Both of these languages can be used to create Apple apps, but it’s been said that Swift requires 60% less code in comparison with Objective-C. ARC in Swift handles memory management automatically, allowing developers to focus on other aspects of app development, leading to better-quality iPhone apps. It’s worth noting that Objective-C’s ARC only supports the Cocoa API, which can be limiting for developers working with Core Graphics. Of course, language performance during iOS app development can also be affected by factors such as optimizing RC and using the same iOS SDK and LLVM compiler. However, Swift’s modern features and efficient structures make it the faster and more efficient choice for app development overall. The features of a programming language have a huge impact on the business aspects of iOS app development, primarily around speed.
- We compared and contrasted the two languages and determined that Swift is the clear winner for native app development.
- You don’t need to find a new IDE if you’ve been using Xcode to write iOS apps.
- Sometimes, it can be very difficult to write, but brings more benefits, being highly reusable.
- While it has certainly revolutionized the coding experience for iOS developers, Swift has also been impactful for user experience and code quality.
- You should start with Apple service for developers and dedicated Swift webpage.
On top of that, Apple clearly intends to support the language as a core part of Apple OS development, as it continues to create and release increasingly robust APIs designed for Swift. Objective-C is dynamically typed, which means variables are assigned to objects at runtime. This adds a great deal of flexibility when it comes to assigning particular variables to multiple types of objects.
Appium Tutorial: Your Complete Intro to Mobile Testing
The development of Swift started back in 2010, and it was made accessible in 2014 – nearly four years after. Both the languages have their own advantages and objective c vs swift disadvantages, and that’s what we’re going to get into today. As Swift is no longer based on C, it’s not possible to use C or C++ code in it directly.
Marco is a Senior iOS developer specializing in game development with a particular affinity for coding conceptually original apps. Since Swift is at a growing age, people have started to learn and adopt this new language. Moreover, there are a few complexities such as maturity, less expertise, etc which makes developers move with Objective-C.
Code complexity
This also means that a C developer can easily make a transition to Objective-C. Because of its ease of use compared with Objective-C, it was quickly adopted by developers. Since it has object-oriented features, Objective-C became an instant hit. It was quickly acquired by NeXT Computer, which was led by Steve Job. Since his return to Apple in 1997, Objective-C became the standard to develop Apple apps.
Let’s explore the two languages and know more about their pros and cons. Objective-C is an object-oriented programming language developed in the early 1980s by Brad Cox and Tom Love as the extension of C. This high-level general-purpose language comes with a shallow learning curve and has been promoted by Apple since the 90s for developing macOS and iOS applications.
Objective-C vs Swift: iOS Comparison [2024 Update]
Proper memory management can be cumbersome and time-consuming, but it’s essential to keep apps running smoothly. The comparison between Objective-C and Swift will elucidate how Swift resolves this issue and enhances memory management. In 2015 it became an open source and cross-platform programming language. This takes away the unsafe pointer management and at the same time provides interaction with long-standing Objective-C and C code bases. These days, Apple Inc. promotes the use of Swift and provides constant language version updates. Look how high Swift ranks on the list of programming languages that developers plan to learn moving forward.
When it comes to simple syntax, modern style, and speed, Swift wins over Objective-C. However, compared to Objective-C, it’s still a fairly new language and will evolve. Your choice really comes down to using an outdated but stable language (Objective-C), or a language that’s more modern but less advanced (Swift). While most of existing iOS apps are written in Objective-C, it’s time to think about moving them to Swift. When it comes to updates, Swift allows iOS developers to deal with any changes in a short period of time. Another winning point of Swift is huge development community, ready to enhance iOS development language.
Trying to do it all in one shot can leave your project susceptible to errors and glitches. For those of you who are in the middle of a small project and want to switch, it’s reasonable. AppCode is another option to consider that’s also compatible with Swift and has tools to support this new language. So if you like the support of all modern IDEs, consider sticking with Objective-C. Depending on your project, one of the first things you’ll do as a developer is set up a timeline. You may find yourself spending hours upon hours converting to new syntaxes even after a minor update.
Apple may patch a severe vulnerability if one is found, but it won’t make optimizations ever again. Given these measurements, we can conclude that Swift has a much larger and stronger developer community and a better developer experience than Objective-C. This required getting rid of many of Objective-C’s clunky syntax nuances. Swift’s implicit namespacing support allows developers to improve code structure by grouping relevant elements into local scopes and makes code more self-documented.
