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Swift at Apple: Migrating the TrueType hinting interpreter

swift.org

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Re: Swift at Apple: Migrating the TrueType hinting interpreter

#31
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it interesting?

Presumably because MIT is even more permissive and it’s a change in Apple’s behavior.

Given the age of TrueType, wouldn't nearly all patents be expired already?

Apache2's license I've heard described as mutually-assured-patent-destruction - if you use the code and make a patent claim, your rights to use the code go away.

So Apache2 offers little benefit here, and MIT may get it into more hands?

Re: Swift at Apple: Migrating the TrueType hinting interpreter

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern Swift borrows a lot from Rust! And it also has its own benefits, both ergonomic and also supporting eg generic in dynamic libraries

These days I mainly write Rust but I did write a semi complex iOS app and enjoyed Swift. I just didn't love how slow the type checker was and how it got lost. I recall having to break things into smaller bits to help the compiler, and there were some oddities about the language. The gap between the two languages is quite small, it just makes me wish Apple was also all-in on Rust

maybe so on the surface, but it remains quite massive underneath; these languages are fundamentally different and target entirely different use cases

Re: Swift at Apple: Migrating the TrueType hinting interpreter

#33
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it interesting?

Presumably because MIT is even more permissive and it’s a change in Apple’s behavior.

Some corporations prefer Apache 2.0 for projects where they'll be accepting contributions, because it includes patent protection and retaliation clauses. In case like this, where source code is just being published for reference and contributions aren't accepted, those risks don't exist.

Re: Swift at Apple: Migrating the TrueType hinting interpreter

#35
post #27

No mention of AI? Hand written code?

There's mention at the end. The models (and Swift itself!) have evolved a lot since this project started, so the early code is largely hand-rolled and the later changes were mostly authored by centaurs (to steal a term from chess).

But I personally reviewed every line that shipped and was absolutely insufferable about testing.

Re: Swift at Apple: Migrating the TrueType hinting interpreter

#36

As much as I enjoyed Swift, one can only wonder what the world would look like if they had gone with Rust as their default language instead.

Rust doesn't have an ABI [1]. Swift needed one to be a useable application language:

https://faultlore.com/blah/swift-abi/ (written by a core Rust developer)

[1] apart from the basic/universal C one, which prevents exposing any useful Rust semantics over the interface

Re: Swift at Apple: Migrating the TrueType hinting interpreter

#37
What's funny is from 2023 (I think), macOS just draws the UI unhinted. You have a 1080p display and you don't want to see the letters in the UI blurred to death? Tough luck, 1080p is incompatible with macOS, everybody needs "retina", and nobody cares that Windows and all Linux DEs look on 1080p just fine.

It looks like this hinter will be used only in rendering PDFs, because that's where they test the performance.

Re: Swift at Apple: Migrating the TrueType hinting interpreter

#38

What's funny is from 2023 (I think), macOS just draws the UI unhinted. You have a 1080p display and you don't want to see the letters in the UI blurred to death? Tough luck, 1080p is incompatible with macOS, everybody needs "retina", and nobody cares that Windows and all Linux DEs look on 1080p just fine. It looks like this hinter will be used only in rendering PDFs, because that's where they test the performance.

My last 1080p monitor was around 20 years ago. I have trouble comprehending people still use them regularly.

Re: Swift at Apple: Migrating the TrueType hinting interpreter

#39
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern Swift borrows a lot from Rust! And it also has its own benefits, both ergonomic and also supporting eg generic in dynamic libraries

Does it borrow borrow checker?

Yes, it has a borrow checker.

Re: Swift at Apple: Migrating the TrueType hinting interpreter

#40
post #38

What's funny is from 2023 (I think), macOS just draws the UI unhinted. You have a 1080p display and you don't want to see the letters in the UI blurred to death? Tough luck, 1080p is incompatible with macOS, everybody needs "retina", and nobody cares that Windows and all Linux DEs look on 1080p just fine. It looks like this hinter will be used only in rendering PDFs, because that's where they test the performance.

My last 1080p monitor was around 20 years ago. I have trouble comprehending people still use them regularly.

People also use usable mice instead of touchpads, and they put the "ctrl" key where Apple thinks a useless "fn" should be. All kinds of things happen outside Apple world.

To me, it's more about what I'm used to. I have a perfectly fine several years-old monitor, so why should I throw it away?

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