When creating iOS apps, there was just one language available. That's altered.
In what language are iOS apps written? Apple developed and continues to improve the Swift programming language, which is used to generate the bulk of modern iOS apps. Objective-C is yet another widely utilized language that is regularly used in older iOS apps.
In addition to Swift and Objective-C, which are the most popular ones, other languages can be used to create iOS apps. The best language for your project will rely on your requirements and the resources you have.
Swift
Apple has created a new language called Swift that is not only efficient but also easy to learn and use. It is a modern language developed using the most recent research on programming languages. Highlights from Swift include the following:
- exceptional memory management
- Variables are always initialized before usage.
- Incorrect array indices are checked for out-of-bounds errors.
- supporting frameworks for techniques, extensions, and protocols
- Options provide for the explicit handling of nil values.
- functional programming patterns like the map and filter
- Try/catch/throw is a native error handling system.
- carries out current Objective-C code
In September 2014, Swift was also released along with Xcode 6.0. Swift was chosen as the best programming language by developers, according to the 2015 Stack Overflow Developer Survey.
Many companies now include Swift in their iOS apps, and some even totally develop their products in Swift. These companies include:
- Lyft
- School of Khan
- Kickstarter
- Hipmunk
- Clear
- Skies Map
Currently, Swift is the preferred language for writing iOS applications. Apple is constantly improving its extensive language. Increased performance as a key metric is something the Swift team is devoted to.
Swift is up to 8.4 times faster than Python 2.7 and up to 2.6 times faster than Objective-C at common search operations.
Swift is a project that is open source and available to everyone. The main community website is Swift.org. With the help of a new iPad software from Apple, you can now study serious programming from anywhere. Swift is increasingly being discussed in lectures and classes at universities and other educational organizations.
Objective-C
Objective-syntax C's is difficult to read since it is significantly more verbose and complex than Swift's. If you work for a more seasoned company where the app was created before Swift was released in 2014, it is very likely that you will need to work in both Objective-C and Swift.
Objective-C and Swift were developed by Apple with the goal of facilitating an easy transition from Objective-C to Swift for engineering teams.
By creating pointers as necessary, you must more actively manage your own memory while using Objective-C. Additionally, because null pointer issues are conceivable, it is not as secure as Swift.
These are a few benefits of Objective-C:
- Tested and trustworthy
- It's simple to learn for programmers who are familiar with C and C++.
Conversely, among other things:
- arduous to learn
- difficult to read
- Not as speedy or secure
- Because fewer engineers are studying Objective-C, it can be difficult to find developers to hire.
- Overall, Apple provided a great language in Objective-C, but the majority of teams and developers should think about choosing Swift if they are developing a new platform.
Javascript with React Native
Javascript is the main language that web developers study. The market for Javascript app development consequently exists. Facebook's release of the React Native library allows developers to produce native iOS apps using Javascript.
React Native borrows a lot of concepts from Facebook's frontend library React. For developers already familiar with React development, React Native development is relatively comparable to and easy to learn.
It is still too early to determine whether React Native will be a viable alternative to the bulk of iOS apps, despite the fact that it has a great deal of potential. As many other frameworks have attempted and failed in the past, we'll simply have to wait and see.
The React Native community is also very active and dedicated to everyday improvement. In the ensuing five to ten years, I am curious to see what will happen to this library.
Dart with Flutter
Dart, a new programming language from Google, aims to be effective, speedy, and user-friendly. Because of how close Dart looks to Java and C++, programmers who are already familiar with those two languages may pick it up fast.
Flutter, a library that Google introduced, makes it simple for programmers to swiftly create beautiful apps. A few benefits are native performance, an expressive user interface, and hot reload.
You can construct iOS or Android apps with Flutter's built-in widgets that look and function precisely like native apps. interfaces that are lightning-fast and capable of supporting demanding gaming applications.
Its widget layout technique makes it easy to reason about the user interface and simple to debug.
C# with Xamarin
Xamarin was founded in 2011. It aimed to provide tools for building programmes for the Windows, iOS, and Android operating systems.
This infrastructure is still in place even if Windows Phones are no longer widely utilized. For developers to use, Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin are still accessible.
It is an open source platform that makes it possible to make applications for Windows and Mac computers. The built-in native user interfaces make the apps feel exactly like they would if they had been written in the native tongue.
Apps developed with Xamarin can make use of the hardware accelerations available on each platform. Users can now benefit from the outstanding performance of Xamarin apps thanks to this.
Even if Xamarin's popularity has fallen, it is still a viable platform for programmers who want to construct iOS apps in C#. The library was open-sourced and incorporated into Microsoft's Visual Studio IDE in 2016.