As mobile apps are getting momentum in the business world, people are showing more interest in entering the iOS market - majorly because of its reputation and security aspects. They are excitedly looking forward to building a highly engaging and profitable iPhone mobile app. But, at the same time, are getting stuck with the question - which programming language to consider for their needs - Objective-C or Swift?
Well, it’s a common dilemma that both the app developers and business owners go through. The more people you ask around the industry, the more distinct responses you receive which makes the decision far confusing.
In a scenario like this, if you do not wish to take risk of going with whichever language comes first in mind, reading this article will be worthwhile for you.
Here, in this article, we will look into the comparison of the two iPhone application development language. But before that, let’s have a quick overview of both the languages.
Objective-C was the only official programming language for developing applications for iPhone, iPad and MacOS. It came into action in 1980s, is influenced with two programming languages, namely C and Smalltalk, and employs dynamic typing and message passing to cater to the needs of businesses.
Swift is not only the new face of the Apple market, but also one of the youngest languages that enter into the list of Top 10 Programming Languages to Watch Out for in 2019. The language has offered ample benefits like lesser coding, higher agility, flexible approach, and faster runtime, which makes it better than Objective-C under some circumstances.
Now as we have refresh what is Objective-C and Swift, let’s look into what factors can act as boon to make the right choice.
Factor to Decide Which is the Right iPhone App Development Language for You
As you can see in the image below, Swift is gaining huge momentum in the past few years - making it the right choice for future development.
However, this does not mean that Objective-C is out of the competition. Objective-C, with trust of various reputed startups and established brands, is also used for creating iPhone applications.
Unlike Objective-C, Swift is an open-source programming language. This empowers the mobile app developers to apply the Swift code on a wider number of platforms and for backend infrastructure too. This makes it a language supported by millions of iOS mobile app developers globally.
Swift, unlike Objective-C, offers a wider range of dynamic iOS libraries that enable code flexibility and ensure higher app performance and ease of update.
The biggest factor that makes Swift winner of this Objective-C vs Swift battle is transparency in the development part.
Swift enables the iPhone app developers to write less code for executing any particular action as well as give them an escape from method and function calls and complex syntaxes. Besides, the code written in Swift are far natural which make it possible to search for hidden codes and proceed further. In addition to this, the language also improved the readability and coding experience - which has made it able to share limelight in the market with C++, JavaScript, Python, and Java.
Security, as you know, has become a crucial element of every development process with users more conscious about data breaches. Developers are looking forward to adopting programming languages, technologies and tools that empower them to ensure higher safety and security - implying this factor can also help to determine the right iPhone application development programming language.
When talking about Security, Swift has a plus point over Objective-C since it enables the developers to write less and error-free codes.
Swift has offered app developers with an opportunity to conjugate two strings easily using ‘+’ sign between the two strings rather than writing a lengthy code. This has lower down the risk of creating errors and app crashes, which has eventually prompted them to pick Swift over Objective-C.
The traditional iOS app development language, Objective-C asks mobile app developers to support two code files (Objective-C header (.h) and implementation file (.m)) to lessen the build time and upgrade productivity. Whereas, Swift does not keep any such demand in front of iOS experts. It has combined both the files into a single code file (.swift) which has facilitated developers an ease of app maintenance.
When talking about developing an iPhone app, the decision of which programming language to opt is really essential. It makes a difference in the architecture you pick and eventually in the success rate of your app. So, do not overlook this element.
Consider the factors shared above to know what programming language is best for your iPhone app development needs and make a perfect entry to mobile arena.
