| ▲ | Swift at Apple: Migrating the TrueType hinting interpreter(swift.org) |
| 77 points by DASD 3 hours ago | 30 comments |
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| ▲ | pjmlp 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| During the State of Platform keynote, on the subject of Swift adoption across macOS, several examples were given, not only TrueType engine. RIS is happening across all OS levels, if the keynote is to be believed. |
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| ▲ | DASD 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Curious the direction of Webkit as there was a nebulous mention of select portions being rewritten from C++ to Swift. And yet, the new ECMAScript module (ESM) loader for Safari 27 is implemented in C++ (https://webkit.org/blog/17967/news-from-wwdc26-webkit-in-saf...). | | |
| ▲ | pjmlp an hour ago | parent [-] | | No idea, maybe the private parts of the code, Safari isn't open source, or is coming later. In any case I would have liked to have more info during the deep dive sessions. As it is, Meet with Apple on security (a 5h long event) had much more information. |
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| ▲ | hirvi74 19 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | What does RIS stand for? | | |
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| ▲ | airstrike an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| As much as I enjoyed Swift, one can only wonder what the world would look like if they had gone with Rust as their default language instead. |
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| ▲ | jadengeller an hour ago | parent [-] | | Modern Swift borrows a lot from Rust! And it also has its own benefits, both ergonomic and also supporting eg generic in dynamic libraries | | |
| ▲ | ecshafer 39 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | Swift and Rust were developed at similar times. I think of them more as having similar influences than borrowing from each other. | | |
| ▲ | est31 34 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Similar times and the Rust originator went on to work on Swift after it. | | |
| ▲ | DenisChetwynd 26 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Graydon Hoare's impact on the language is marginal than that of Chris Lattner, the originator (also, Hoare joined the team much later) |
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| ▲ | airstrike an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | These days I mainly write Rust but I did write a semi complex iOS app and enjoyed Swift. I just didn't love how slow the type checker was and how it got lost. I recall having to break things into smaller bits to help the compiler, and there were some oddities about the language. The gap between the two languages is quite small, it just makes me wish Apple was also all-in on Rust | | |
| ▲ | DenisChetwynd 16 minutes ago | parent [-] | | maybe so on the surface, but it remains quite massive underneath; these languages are fundamentally different and target entirely different use cases |
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| ▲ | vardump an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | Does it borrow borrow checker? |
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| ▲ | saagarjha 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Interesting that this is published under the MIT, rather than Apple’s more favorite Apache 2, license |
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| ▲ | JumpCrisscross an hour ago | parent [-] | | Why is it interesting? | | |
| ▲ | drob518 an hour ago | parent [-] | | Presumably because MIT is even more permissive and it’s a change in Apple’s behavior. | | |
| ▲ | zdw 17 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Given the age of TrueType, wouldn't nearly all patents be expired already? Apache2's license I've heard described as mutually-assured-patent-destruction - if you use the code and make a patent claim, your rights to use the code go away. So Apache2 offers little benefit here, and MIT may get it into more hands? |
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| ▲ | weinzierl an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Back in 2023 there was talks about Microsoft rewriting the font stuff in Rust for similar reasons Apple is now doing the Swift move. I'm not sure what became of it and if it ever shipped. If anyone knows I'd be curious. |
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| ▲ | mrpippy 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| The author discussed this a bit on Mastodon as well: https://xoxo.zone/@numist/116716469017975106 |
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| ▲ | raphlinus 29 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Welcome to the club of doing high performance text in a memory safe language! |
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| ▲ | wg0 27 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| No mention of AI? Hand written code? |
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| ▲ | LoganDark an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I'm surprised the code has visible LLM smells. Though, I shouldn't be surprised. I hope the important bits are still human-controlled (and the same for Apple's many operating systems that absolutely deserve to remain stable and understood). |
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| ▲ | airspeedswift an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | I assure you, every inch of the interpreter code has been stared at by humans, a lot. TBH even the assembly generated by it has. | |
| ▲ | dgellow an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | From what I got Apple is using claude code A LOT internally | | |
| ▲ | Cassell 41 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | It would be interesting to see their internal guidance on LLM use. It’s a massive amount of new power that has to be wielded carefully. That kind of guidance might mean the survival or downfall of some big corps in the next few years. | |
| ▲ | wahnfrieden an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | Yes they are using Claude Code - not the Xcode agents. It worries me. I hope Codex adoption picks up there. |
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| ▲ | troupo 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| I think these are the types of things Apple should've focused on instead of half-heartedly barging ahead with SwiftUI and breaking the language in the process |
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