Technology is changing day by day as per the need of competition and future. Every year or month, we experience modifications in programming languages. Some programming languages become more popular whereas some become outdated. These days, swift and python are two programming languages that have gained popularity in ios development market. What’s more, even their popularity grows consistently and holds a special space among the software developers. As per the recent statistics, Python is the most popular language and preferred by developers. Whereas, Swift is also popular like Python and it will be the next fastest-growing language after python. So finally which will be an iOS leader in 2021? And why? To know the answer of this question, you must know the comparison of Swift vs Python. Let’s see the differences between these two languages.
Can you say that a particular language is best? How can you choose a best programming language for your product? This all depends on various factors like purpose of the product, its features, market you are targeting, and your budget. Sometimes, there are chances to change programming language. So it is necessary to know the differences and similarities between Python and Swift. Here we will see detailed comparison Swift vs Python.
Swift is a powerful open-source programming language announced in 2014 by Apple. Due to the open source it has gained a huge popularity. In 2017, Swift increased its roots and grabbed the position under the top 11 programming languages. It is easy to use and anyone with an idea can create something incredible with this programming language.
Various popular companies like linkedin, Clear, Kickstarter, SkyGuide etc. are prominently using Swift as a programming language for their iOS app development.
Know the reasons of – Why enterprises prefer to develop apps in Swift?
1. Open-source-
Swift became an open-source in the year 2015. This had a major impact on Swift popularity. And in 2015, it became GitHub’s most loved language and in 2016 it came in the 2nd place.
2. Easy Code Readability And Maintenance-
If you are searching a simple and easy to read programming language, Swift will be the best choice for iOS development. Because of less code, Swift is compact and also can be reused to a great extent. It can also maintain everything in .swift file, reducing developer’s headache of maintaining two separate files for single code. When you use Swift for iOS apps, it doesn’t hamper any apps’ performance.
3. Compatibility With Objective C-
Swift is compatible with Objective-C’s libraries and frameworks. Language correlation allows you to import frameworks from Objective-C using Swift syntax. Language correlation allows you to import frameworks from Objective-C using swift syntax. With this, programmers can use Object C APIs and classes.
4. Improved Performance-
Performance of Swift depends on C++ likes, meaning that it is known as one of the fastest programming languages beating Objective C. As per the analysis, Swift language is three times faster than Objective-C and 8 times faster than Python. Also, its compatibility with cross platform and dynamic library support helps it to perform best in terms of speed.
1. Limited Talent Resource-
As swift is in its initial stage, there is a lack of talented Swift developers. The demand for Swift coders is increasing.
2. Instability-
Many developers point to the same issue. Due to the changes in new versions, Swift is unstable. Means if a developer wants to switch a project to a new version of Swift, they need to rewrite the code. This issue was partly solved by introducing Swift Migration Tool for XCode that makes easy migration from third to fourth version.
3. Less Native Libraries-
Still there is a lack of native Swift tools that can work seamlessly in various versions. Many libraries and frameworks are made for early versions but are useless for new.
Python is a dynamic high-level programming language released in 1991. With the time it became useful for various purposes, like machine learning, data science and back-end development. In 2017, python was the fastest growing programming language. You can use python for web development, DevOps/system administration/writing automation scripts, data analysis, programming of web parsers/scrapers, educational purpose, machine learning, software testing/writing automated tests etc.
Many popular companies like Dropbox, Netflix, Quora, Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify use Python.
1. Easy-
Simplicity of code and readability are the two most important benefits of learning Python. It looks like simple english so easy to ready and use by everyone. Python is a suitable and good solution for beginners who want to get to know a programming language regardless of their skill.
2. Open-Source-
Python is open source, thus one can download and change it’s source code. And this helped to build a strong community that continues improving it.
3. Object Oriented Language-
This programming language consists of both procedural and object oriented languages. Due to the procedural support, developers can reuse code. Also, the object-oriented methodology can access different inheritance and finalizing data and functions into one.
4. Large Standard Library-
Being old in a programming industry, Python comes with a huge range of libraries and frameworks for different purposes. Standard library provides a set of modules and functions, so developers don’t need to write code again for each single thing. Some popular libraries are- Plotly, NumPy, Pandas, Pipenv for regular expressions, unit-testing and web browsers. It can also include popular frameworks like Django, Flask, CherryPy and PyTorch.
5. Integration With Other Languages-
Python is an extensible and embedded programming language, thus can be easily integrated to C++, C and Java apps.
6. Improved Productivity-
Python is a productive language and because of simplicity developers can focus on solving problems rather than understanding the syntax or behavior of a programming language. You just need to write a few lines of code and achieve more by doing more things.
1. Design Restriction-
Python has some design restrictions. Since, python is dynamically typed language which uses duck typing, it automatically detects a type of variable. Sometimes it creates issues. You have no need to identify the type of variable when declaring it, but it can cause runtime errors.
2. Not Ideal For Mobile Development-
For mobile app development, Python is not a perfect language. But you can use Kivy- a cross platform Python framework to build mobile apps.
3. Memory Consumption-
Python consumes more memory and so doesn’t support intense memory tasks.
Both Swift and Python are good at what they do. Apple claims that Swift is 8.4x faster than Python. Python is older in the programming industry and Swift is rapidly gaining popularity in the market. If you are looking for a programming language to develop the best mobile app that work seamlessly with iOS platform then Swift is the best choice. But If you want to develop an artificial intelligence solution, Python will be the best decision for you. From all this, you came to know that choosing Python or Swift for coding depends on your purpose.