Apple’s Swift Programming Language Is Now Open Source

The site offers a host of documentation for anyone looking to get acclimatised with Swift, as well as the all-important source code, which is hosted on a GitHub repository.

With a number of new programming languages and frameworks out there, some of them already open-sourced like Google’s Go, Microsoft’s.NET, and Mozilla’s Rust, moving Swift into the open-source camp is likely to boost its use and hence its longevity: which is good news for Apple.

One of the future goals is portability, as right now only OS X and Ubuntu Linux are supported for Swift development. A year later, Apple surprised again by promising to open source the Swift platform this year.

The Linux port is not fully ready, with features such as the libdispatch scheduler for concurrent code execution not fully developed, and some C language constructs not imported into Swift. That claim comes from RedMonk, an analysis firm which tracks the activity of software developers, which pegged Swift as 18th most popular programming language as of June, an improvement from 68th place a year ago.

Other early details are promising. Going open source means that its potential audience will be far greater, as coders working on projects outside of the iOS and OS X ecosystem will now be able to implement the language.

With Swift becoming an open source, it is Apple’s sign that it has embraced the trend in the computer software. Apple’s use of the Apache license puts almost all of the concerns to rest.

The move is recognition of a changing marketplace where apps are becoming their own brands and people want and need them to be available across as many platforms as possible. Designed for safety, Swift also eliminates entire categories of common programming errors.

By opening up the platform beyond the confines of Cupertino, Apple expects others to contribute to the Swift language as it matures. If you’re interested in playing around with it, Apple’s Swift.org site has more information – although it appears to be down right now.