

Swift is coming to PaintCode - melancton
http://paintcodeapp.com/news/swift-is-coming-to-paintcode

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kodablah
Considering that Apple basically requires an xcode/objc project to deploy iOS
apps, I believe Swift will become a popular cross-compiler target especially
for GC'd languages. I wouldn't be surprised to hear similar news from RoboVM,
MonoTouch, RubyMotion, etc in the coming months.

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pjmlp
Why bother? They already produce machine code.

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Void_
Hm, PaintCode is nice, but I think I'd prefer a library that would let me
import SVG files.

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CodeWithCoffee
Furthermore, Apple did bring up a slide during the Platform State of the
Uniform (slide 56 in the PDF) saying source compatibility wouldn't be
guaranteed (but that converters would be provided) because the language will
evolve. I can't imagine that they'll introduce dramatic changes that will
break code generated by PaintCode, but it would be a pain if you have to
completely regenerate your all rendering code with each update to Xcode/Swift.

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Someone
I haven't listened to that presentation or read the PDF, but from what I read
about it I would bet that 'evolve' refers more to the time until the official
release than to the time after that. Of course the language will evolve, but
it will be slower and shouldn't do so in incompatible ways.

Until official release, though, Apple may make huge breaking changes (change
keywords, tweak the grammar, maybe drop a feature or two. For example, do we
really need trap on overflow for integers in what, in the end, is a compiled
language?)

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endergen
I wonder if the generated code will be visualized when using Playgrounds.
Anyone know? I haven't tried rendering code yet in Playgrounds.

I emailed Paintcode asking this same question. Will post if I get a response.

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MaxGabriel
The Platforms State of the Union at WWDC did bezier path drawing, so I'd say
yes.

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prezjordan
So, how on earth did they get this out that quickly?

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mantrax5
Let's say that this thing in their pocket was indeed them being happy to see
an Objective-C replacement.

On a more serious note, Apple has a practice of cooperating with a small
selection of developers (who sign a bunch of scary NDA's) when testing new
technologies.

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brandonbloom
It's certainly the case that some folks get early access, I don't really think
that was necessary to make this happen so quickly. I'm not saying they didn't
have early access, just that they...

1) already had a code generator for Objective-C

2) already had infrastructure for alternate code generators (they also support
C#)

3) Swift and Objective-C share the same libraries and have similar semantics
where it counts

4) Writing code generators isn't really all that difficult

It's perfectly believable that they banged out enough of a first-cut at this
to make an announcement within a day or two of the Swift release.

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mantrax5
Of course.

You know Swift is just so natural to both Objective-C, Java, Scala, C# etc.
devs already, and so much simpler than Objective-C, I have the feeling we'll
see the fastest adoption of a brand new language in the history of computing
here.

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Meai
Is there any info on whether Swift can be used on Linux / be embedded?

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Jtsummers
At present the only known implementation is paired with Xcode 6 and runs on OS
X only. We'll have to see if Apple open sources their front end implementation
(that runs atop LLVM). If they do then it'd probably be reasonably
straightforward to retarget it for other operating systems where LLVM is
supported, if there's a run time to pair it with (like GnuStep).

