps, now it allows you to take a look at places at the ground level, in 3D similar to Google Street View.

You can get real-time transit information and in select locations, there are more realistic and detailed maps. You can also now easily access your favorite locations, so setting up navigation is quicker and easier.

Messages, Reminders, and Memoji

Apple has now redesigned the reminders app for iOS 13 and has given it a completely new interface, support for attachments as well as smart lists, which is tuned to automatically organize and display reminders given you the choice to view just those that are relevant to you today.

Messages are improved too, Apple lets you personalize your messages and interactions with animations and Memoji features, which allows you to create a cartoon version of your own face.

As for the messages app itself, you can share your photo and name but can choose to do this with everyone or just your contacts or with no one.

iOS 13 vs iOS 12: Augmented Reality

iOS 12 added ARKit 2 which allows for shared experiences in AR opening doors to all sorts of multiplayer AR games and apps.

With iOS 13 Apple has now moved to ARKit 3 which allows AR content to realistically pass behind or in front of people in the real world, making it more realistic

This allows AR experiences to use both the front and the rear cameras at the same time, as well as track multiple faces and using Reality Composer you can create your own AR scenes using simple drag and drop controls.

iOS 13 vs iOS 12: Other features

There are numerous other features that have made some changes to how these features work such as Grouped Notifications, screen time information, improvements to Do Not Disturb,  a new Measure app, as well as some small updates to most of the stock apps.

You will be able to find all of these in iOS 13 too but with further addition and updates, for example, CarPlay, voice controls, Safari, Notes as well as the App Store, Apple Health and Apple Music have been updated in ways small or large.

Also Read: Is iOS app development a good career in 2019?

Conclusion:

So now you know that updating your iPhone with the newest version of iOS is worth the deal or not. As far as features are concerned, and from the security point of view. It is better to keep your phone running the latest version of iOS so that you have all new features and bug fixes accessible at your fingertips.

In today’s cut-throat competition and fast-changing pace of the IT industry, it is essential for you to keep yourself updated with the latest happenings in the world of technology. If you are a beginner and you are looking for a career in one of the IT related fields, this can become an overwhelming and exhausting task for you.

If you are looking to up your knowledge in the field of the IT industry where there are constant change and trends happening then let me tell you why you need to be swift in ios training, keeping your skills updated with the current technologies.

For any person who aspires to become a software engineer or a software developer, it is essential that he or she analyses the current market and job demands in the IT industry and pursue a technology that helps her to sharpen his or her skills. Today’s education system does not focus on an overall skill development that is highly essential for today’s industry.

You may also like to know more: How to hire an iOS Developer

If you ask any experts who are into the software development domain, they will provide you some really valuable suggestions that will really help you out. One of their suggestions will be to join a particular course that will help you to hone your development skills.

They will tell you to take up a course that will provide you with knowledge and know-how about the skills and techniques that are used in developing any apps. These technologies are predominantly been kept afresh and happening in the world of IT. These technologies are iOS, Android, Laravel, ASP.NET, and so on.

These technologies are currently dominating the market for relevant skills and techniques that you can apply to get a job as well as starting your career in the world of the IT industry.

IT technologies can be brutal for kickstarting your career especially if you are new and looking to secure a place in the market of experience and expert developers for designing apps, games, frameworks, and APIs for the client or the consumer.

Learn from the Expert

With the motive of helping many students and professionals get the best out of the software industry. Our Nimap Infotech Co-Founder, Mr. Priyank  Ranka, an iOS expert has taken up upon him to deliver valuable experience and lectures that any programmer or developer new to the industry will find valuable and insightful.

Mr. Priyank  Ranka is a wonderful teacher and a dedicated motivator that inspires many students and software professional looking to make their mark in the IT industry and gain knowledge and valuable insights from him. He does this by providing sessions and lectures about various different in-demand technologies and programming concepts that are being highly used and touted about in the IT software development spectrum.

Recommended Reading: Steps to become iOS Developer

Mr. Priyank  Ranka has taken up the challenge to motivate and educate the budding software professionals to acquire essential tips, tricks, and techniques that they can use for developing apps and other things. He says that you need to learn anyone’s predominant technology that is currently in high demand so that you can get the valuable knowledge that you will carry with you for developing great apps and software that no one will teach you.

If you are looking to take your development skills to the next level or are just starting out in the field of development, then let me tell you that you need to take training sessions that impart you the best knowledge and skills for you to survive in the IT industry.

Taking or enrolling in training sessions is one such way of keeping yourselves updated and gaining the skills that you require. For example, to get your career started you can enroll for an iOS hand-on training session courses that provide you the knowledge of how to develop a fully working and capable App for the APPLE environment.

Modern training institutes do not have the expertise or experience that provides practical implementation and know-how for creating an app that can change the way things are done.

It is highly essential to get trained from a person that can provide you with practical and sensible training that shows you the inner workings of the technology and allows you to get hands-on experience with the concepts of programming.

Here is the list of things that you must check if your trainer has:

Reasons why you should Enroll for Training Sessions

• Practical knowledge of working apps
• Ability to impart knowledge in bits and pieces
• Experience and technical know-how of the technology
• Good communication skills that can even help a grandmother understand the technology
• Lots of patience and commitment to helps students understand the technology
• Good ability to explain difficult concepts in simple English language
• Years of experience developing apps in the core industry for the platform.

There are many more things such as good repo of dealing with students and the ability to make complex concepts simpler and easier to understand for beginners and students.

It is very much essential that you check the experience of the institute from where you are about to take the training.

For this reason, you need to speak with students and trainers since they are the best reviewers of the institute and can suggest you some good training institutes for where you can take the training form.

You need to be trained from a teacher who can arouse the curiosity and inquisitiveness for developing an app for the iOS mobile platform. Your trainer will also help you to develop a love for the language and the passion for development.

With these points in mind, we provide you with the best resources that you can count upon to get yourself trained in the world of iOS swift programming

Get yourself enrolled for iOS training and get trained for the app development challenges for tomorrow. Leverage the expert skills and knowledge imparted by our world-class trainer Mr. Priyank  Ranka who has more than 12 years of experience developing iOS apps and games for the Apple platform.

Know More: Importance Of Developing iOS Application For Your Business

If you’re interested and are looking to get your self trained from industry-acclaimed experts then you can drop us a mail to enquiry@nimapinfotech.com. We will get you in touch with Mr. Priyank  Ranka, and he will guide you towards your goal of becoming an iOS developer and an expert in iOS app development. Check out our iPhone Development Guide maintained by our expert Mr. Priyank  Ranka.