Swift for Android and other Mobile platforms

Chris Lattner and Craig Federighi have delivered Christmas gift. Swift is open source! They have delivered on their promise to make Swift language open source. It already runs on Linux. The big blue IBM has launched a docker based tool to run Swift in the browser. Just a week before there was this early effort to kick start Swift on the server side.

For long there have been several attempts to find a unicorn to help with developing cross platform mobile app development. From famous facebook effort to run HTML apps, to Phonegap using JavaScript hybrid apps. Language based efforts to push C# through Xamarin, Java through JavaOne, J2Objc, Ruby through RubyMotion and other no so popular efforts. Inside Google teams have been experimenting with Dart and Go as an alternative for Java on Android. More recently React Native from facebook and Flutter.io from Google.

All these have efforts have tried exploring the possibilities and have been advancing the cause. However, anyone attempting to write a serious application have sooner or later hit a wall and had to resort to native development after realizing the limitations. Take the case of facebook turning into serious mobile first after the Mark’s fiasco at a media conference about their HTML5 app. Basecamp, the RubyOnRails developers after trying out RubyMotion have gone back to native development, just to cite popular examples. I’m sure there are many more such instances to recount.

Here’s the thought. What if, just what if Google adopts Swift for Android. That would make up for almost 90% of the mobile platforms. When Google foregoes its corporate ego in adopting the Swift. There could only be all advantages with very few and negligible inconveniences. In fact, Swift could develop faster and better with Google’s might. Others, like facebook can also chip in to aid pace of advancement.

Developers and development companies do not have to struggle with all kinds of web, hybrid and all those attempts to find a common ground to deal with different platforms.

Mobile platforms can still innovate and develop their Frameworks, SDKs and APIs. Different platforms can still benefit from more collaboration, sharing and learning from each other. Most importantly on the tool chain front from development, to testing and to deployment, to continuous integration.

Would this remain a pipe dream or would this become a Google’s famous April fool joke. Would the open source community take it upon themselves and make it happen. Only a time will tell.

Watch out in 2016. Wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everybody.