Swift is useless outside of macOS/iOS dev… the thing doesn’t even have namespacing. I don’t know for what reason someone would use it outside for Apple environment.
You can disambiguate two types with the same name from different libraries, e.g. `Factotvm.URL` and `Foundation.URL`. Do you mean something more full-featured? You are not prefixing types with three letters, if that's what you think has to be done.
I don't know if it's still the case, but there was an annoyance where you couldn't have a type with the same name as the package. But that is hardly a lack of namespaces.
Objective-C had some minimal adoption outside of Apple (probably due to NextStep nostalgia), so if Objective-C managed to get some traction, Swift will do it to, probably.
However, Apple's history is very much stacked against Swift becoming a mainstream language outside of Apple's platform.
HN majority doesn't like hearing that ladybird et al might just be wandering around, even if the goal is catnip for the bleachers, and we should be skeptical this is the year of multiplatform Swift, because it wasn't last year if you actually tried it. Or the year before last. Or the year before that. Or the year before that year. Or the year before that one.
I’m slightly more ambivalent than you about it. Swift is a nice language and has better ergonomics than C++ and I imagine a Swift codebase might find more contributors than a C++ one (maybe I’m wrong about that!)
I also think it’s separate from the dream of “multiplatform Swift”. For that you need a healthy package ecosystem that all works cross platform, Swift doesn’t have that. But a lot of Ladybird is written at a low enough level that it won’t matter so much.
I mean this year we did have the porting of Arc browser to windows. I use it my gaming PC and it is starting to feel like it has a similar level of polish to the MacOS version.
factotvm|1 year ago
I don't know if it's still the case, but there was an annoyance where you couldn't have a type with the same name as the package. But that is hardly a lack of namespaces.
oblio|1 year ago
However, Apple's history is very much stacked against Swift becoming a mainstream language outside of Apple's platform.
refulgentis|1 year ago
HN majority doesn't like hearing that ladybird et al might just be wandering around, even if the goal is catnip for the bleachers, and we should be skeptical this is the year of multiplatform Swift, because it wasn't last year if you actually tried it. Or the year before last. Or the year before that. Or the year before that year. Or the year before that one.
afavour|1 year ago
I also think it’s separate from the dream of “multiplatform Swift”. For that you need a healthy package ecosystem that all works cross platform, Swift doesn’t have that. But a lot of Ladybird is written at a low enough level that it won’t matter so much.
charrondev|1 year ago
https://speakinginswift.substack.com/p/swift-meet-winrt
https://speakinginswift.substack.com/p/swift-tooling-windows...
Now that’s not an engine but the UI.