Introducing a Memory-Safe Successor Language in Large C++ Code Bases - John McCall - CppNow 2023

Java also compiles to native code on Android. Try to write an iOS application using only C and C++, instead of either Objective-C or Swift. "Swift was designed from the outset to be safer than C-based languages, and eliminates entire classes of unsafe code" -- [link] "Swift is a successor to the C, C++, and Objective-C languages. It includes low-level primitives such as types, flow control, and operators. It also provides object-oriented features such as classes, protocols, and generics, giving Cocoa and Cocoa Touch developers the performance and power they demand." -- [link] Some of the information related their Safe C dialect, [link] "2023 EuroLLVM - Keynote: “-fbounds-safety”: Enforcing bounds safety for production C code" [link] Finaly a recent gem from CppNow 2023, "Introducing a Memory-Safe Successor Language in Large C++ Code Bases" [this video]

I wonder what the author thinks about Swift’s new C++ interop story? Since the Swift compiler includes Clang, and can thus compile both your C++ and Swift into LLVM IR, without the need for an FFI later between the two, couldn’t this be the “Typescript for C++” that the author points out a space for? The Swift folks are very much thinking about Swift as a C++ successor that can be incrementally migrated to so I’m a bit surprised the author didn’t discuss it further — especially given Swift’s spiritual similarities to Rust. There’s a couple great talks on this by folks on the Swift team. John McCall at CppNow [this video] Konrad Malawski at StrangeLoop 2023 [link]

Apple have chosen to go all in on Swift for their first-party code, from the kernel to the libraries to the apps. Even things running on microcontrollers (but there’s no official or standard embedded Swift subset yet). It’s quite interesting actually that they’ve very intentionally focused on building transition layers so they can start gradually integrating Swift into C, Objective-C, and recently new support for C++ and Objective-C++. See this talk for the details on that - [this video] So don’t expect to see any Rust code from Apple, although of course they might ship third party things written in it at some point.

The raisons d'être between the CLR (and C#) and Swift are entirely different. Apple has explicitly set out to adopt Swift as a successor language to C, Objective-C, C++, and Objective-C++[0][1]. This stands in stark contrast to Microsoft's vision for the CLR, which was… to be a better Java, more or less? (Does anyone actually know what the .NET initiative was all about? Microsoft went absolutely ham on it in their branding, but the momentum unceremoniously fizzled out before Server 2003 went RTM.) That said, apropos .NET fitting into Windows, the work on Singularity[2] by MSR had a lasting impact. I'm told that there is in use a System C# dialect that generates native object code via a more production grade version of Bartok[3]. 0: [this video] 1: [link] . 2: [link] 3: [link]

That is exactly their plan. Swift could always link into C applications, and they have recently come out with C++ interoperability [1] so things like WebKit etc. can start having parts re-written or new parts written from the start in Swift so they can gradually replace C and C++ codebases instead of trying to rewrite everything (which sucks because even for things much, much less complex than WebKit, you can have a team working for three years working on a replacement and it’ll have less features than the original had when you started). They’re even working on an embedded subset for embedded devices so things like microcontrollers like battery management, the Secure Enclave etc. can run it. 1. [this video]

They definitely have opened some things up, like a full C++ interface to Metal. I think the idea with this current effort is kind of the opposite though - not to encourage more use of C++, but to start writing new features of C++ projects in Swift (the presenter at the C++ Now 2023 talk [1] goes into this). I expect WebKit is a big target for them, I think they eventually want to replace all their C++ with Swift gradually (instead of trying to do ground-up rewrites, where you dedicate a team to doing that for years and you have a replacement at the end with fewer features than the old project). 1. [this video]

Yes, Apple themselves, apparently folks wanting Apple to use Rust don't read Apple's documentation or watch talks done by Apple compiler developers. > Swift was designed from the outset to be safer than C-based languages, and eliminates entire classes of unsafe code. -- [link] > Swift is a successor to the C, C++, and Objective-C languages. It includes low-level primitives such as types, flow control, and operators. It also provides object-oriented features such as classes, protocols, and generics. -- [link] "Introducing a Memory-Safe Successor Language in Large C++ Code Bases" [this video] "So we feel pretty strongly, obviously at Apple our sucessor language is Swift and I am here to talk about features of Swift, both to try to sell you on to it, but also to talk about the things we think are pretty necessary and the ways in which a programming language can support, you know, clear code, safer and more correct code." "Like I said before, Apple has always intended for Swift to be a sucessor language for all of our predecessors, from the top to the bottom of our stack, accessible to novices, powerful enough for experts, it is real a tall order. From [this video] to [this video] "Swift as C++ Successor in FoundationDB" [link]