Before I begin, I don’t know squat about Swift. Just heard that Google is considering to adapt Swift (http://www.androidauthority.com/google-swift-java-685209/) and I wonder what would happen if all the browser adapts Swift as alternative programming language for the web.
We can write Responsive HTML 5 that works on mobile but it’s never good as native application and making it touch enable is kind of tricky (like swipe left, swift right). In that thought, I think it would be very interesting to see a browser that can support Swift. Any thoughts? I’m not saying all browser should stop html/css/javascript. I’m saying it as html/css/javascript + swift
I think anything is going to be possible with WASM.
Swift, AFAIK, is just an extension of Obective-C which is just Apple’s version of C++. Almost everything I’ve read about Swift has been positive. So, I could see it happening.
Looked up WASM and it’s fascinating! Glad that it’s in the works at least. If Android/Browser adapts SWIFT then it could be a new era of web technology.
Just in case anyone is reading this and doesn’t know what it is:
The ELI5 version of that, is instead of web pages being distributed in plain text like they are now, we will be able to ship in precompiled bytecode, similar to how Java works now, instead. This will open up the doors to a lot of stuff, a lot of performance boosts, hopefully a lot more languages that will compile to bytecode instead of JavaScript, and will be better for the web as a whole. WASM is being backed Mozilla, Google, Apple, and Microsoft. They are also taking a lot of steps to keep the openess of the web, open.
That may not be entirely accurate, but it’s the best I can do. I also haven’t been following that closely, since it’s still a good ways off, and probably even further until we don’t have to write in C++… so I’m not sure what all has changed.
This is a better explanation it. It isn’t ELI5, but isn’t too technical: