WWDC 2015: Apple Makes Swift, a Programming Language for iOS, OS X and watchOS, Open Source

At the recent WWDC 2015, Apple took a bold step and made its programming language, Swift open source. Swift is a "modern" programming language for developing applications for iOS, OS X and watchOS.

Apple says writing Swift code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and apps run lightning-fast. It works side-by-side with Objective-C.

Swift has seen huge uptake by developer in the year it's been available, thanks to its early reputation for being easier to write than Objective C.

Later this year Swift will be released as open source. Swift's unique combination of elegance, power, and safety has the opportunity to move the entire software industry forward. It is exciting to imagine what we will build together, Apple noted.

Swift 2 comes with error handling model, syntax improvements. It also has interactive playgrounds and has been designed for safety.

The idea of "open source" is incredibly important to software developers, because it means that they can understand how the technology works under the hood, down to every line of code, then make their own improvements that they can submit to potentially get included in the main project, TOI noted.

Notably, the announcement got the loudest cheers at WWDC keynote, beating new iOS, a new Mac OS X and Apple's new music streaming service.