Ask HN: Swift or Objective-C for new iOS app in 2017? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Swift or Objective-C for new iOS app in 2017?

#11

Post by benliong78 » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 5:02 AM UTC

Swift is simply a safer language to use, safer as in it tries to prevent you from shooting yourself in the foot. And at this point the framework support has pretty much caught up. So my vote is for Swift on new projects.

And stick with Swift 3.0

Re: Ask HN: Swift or Objective-C for new iOS app in 2017?

#12

Post by abhpan27 » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 5:06 AM UTC

Swift. Even after going through the pain of migrating from swift 2 to swift 3.

Re: Ask HN: Swift or Objective-C for new iOS app in 2017?

#13

Post by exidy » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 5:08 AM UTC

Swift, unless: 1) You intend to keep this app maintained but can't afford to track future Swift languages changes, or 2) You want to optimise for binary size above all other considerations. (apps written in swift bundle the swift libraries)

Re: Ask HN: Swift or Objective-C for new iOS app in 2017?

#14

Post by benguild » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 5:44 AM UTC

st3fan wrote: post #2

Objective-C is a dead end. Swift.

Not 100% true. There are tons of apps in Objective-C that have been around for years and the support continues.

Re: Ask HN: Swift or Objective-C for new iOS app in 2017?

#15

Post by Vanit » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 5:55 AM UTC

Now that the language is more feature rich the rose tinted glasses have come off a bit. The dev experience can be slow even on a decent MacBook, and the language has its own gotchas if you deeply nest type inferences.

But it still beats Obj C by a longshot.

Re: Ask HN: Swift or Objective-C for new iOS app in 2017?

#16

Post by jordansmithnz » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 6:35 AM UTC

I developed in Objective C for years. Have been on the Swift boat for a while now, and not long ago I did some maintenance on an old Obj C project.

Even allowing for the re-learning time and rustiness, there was such a sharp contrast. Swift is just so much more fluid, productive, expressive, and a joy to use.

Yep, there are plenty of issues, stability isn't 100%. Despite that, it is well worth the jump.

Re: Ask HN: Swift or Objective-C for new iOS app in 2017?

#17

Post by karmelapple » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 6:37 AM UTC

Swift, since it's Apple's preferred language of the future. On Apple platforms, you pretty much should embrace whatever the Mothership prefers going forward.

Additionally, once you start coding in it, you'll likely find it's a joy compared to Obj-C.

Re: Ask HN: Swift or Objective-C for new iOS app in 2017?

#18

Post by IBalic » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 6:55 AM UTC

Definitely Swift. But: 1) If you plan to develop a SDK/lib compatible with both Obj-C and Swift and don't want to adapt to new Swift changes coming forward or 2) You absolutely can't stand SourceKit related bugs in XCode happening now and then.

then consider Obj-C.

Would go pretty far to use Swift over Obj-C anyway, so I can deal with both 1) and 2) and still use Swift. It will just get better, so probably best to go Swift sooner than later.

Re: Ask HN: Swift or Objective-C for new iOS app in 2017?

#19

Post by goshakkk » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 8:08 AM UTC

tomvon wrote: post #5

React Native

Depends on the app, but for most I'd say React Native will be suitable.

I used to do native iOS apps in the past, but I've always been more of a web developer than native. This winter, I did a client project in React Native (http://goshakkk.name/works/12min-mobile/) and the experience has been very positive on the iOS side (RN + Android is another story...)

Almost everything you know about React.js holds true in RN. The CSS-like styling and layout with Flexbox are a godsend. ES6 with Flow is type safe, mostly.

Re: Ask HN: Swift or Objective-C for new iOS app in 2017?

#20

Post by bsaul » Wed, Jan 25, 2017, 8:20 AM UTC

Swift unless : 1/ you're working on a very big project ( 3/4 ios dev working on the app for a year full time) And 2/ all the members of your team are already fluent with objc

Then, it's debatable, whether you bet on the swift tool suite to fix all the compiler crashes and compile time issues before your code base reaches the critical point.