> On Oct 12, 2019, at 9:24 AM, Charles Srstka via Cocoa-dev > <cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com> wrote: > >> On Oct 12, 2019, at 10:55 AM, Pier Bover via Cocoa-dev >> <cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com> wrote: >> >> Yeah I think Apple saw Obj-C as a barrier for developer adoption. I don't >> think that's too far from the truth considering the emphasis on teaching >> Swift to young devs, Playgrounds, the marketing about teenagers making >> their first app, etc. >> >> Swift has its quirks but most people around me prefer it over Obj-C too, >> even experienced devs. From StackOverflow trends and other metrics as soon >> as Swift was announced the popularity of Obj-C declined steadily even when >> it was clear Swift was still not ready for production: >> >> - https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/objective-c/ >> <https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/objective-c/> >> - https://insights.stackoverflow.com/trends?tags=objective-c >> <https://insights.stackoverflow.com/trends?tags=objective-c> > Swift’s first few versions were awful, but the community has been very > responsive in responding to developer feedback and what we have now is really > quite a nice language, possibly the nicest I’ve used. The string nil checks, > in particular, are something I’ve become a believer in, especially when > spending a bunch of time trying to debug an issue while writing projects in > other languages that turns out to be a nil showing up somewhere where we > didn’t expect it. > > The main quibble I have with it is the Objective-C bridge, which contains > much more magic than I’d prefer, and of course certain legacy issues that > come along with having to use the Objective-C frameworks (hello, autorelease > pools). When writing cross-platform code on Linux or something, these > complaints are of course moot. I hope they release a Windows version at some > point; I’d really like to see Swift gain more acceptance as a general-purpose > programming language.
With respect to Swift/Obj-C preference, I think it may ultimately come down to a mindset issue. I see Computer Science students here falling into two groups. The group that likes Swift generally likes scripting languages, Python, and the like. The group that likes Obj-C sees Swift as being "arbitrarily syntactical" with the syntax of the language getting in the way of programming. (There is a third group that likes both languages, but it is very small.) I can understand where both camps are coming from. A psychologist explained this difference in orientation as one of "convergent vs divergent" thinking, and most people are mostly one way or the other. -Carl _______________________________________________ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: https://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com
