iHate Swift 2

Programming Languages Swift Swift

Created Aug ’15

Replies 22

Boosts 0

Views 3.2k

Participants 14

Am I the only one who hates the big changes Apple makes this year? Why can't they make just small changes in Swift???? It's not hard to convert all my Code to Swift 2. It is IMPOSSIBLE. I get 9 errors, even if I could fix them and press the "build and run" Button I get 20 new errors. Every time. And most of them do really not make any sense. I will never ever switch to Swift 2. And if this means I can't build new Apps one day, that's ok. Even switching to Android is still better than switching from Swift 1 to Swift 2. I will not learn a completely new programming language every year. Because that's what Swift 2 is. Last year it was Swift. Now it's Swift 2. And next year? Will I have to learn Swift 3 which will also be a completely new language? No, thanks.

Answered by Jens in 46058022

I don't think the OP wants help. The post seems to be more of a statement/rant and the questions in it are probably rhetorical.

Boost

Tia Lapis OP

Aug ’15

Swift 1 has still some rough edges that make developing in it unpleasureful. Swift 2 fixed most if this.

CharlesS OP

Aug ’15

Am I the only one who hates the big changes Apple makes this year?

You just might be. Speaking for myself, the changes in Swift 2 go a long way towards making Swift a usable language. Swift 1 seemed as if it had been designed specifically to thwart and frustrate the developer. Swift 2 is a much, much better language.

iPad_dev OP

Aug ’15

I get very tired of well that the migrator doesn't work or will mangle your code beyond repair, the errors are vague and most often incorrect.

So I"ll be glad when swift supposely go open source, then I'll compile my own libs and forget about apple's releases until there's some substantial.

TommieC OP

Aug ’15

The Swift compiler appears to stop at the first error - it does not scan the entire file for all errors. After an initial error is corrected then subsequent related errors appear. This seems appropriate. In terms of Swift changing every year. That argument seems invalid as Swift will be open sourced soon, which means that changes are not likely to be as extensive as what we are seeing during the finalization of the language. On the other hand, Apple development changes radically each year as new technology and changes to devices appears. Massive changes to the APIs do occur and require one to be dynamic and adaptive.

TommieC OP

Aug ’15

You should make a branch of your source code before migrating to different Swift versions (on menu Source Code > project (master) > New Branch). This will enable you to retain a snapshot of your Swift 1.2 code. Meanwhile this gives you the freedom to tackle the migration by simply rethinking the solution that you would use given the changes we are seeing in Swift 2.0.

Magicman OP

Aug ’15

LOL

immaterial OP

Aug ’15

Hmm, I remember they pointed to 2.0 more than once (probably in the forums), but you're right that both WWDC and the Swift blog use vague wording like "a year or two from now." I just found a recent statement from Chris Lattner that "There were no public statements that Swift 2.0..." Either my memory is wrong, or "public statements" is a way of saying "what was said on the dev forums isn't official." I know which I'm leaning toward. 😉

In any case, the point stands that rapid change was warned about and should be expected in the infancy of the language. Based on Chris' latest statement, they're going to wait for all the feedback and changes from open sourcing Swift before they lock anything down. That seems quite reasonable.