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Will Unity Ever Support Apple's Swift?

Discussion in 'Scripting' started by JadonBarnes, Jul 13, 2015.

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  1. passerbycmc

    passerbycmc

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    Still would greatly effect this forum and tutorial content, by splitting up the community on language lines. Which isn't bad with only 2 supported languages but becomes more of a issue as more are added. So as a result, providing the user the tools to add in support for the language of there own choice is a cool feature, but adding to the officially supported languages will fragment the community a lot.
     
  2. Pi_3-14

    Pi_3-14

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    As this topic naturally blends into a general enquiry about supporting languages, I have started a thread here: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/future-support-for-other-scripting-languages.370768/

    @passerbycmc, This is exactly the phenomenon I detailed in my previous post: closed-mindedness. Something is being suggested that is outside of your ROI (region of interest). Naturally you are opposed to it. You formulate logic to protect your ROI. But you're not seeing the big picture.

    I'm guessing you have no experience with F#, Swift, Python, etc. If you did have such experience, I'm certain you would see value in using a more modern language.

    What if a new language reduces development time by 30%? Surely you can see that every company director will want to migrate to this language.

    Unity wants to remain competitive in the global workplace, right?
     
  3. passerbycmc

    passerbycmc

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    Well i don't exactly consider swift or python to be a "more modern" language than say C#, just different. Also in fact Python was my first language i used in production since i started off doing tech art and writing plugins for various DCC apps, and i know a long list of other languages, F# included.

    I was simply looking at it form the angle of, there are a lot of things in Unity slowing me down killing productivity but the choice of language isn't one of them. Also the effect on the community has to be considered as well, which is why i think providing the ablility for user added languages is great, and could be interesting to see where it goes. But object to officially supporting a lot of languages in favor of not fragmenting the community.
     
  4. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

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    I wonder if UnitySwift will actually be more productive. After all, most of the tricks from JavaScript don't translate into UnityScript. Underneath you still have a language the has to conform to the mono runtime specifications.

    I have no firm opinion, just speculating.
     
  5. Pi_3-14

    Pi_3-14

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    I think the issue at hand is supporting an arbitrary language that compiles to .NET IL. i.e. providing a mechanism that allows one to hook up any such language, so that the editing and debugging experience matches that for C#.

    And I don't think a great deal of work is required by Unity to get to that point. But I would like to know!

    Until we have a clear picture of the work involved, it is too early to yay or nay.

    If it is a lot of work and/or a Pandora's box for bugs, maybe responsible resource allocation will become the main issue. And that this kind of argument will need to be pushed.

    But if it is neither of those things, I think it should be done.

    Then let the languages fight it out. Fragmentation is part of the creative process. You fragment, explore the various solution paths, winning path(s) emerge.

    I agree it is going to be a downside that people will be communicating in different languages. It's going to be a little bit awkward on the forums, IRC. Potentially it could be awkward for big companies and projects using multiple languages. It's potentially awkward for the documentation, video tutorials & conference talks.

    But on the other hand the community will be free to explore these languages and figure out the most concise and efficient methods of representing ideas in code. And that is tremendous upside. That is genuine progress, evolution!
     
  6. hectormatos2011

    hectormatos2011

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    Swift is now open source! http://github.com/apple/swift

    I just started with Unity today and started really thinking about how awesome it would be to code in a language I recognize. :)
     
    pcote and Deleted User like this.
  7. NoMoMTVisions

    NoMoMTVisions

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    A benefit of using swift would be writing unity projects in the best high level language out there. I know that is subjective but I believe it uses the best features of all the other languages out there. It also enforces clean code with it's strict syntax. I started programming by learning C++, then C# followed by Java/Android. I have been a full time programmer for 7 years now. Which really is not that long, but when I tried swift about 6 months ago it lead to me resigning from my current job about a week ago today, because I took a job as an IOS programmer. Yes I loved the language that much. I actually find myself immersed in my projects and my fire for programming has been sparked again. It is such a easy language to use and really enforces you to write clean code, at least on the individual function level. The whole reason I found out about unity is because the job I am at builds iOS games and I wanted to see what was out there. I believe you have a beautiful engine but having to change the code base to c# is not appealing.
     
  8. pcote

    pcote

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    Is there any news on possibilities of using Swift code inside Unity? Have you guys seen this iPad App called Swift Playground? This could mean a lot of new programmers for Unity if Swift was supported!
     
    Last edited: Jun 21, 2016
    Jay-Pavlina likes this.
  9. Jay-Pavlina

    Jay-Pavlina

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    Now would be a good time for Unity to consider supporting Swift since the Swift 3 preview just came out and they are finalizing many things about the language.
     
    pcote likes this.
  10. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

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    Not really a good time for Unity. Unity is currently in the middle of a major upgrade of the scripting back end. Once IL2CPP is out across all platforms then they might be in a position to support new languages. However they are still very much dependent on the IL stage.

    Which brings back my earlier point, does Swift still remain awesome if it has to be IL and .NET comparable?
     
    Kurt-Dekker likes this.
  11. jgnmoose

    jgnmoose

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    I am a big fan of Swift, best programming language I have ever used. It might even be possible at some point in the near future to use it as the native language for any platform.

    Having said all that, I don't think I would advise Unity to jump on Swift just yet. Maybe let Swift 4.0 come out first. This is a rapidly evolving language. If Unity had adopted Swift in the 2.3 days for example, there would have been a lot of work just to bring it up to 3.0. Once it is is settled a little more and the focus shifts into adding features that make low level systems level programming work, et al then I would really like to see Unity adopt Swift.
     
    BilalAsadi and Damjan-Mozetic like this.
  12. devravenio

    devravenio

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    hm..
    Swift is more effective, productive than C#

    Swift have more strengths.

    Easy Extension, variation enum types and so on.

    especially, codes less than c#
     
  13. hippocoder

    hippocoder

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    Unfortunately, Unity does not have plans to support Swift.
     
    Kurt-Dekker likes this.
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