Long ago, Apple wanted to make clear how its graphical computing system was different, easier, and better than every other OS. So it invented AppleScript.
Many of us geeky folk had been familiar with shell scripting, a way to tell an OS to execute a sequence of commands. But AppleScript made shell scripting look like you were banging your head on the keyboard: it was clear, elegant, and conversational, like telling your computer what to do rather than worshiping it in an ancient code. I wrote our college paper's first Web export routine in AppleScript.
Apple's new language for iOS and Mac programming, Swift makes me think of the moment I discovered AppleScript. It purports to be C without all of the ()!:;!!:". The simplified syntax gives it an easier learning curve. More importantly, it's interactive and fun to use. You don't have to compile your projects and pump them through an emulator. You don't have to take a month's worth of classes and write down to the metal. You can write three lines of code in a "playground" and, well, play.
That's a potentially great place to be, and one that could cut into Android and Windows. I still wonder if Swift is capable of creating world-class complex as well as simple apps, but Apple's existing Objective-C platform isn't going away. Swift is a purely positive addition to the iOS tool kit.
Swift Locks You In
I am of the breed of programmer known as the "dilletantish idiot." My Excel VBA scripts send some of my English-major colleagues reeling in fear of their power while actual programmer friends just shake their unhappy heads at my follies. I want to write something in Swift.
Over the past few years, Mozilla, Microsoft, and others have championed a Web-based, cross-platform way of doing things. Web programming is highly interactive, and Web apps can run on a range of different platforms, a boon for smaller platforms like Firefox and Windows Phone.
Apple went the other direction, of course. The original iPhone only ran Web apps. iOS 2.0 brought in native apps, and the company has never looked back.
Every programmer who Swift pulls away from an interactive, cross-platform system is a win for Apple. Every programmer who Swift pulls away from Ruby or Python or Javascript or Web apps is a win for Apple. Heck, that IDE is incredibly interactive; it could become a first programming system for kids.
Swift is a major strategic move towards programmer lock-in. It will convince people that iOS is fun and easy to program for, possibly creating a new, broader generation of iOS programmers. Their code will not be easily translatable to any other platform - not Android, not Windows Phone, not anything else out there. Swift brings back the iOS exclusive.
It's brilliant, enticing, highly competitive, and very Apple. Let's see what appears in the App Store now.
For PCMag's first take on the Apple announcements, check out the video below.