Apple releases Swift 6 programming language: introduces new testing framework, enhances C++ interoperability, expands supported platforms, and more

Technology media devclass reported yesterday (September 19) that in addition to releasing iOS/iPadOS 18 and macOS 15 Sequoia systems, Apple also released the Swift 6.0 programming language update.

This update brings a range of improvements, including safer concurrency handling, a new standard testing library, and improved cross-device support for Windows, Linux, and Apple platforms.

Introduction to Swift

Swift is a compiled language that has performance close to that of C or C++, but is safer and easier for developers to learn.

Safety features include: variables must be initialized before use, arrays and integers perform overflow checks, memory management is automatic, etc.

Swift 6 improvements

New optional mode

In Swift 6, an optional mode has been added to detect data race errors through compiler checks, making concurrent programming safer. IT Home Note: Data race occurs when two or more threads access the same memory location and the results are unpredictable.

Introducing a new standard testing framework

Another key new feature is the introduction of a standard testing framework called Swift Testing. This means that developers no longer need to add additional dependencies, just add "import Testing" in the test code.

Enhanced C++ interoperability

Swift 6 enhances C++ interoperability, supporting more C++ types, virtual methods, etc. This is crucial for developers with existing code bases migrating to Swift, as it simplifies the migration process and allows new code to be written in Swift.

Other improvements

Other new features include support for 128-bit integer types, the ability to specify the types of exceptions thrown by a function, support for non-copyable types in generic code, and a preview of embedded Swift for targets such as microcontrollers.

Expanding supported platforms

In addition to Apple's own Mac and device platforms, Swift 6 also supports the following systems:

• Windows 10 and above (covering x86 and Arm architectures)

• Ubuntu

• CentOS 7

• Amazon Linux 2

• Red Hat 9

• Debian

• Fedora

In Swift 6, the addition of a static SDK for Linux makes it easier to develop server-side applications targeting Linux - for example, when compiling on macOS or Windows, the target platform is Linux. Although static compilation will result in higher memory usage and larger executable files, it also eliminates most compatibility issues.

Another key feature of cross-platform functionality is that the Foundation libraries that provide core functionality are now written in Swift and consistent across all platforms - a project that began in December 2022 and has now been successfully completed.