Why learn Swift in 2024?
I decided to compile some compelling reasons and explain why you should learn Swift and how it can benefit you in your personal life and career.
You may have heard of Swift. Maybe even tried it before. Or, if this is your first programming language, I want to clear up any pre-conceived ideas about the language. I also aim to offer some encouraging words about why learning Swift can be game-changing for your personal career and development. My goal is to share some of my thoughts, as well as some data I found along the way.
Why isn’t Swift as popular as other programming languages?
Deciding a programming language for a project is a crucial step. In today’s landscape, there are countless languages and frameworks available that can simplify mobile development. These alternatives often provide a very user-friendly experience. Additionally, you can stick to web programming, which enjoys widespread popularity and demand. So, one might wonder, why isn’t Swift as popular as these other languages?
Apple's ecosystem:
Swift is one of the few native mobile development languages out there. It's primarily used to code applications accessed in Apple’s products. Apple’s ecosystem is very large, with over 1.46 billion active iPhone users. However, it only accounts for a little more than 20% of the world’s smartphone users. For more information, read here. The platform specificity limits its users compared to other languages and frameworks.
Young age:
Swift is a relatively new language compared to others. It was originally introduced by Apple in 2014. By then, many companies had already made big bets and substantial investments in other languages and frameworks. This makes the switch to Swift less appealing. However, it is still appealing when starting new projects.
Learning curve:
Even for seasoned developers, Swift comes with its own steep learning curve. Its syntax and language constructs can be quite different than others. Additionally, Swift’s functional programming concepts deviate for developers who are already accustomed to purely object-oriented programming languages.
Rapidly evolving language:
Swift has been evolving very quickly. Since its introduction, this rapid evolution has introduced significant changes and improvements to each version. Keeping up with these changes can be challenging and, at times, overwhelming. This is especially true for those who are just starting to learn this new language. Which is one of the many reasons I’ve decided to create this blog.
There are many other reasons you can read on in the internet as to why to steer clear from Swift. My goal here though is to encourage you and reassure you that Swift is here to stay. In fact, it will continue to make a big impact in today’s programming world.
Why should you learn Swift and SwiftUI?
First and foremost, I want to give my personal touch before diving into some data. I think you’d really enjoy learning Swift! It’s fun to code in this language - it’s great seeing the UI work being done during development. This will empower you to build apps, which you can then leverage into building a great career or make money on your own. More specifically, using SwiftUI has made the development journey even more exciting and enticing than ever!
iOS Development:
Swift is the primary language for developing applications in Apple’s ecosystem. If you have even a slight desire to create apps for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or Apple TV, learning Swift is essential.
Beginner-friendly, yet powerful:
Swift is a great language for beginners, it has a clear syntax, ease of readability. It’s designed to be intuitive and straightforward, reducing the learning curve for new programmers. Swift is also very robust, capable of building complex and high-performance applications.
Investment in the future:
Learning Swift is an investment in the future. You’re betting that Apple will continue to grow and will likely continue to innovate it’s technologies. Apple has consistently shown that growth and innovation (sitting as the #1 company in the world by market cap). Staying up to date with Swift mean staying relevant in a rapidly evolving tech landscape.
Swift and Full-Stack development:
Swift is bridging the gaps of full-stack development with frameworks like Vapor for server-side development and Swift’s integration with tensorflow for machine learning. This opens up a wide range of opportunities and possibilities for developers to explore beyond traditional app development. Who knows what else will come?
Because money is also important:
According to the 2023 Developer Survey by Stack Overflow, Swift developers outearn developers specializing in languages like JavaScript, Kotlin, Java, Python, C++, HTML/CSS and Typescript (to name a few popular ones). There is a high demand for skilled iOS developers, and companies are willing to pay a premium for that. Not only that, who knows how much money you could make by building and launching your own app?
Final thoughts
Learning something new is always a fun and exciting journey. It can also be uncertain. I felt mixed feelings when I first decided to delve deep and become an expert in Swift myself. I’m still finding myself - but I want to reassure you that it’s part of the journey!
Here are some inspirational quotes to keep you motivated:
Ray Bradbury said: “Life is trying things to see if they work”
T.S. Elliot said: “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go”
I want to thank you for reading to the end - this means a lot to me. I want to emphasize that I don’t know everything. In fact, I stumbled upon many of the things I wrote about in this post while researching.
I’m excited to continue taking this journey with you and to share the wonders of Swift and SwiftUI over the coming weeks. See you in the next post!
Thanks for reading,
Ricardo Leite