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Swift Algorithms

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Re: Swift Algorithms

#21

Post by hazz99 »

vips7L wrote: post #18
pmiller2 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds to me like a job for a DSL that compiles down to Golang for the final output. That way, the repeated code only exists in the Golang output and not in the code that humans actually write.

Instead of just using an actual good language?! Go is the problem!

"Good" is meaningless – there is no absolute measure of the relative value of one programming language over another. C is not "better" than Python, or vice versa, just different tradeoffs for different problems and programming styles. The same is for Go.

Re: Swift Algorithms

#22

Post by rudedogg »

typon wrote: post #19

Is Swift worth learning if you're not going to be doing Apple development?

I've been using Swift for over 5 years now I think.. and I would say no. Outside of the Apple ecosystem the only thing that is really of interest right now is Vapor.

It's a nice language though. I worry it's getting too complex, but the new features enable SwiftUI to work so I can't complain too much.

Re: Swift Algorithms

#23

Post by xenihn »

typon wrote: post #19

Is Swift worth learning if you're not going to be doing Apple development?

No IMO, but Apple (iOS, macOS not so much) development is still an incredibly lucrative niche, and will continue to be so until the United States collapses. It might even still be useful after that.

Re: Swift Algorithms

#24

Post by xenihn »

I'm really, really happy to see this. I know this is going to sound like parody or satire, but I swear I'm being sincere: this is a huge deal for applying to FAANG (and companies that do FAANG interviews) and leetcoding in Swift.

It's incredibly painful and off-putting to re-implement stuff you get for free in Python and Java when you're trying to learn everything else at the same time. Some companies give you the option to use whatever you want if you're applying for an iOS position (Google), and some don't (Apple, Facebook). But either way, if you do iOS, odds are you spend 99% of your time at work writing Swift and/or Objective-C, which means you'll have to put in extra effort in learning/re-learning Python or Java.

This is especially great for string algorithm problems. Manipulating strings in Swift in an interview is a traumatic experience if you haven't drilled it repeatedly, and you rarely need to do it during Real Work if you have functional backend developers.

Re: Swift Algorithms

#25

Post by austinl »

typon wrote: post #19

Is Swift worth learning if you're not going to be doing Apple development?

As an iOS engineer, I'm a bit biased, but I'd still say it's currently not practical to learn it if you're not doing Apple development.

That said, I love the language, and it's a big part of what motivates me to continue being an iOS engineer (I'm not sure I'd still be at if we had kept on with Objective-C).

I would love to see server-side Swift take off, but the ecosystem is still fairly new, so any large project would require you to roll your own solutions more often that you would need to in other languages. I was also excited to see https://www.tensorflow.org/swift — Swift being used for ML. Swift is working on support for differential programming, which is a cool development in the space. More info here: https://github.com/apple/swift/blob/main/docs/Differentiable...

Perhaps eventually there will be enough applications outside of the Apple ecosystem to reach a critical mass.

Re: Swift Algorithms

#27

Post by spullara »

pmiller2 wrote: post #9
coldtea wrote: post #6

One issue with Go's lack of generics is exactly that it can't have such a package (and have it be type safe, fast, and work across all relevant types), except with repeated code.

Sounds to me like a job for a DSL that compiles down to Golang for the final output. That way, the repeated code only exists in the Golang output and not in the code that humans actually write.

Ah the original templates from C++.

Re: Swift Algorithms

#28

Post by dmitriid »

pmiller2 wrote: post #9
coldtea wrote: post #6

One issue with Go's lack of generics is exactly that it can't have such a package (and have it be type safe, fast, and work across all relevant types), except with repeated code.

Sounds to me like a job for a DSL that compiles down to Golang for the final output. That way, the repeated code only exists in the Golang output and not in the code that humans actually write.

> Sounds to me like a job for a DSL that compiles down to Golang for the final output.

So, you mean it's the job for generics. Which is a DSL for, well, generic types that compiles to final output. That way, the repeated code doesn't even exist, especially not in the code that humans actually write.

Re: Swift Algorithms

#29

Post by ironmagma »

wlib wrote: post #16
benhoyt wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, though a solution is in the works, and looking pretty likely to happen. Here's the official draft design for generics or "type parameters" in Go: https://go.googlesource.com/proposal/+/refs/heads/master/des...

Dependently typed Golang when?? In all seriousness, it feels like go's reputation of simplicity is at odds with its design. Instead of making a simple and highly generalized core from which anything can be composed, it has a specialized, familiar core that engineers are comfortable with. When I take this question further, I begin to wonder why we even use text syntax for programming. What if we just had a graph struc…

You can do that but the cognitive overhead of understanding what code is represented becomes more of a burden than the burden of producing logic that is correct and fulfills requirements. You can see part of this in lisps where the arguments of many functions form their own de-facto languages. Then you are not only writing code, but writing it in a variety of different languages that share only a common syntax.

Re: Swift Algorithms

#30

Post by moksly »

austinl wrote: post #25
typon wrote: post #19

Is Swift worth learning if you're not going to be doing Apple development?

As an iOS engineer, I'm a bit biased, but I'd still say it's currently not practical to learn it if you're not doing Apple development. That said, I love the language, and it's a big part of what motivates me to continue being an iOS engineer (I'm not sure I'd still be at if we had kept on with Objective-C). I would love to see server-side Swift take off, but the ecosystem is still fairly new, so any large project wo…

As a developer in non-tech enterprise, my biggest dream is probably swift being capable of targeting web and android.

We don’t have the resources to currently target all three platforms, and we don’t have much hope for google frameworks as they tend to be changed/abandoned faster than we can afford to adopt them, and we can’t really rely on Facebook tech too much because of corporate ethics (I know it don’t make much sense, but it’s non-tech enterprise, this is probably the least weird ethics rule).

I mean, it doesn’t really have to be swift, it could be python, .net or kotlin, for all I care, but it’s probably more likely to be swift.

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