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IBM Stops Server Side Swift Framework Development

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Re: IBM Stops Server Side Swift Framework Development

#11

Post by zepto »

wwright wrote: post #8
thrower123 wrote: post #7

Outside of iOS, is there really any traction for Swift development? It certainly feels like it is settling into an also-ran position. And really, mobile apps are turning out to be a dead-end, and people don't seem to be actually investing in native clients anymore, they just slap their website in a browser control.

As an Apple fan and a programming language nerd, I have basically no interest in ever using the language. I spend a lot of time in C++, Haskell, Rust, and Kubernetes, but Swift just feels pointlessly complicated to me. (C++ I think is also pointlessly complicated, but the rest at least have a point ;-)

Swift is no more complicated than Haskell or Rust.

Re: IBM Stops Server Side Swift Framework Development

#12

Post by jrs95 »

Apple really ought to invest more in server side Swift directly themselves. I feel like it has a lot of potential, and what the community has done with limited resources is impressive, but it's not really going to be able to gain substantial traction without a lot more weight behind it imo

Re: IBM Stops Server Side Swift Framework Development

#13

Post by ogre_codes »

Swift on the server is very new and has very small market share. At one time there were 3+ Swift frameworks competing for mindspace against piles of well established frameworks in other languages. That one framework is falling out of the mix isn't a big surprise.

Re: IBM Stops Server Side Swift Framework Development

#15

Post by samcat116 »

tannernelson wrote: post #5

While it's sad to see IBM go, Vapor and the Swift Server working group are alive and more active than ever https://github.com/vapor/vapor/ https://swift.org/server/ Amazon has also created a Swift web framework: https://github.com/amzn/smoke-framework

I’m excited for Vapor 4! Also love all the Vapor Red stuff.

Re: IBM Stops Server Side Swift Framework Development

#17

Post by mythz »

Pretty clear signal that there's low appetite for full stack development in Swift.

What are other promising future "end-to-end" (i.e. Web / Server / Mobile) development platforms are there? IMO these are the main contenders:

    - JS / node.js / React Native (Android/iOS) (+ other transpile 2 JS langs, e.g. TypeScript, Clojure, Scala, OCaml, etc)
    - Kotlin to JavaScript / JVM / Android / Kotlin Native (iOS)
    - C# Blazor / ASP .NET Core / Xamarin (Android/iOS)
    - Dart JS / Dart VM / Flutter (Android/iOS)
Rust/Go/C++ could get some mentions, but I don't think they have enough community or commercial backing to become a popular mainstream option.

Re: IBM Stops Server Side Swift Framework Development

#18

Post by tannernelson »

jrs95 wrote: post #12

Apple really ought to invest more in server side Swift directly themselves. I feel like it has a lot of potential, and what the community has done with limited resources is impressive, but it's not really going to be able to gain substantial traction without a lot more weight behind it imo

These things take time. A lot of people at Apple are heavily invested in Swift on the server, including the Swift core team: https://swift.org/server/

Swift itself still needs time to mature, too. Things like the memory model, async/await, generics, etc. The future is bright, it will just require some patience to get there.

Re: IBM Stops Server Side Swift Framework Development

#19

Post by todotask »

wlesieutre wrote: post #2

Curious what this means for Kitura. Last I checked, the three major serverside Swift frameworks were Kitura, Vapor, and Perfect. Perfect doesn’t look like it’s under active development, and if this means Kitura stops being maintained, it’s down to just Vapor as an active project.

I have tried three web frameworks, indeed, Perfect activities is less active although they came up some interesting UI tools for devs but CLI is always preferred.

I do find Golang has fill microservice space where Kitura couldn’t gain traction.

Re: IBM Stops Server Side Swift Framework Development

#20

Post by stock_toaster »

mythz wrote: post #17

Pretty clear signal that there's low appetite for full stack development in Swift. What are other promising future "end-to-end" (i.e. Web / Server / Mobile) development platforms are there? IMO these are the main contenders: - JS / node.js / React Native (Android/iOS) (+ other transpile 2 JS langs, e.g. TypeScript, Clojure, Scala, OCaml, etc) - Kotlin to JavaScript / JVM / Android / Kotlin Native (iOS) - C# Blazor /…

For better or worse, I assume Rust and Go (and other future languages) will begin to start taking advantage of js VMs and js toolkits (frontend) via targeting (compilation) WASM at some point.
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