Swift vs Objective-C: What Is The Difference? [Updated]

With the release of iPhones in 2007, Apple declared Objective C its official programming language for iOS (iPhone Operating System) app developments. Since the release of 1^st iPhone, Apple archive many successes with it. In 2014 Apple introduced ‘swift’ a new programming language based on Objective C and C, for its iPhone app development. so let’s discuss Objective C vs Swift.

Now apple uses both Swift and Objective C for its iOS devices, here in this article we have compared two programming language Objective C vs swift. Before comparing both the programming language lets have a brief introduction of each.

Objective C

Objective C is an Object-Oriented & general-purpose programming language, it is a superset of C programming language. Before Apple introduced swift, Objective C was the main programming language for all Apple Operating systems. With time Objective C has become obsolete, but yet Apple uses Objective C for its apps Development.

Objective C was developed by Brad Cox and Tome Love back in 1980, and it used by NeXT for its NeXTSTEP operating systems.

Swift

Apple Inc. had developed this programming language as a replacement of its veteran main programming language Objective C. It is designed for the further development of iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOs, Linux and z/OS.

On 2^nd June 2014 Apple announced swift as its own official language for all apple Operating systems, it is originally designed by Chris Lattner, Doug Gregor, John McCall, Ted Kremenek, Joe Groff, and Apple Inc. Soon swift gain its popularity because as compare to Objective C it was easy to learn and implement, and like Objective C, swift can also work with Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks.

Objective C vs Swift: Head to Head Comparison

Objective C	Swift:
Learning Curve
As compare to Swift, Objective C has a high learning curve	Swift is easy to read and learn the programming language.
Cocoa framework support
Objective C can work with both Cocoa and Cocoa touch framework	Swift was specifically designed to work with Cocoa touch framework though it can work with Cocoa framework too
Interoperability with C++ and C
It has interoperability with C++ and C. We can directly access C++ libraries in Objective C	It does not Interoperability with C and C++. In swift, we have no access to the C++ libraries
Performance
Objective C has fast performance	Swift is faster than Objective C
Namespaces
In Objective C there is no support for Namespace, this could cause conflict while declaring variable name in various scope	Swift has support for namespace concept.
Code File
Objective C work on two file requirements, in this developer, have to update and maintain two different files of code.	In Swift programmer does not need two different files, update and maintain of file can be done within One.
Compiler
Objective C compiler works as C compiler	Swift use LLVM (Local Level Virtual Machine) which works faster and smarter than C compiler
Pointer:
Objective C use Pointer which make program complex. The use of Pointer can give direct access to the data which make program unsafe.	In swift, we do not use pointer which makes the program simple and safer to use
Memory Management
Objective C is an Object-oriented programming language and memory leak often seen in OOPs language.	Swift has its own APIs to handle memory leaks and provide better memory management.

Conclusion:

It’s clear that Objective C does not have a bright future if you want to be an iOS app developer you should choose Swift as your weapon. Now Apple uses Swift on a great scale because of its productivity and the growing community across the globe. A company like Apple always try to be one step ahead of other companies, the suggestion is choosing that language which can lead your future in the Apple industry, and Swift can do this for you.

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Objective C

Swift

Objective C vs Swift: Head to Head Comparison

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