Swift is being released under an Apache 2.0 license, which is incidentally the same license Microsoft used when it open-sourced a big chunk of its .NET framework last year. The project is hosted on GitHub and includes the compiler, the LLDB debugger, the REPL command-line environment, the standard and core libraries, and code from supporting projects. New to Swift (and also open source) is the Swift Package Manager, described as an “early-stage project” that will serve as a repository for Swift modules and will evolve with input from the community.
“The Swift team will be developing completely in the open on GitHub,” Federighi told Ars. “As they’re working day-to-day and making modifications to the language, including their work on Swift 3.0, all of that is going to be happening out in the open on GitHub.”
So instead of getting a big Swift 3.0 info dump at WWDC 2016 in the summer and then digging into the Xcode betas and adapting, developers can already find an “evolution document” on the Swift site that maps out where the language is headed in its next major version.
That’s the part that has IBM developers so excited, says John Ponzo, IBM fellow and the CTO for IBM MobileFirst partnership with Apple.
“Swift has currently been just been a device side story,” Ponzo says. But by making it usable with Linux, programmers can use Swift to develop server apps.
Grocery shopping for an entire family can be a daunting task, with requests for favorite items spread across handwritten notes on the refrigerator, text messages, and easily-forgotten verbal reminders. Now there’s an app that helps everyone get on the same page—or at least on the same list.
The big question Bonforte’s team tried to answer is, what do people want in a Yahoo messaging app? You’re not going to beat WhatsApp as a texting replacement, and, oh yeah, people still like texting just fine. The team landed on the idea that people like sharing photos, and like chatting in groups. Many groups, of different sizes, all at once. Everything came out of that. “We even think of one-to-one chats as just small groups,” Bonforte says.
If the definitions are coming from Oxford, which it appears they are, both Apple and Google are likely using Oxford's Dictionaries API, a software layer that allows app developers to tap into the company's dictionary data. By using Oxford's API though, developers are forced to rely on the data Oxford University Press provides, which may not be updated at the same time or fashion that it updates its other databases.
While the two companies are mostly in agreement, Samsung says that it reserves the right to claim reimbursement should any subsequent legal finding affect the validity of the award.
Beats today has sent out an email to former subscribers informing them that all of their content, playlists, music, and preferences will be safe until January 19th, 2016.
I love that Apple kept all of their git history when open sourcing swift. https://t.co/o39PBTeLzH
— Max Weisel (@mxweas) December 3, 2015~
Thanks for reading.