Well, we all have been working with objective C since it’s introduces and we all like it but to be brutally honest it’s not the future. You might wanna know the reason behind it. Its SWIFT, easier to read, easier to maintain, safer, requires less code, and so on.

Though most of our iOS apps are built on objective C but we are ready for the future, as in Swift.

Why Swift is the future? Here is why:- please decide yourself….

What is easier to read?

Objective-C suffers all the warts you’d expect from a language built on C. To differentiate keywords and types from C types, Objective-C introduced new keywords using the @ symbol.

But, since Swift isn’t built on C, it can unify all the keywords and remove the numerous @ symbols in front of every Objective-C type or object-related keyword.

Swift drops legacy conventions. Thus, you no longer need semicolons to end lines or parenthesis to surround conditional expressions inside if/else statements. Another large change is that method calls do not nest inside each other resulting in bracket hell — bye-bye, . Method and function calls in Swift use the industry-standard comma-separated list of parameters within parentheses. The result is a cleaner, more expressive language with a simplified syntax and grammar.

Swift code more closely resembles natural English, in addition to other modern popular programming languages. This readability makes it easier for existing programmers from JavaScript, Java, Python, C#, and C++ to adopt Swift into their tool chain — unlike the ugly duckling that was Objective-C.

Static or Dynamic:-

Swift brings type safety to iOS development as the dynamic nature of Objective-C means the compiler can’t rely on knowing the type of methods at compile time. On the plus side you can add methods to existing classes at runtime and change the type of an instance but those come with a price; the runtime code has to do extra checking of the selector implementation and that adds extra code. The Swift compiler because of static typing can optimize calls and directly call the method or use a virtual table (a vtable).

What is easier to maintain?

Legacy is what holds Objective-C back — the language cannot evolve without C evolving. C requires programmers to maintain two code files in order to improve the build time and efficiency of the executable app creation, a requirement that carries over to Objective-C.

Swift drops the two-file requirement. Xcode and the LLVM compiler can figure out dependencies and perform incremental builds automatically in Swift 1.2. As a result, the repetitive task of separating the table of contents (header file) from the body (implementation file) is a thing of the past. Swift combines the Objective-C header (.h) and implementation files (.m) into a single code file (.swift).

Objective-C’s two-file system imposes additional work on programmers — and it’s work that distracts programmers from the bigger picture. In Objective-C you have to manually synchronize method names and comments between files, hopefully using a standard convention, but this isn’t guaranteed unless the team has rules and code reviews in place.

Xcode and the LLVM compiler can do work behind the scenes to reduce the workload on the programmer. With Swift, programmers do less bookkeeping and can spend more time creating app logic. Swift cuts out boilerplate work and improves the quality of code, comments, and features that are supported.

What is safer?

One interesting aspect of Objective-C is the way in which pointers — particularly nil (null) pointers — are handled. In Objective-C, nothing happens if you try to call a method with a pointer variable that is nil (uninitialized). The expression or line of code becomes a no-operation (no-op), and while it might seem beneficial that it doesn’t crash, it has been a huge source of bugs. A no-op leads to unpredictable behavior, which is the enemy of programmers trying to find and fix a random crash or stop erratic behavior.

Optional types make the possibility of a nil optional value very clear in Swift code, which means it can generate a compiler error as you write bad code. This creates a short feedback loop and allows programmers to code with intention. Problems can be fixed as code is written, which greatly reduces the amount of time and money that you will spend on fixing bugs related to pointer logic from Objective-C.

Traditionally, in Objective-C, if a value was returned from a method, it was the programmer’s responsibility to document the behavior of the pointer variable returned (using comments and method-naming conventions). In Swift, the optional types and value types make it explicitly clear in the method definition if the value exists or if it has the potential to be optional.

To provide predictable behavior Swift triggers a runtime crash if a nil optional variable is used. This crash provides consistent behavior, which eases the bug-fixing process because it forces the programmer to fix the issue right away. The Swift runtime crash will stop on the line of code where a nil optional variable has been used. This means the bug will be fixed sooner or avoided entirely in Swift code.

Better to be unified with memory management:-

Swift unifies the language in a way that Objective-C never has. The support for Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) is complete across the procedural and object-oriented code paths. In Objective-C, ARC is supported within the Cocoa APIs and object-oriented code; it isn’t available, however, for procedural C code and APIs like Core Graphics. This means it becomes the programmer’s responsibility to handle memory management when working with the Core Graphics APIs and other low-level APIs available on iOS. The huge memory leaks that a programmer can have in Objective-C are impossible in Swift.

A programmer should not have to think about memory for every digital object he or she creates. Because ARC handles all memory management at compile time, the brainpower that would have gone toward memory management can instead be focused on core app logic and new features. Because ARC in Swift works across both procedural and object-oriented code, it requires no more mental context switches for programmers, even as they write code that touches lower-level APIs — a problem with the current version of Objective-C.

Automatic and high-performance memory management is a problem that has been solved, and Apple has proven it can increase productivity. The other side effect is that both Objective-C and Swift do not suffer from a Garbage Collector running cleaning up for unused memory, like Java, Go, or C#. This is an important factor for any programming language that will be used for responsive graphics and user input, especially on a tactile device like the iPhone, Apple Watch, or iPad (where lag is frustrating and makes users perceive an app is broken).

Swift requires less code:-

Swift reduces the amount of code that is required for repetitive statements and string manipulation. In Objective-C, working with text strings is very verbose and requires many steps to combine two pieces of information. Swift adopts modern programming language features like adding two strings together with a “+” operator, which is missing in Objective-C. Support for combining characters and strings like this is fundamental for any programming language that displays text to a user on a screen.

The type system in Swift reduces the complexity of code statements — as the compiler can figure out types. As an example, Objective-C requires programmers to memorize special string tokens (, , ) and provide a comma-separated list of variables to replace each token. Swift supports string interpolation, which eliminates the need to memorize tokens and allows programmers to insert variables directly inline to a user-facing string, such as a label or button title. The type inferencing system and string interpolation mitigate a common source of crashes that are common in Objective-C.

With Objective-C, messing up the order or using the wrong string token causes the app to crash. Here, Swift again relieves you from bookkeeping work, translating into less code to write (code that is now less error prone) because of its inline support for manipulating text strings and data.

** There are a lot to mention and on most of the points Swift is one step ahead….

Conclusion

Being honest with objective C, I don’t wanna knock you. You have been very successful based on how many Apps have been developed and deployed so far. I just want to make sure if Swift can help the developers.

”I see Objective-C as a manual lawn mower where you sweat a lot but it gets the job done. Swift by comparison is like an electric mower and will reduce the amount of work needed. It also has better protection so you can’t slice off your fingers.”

Thank you guys