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  5. Scala Native vs Swift

Scala Native vs Swift

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Swift
Swift
Stacks21.9K
Followers13.6K
Votes1.3K
Scala Native
Scala Native
Stacks25
Followers67
Votes3
GitHub Stars4.6K
Forks380

Scala Native vs Swift: What are the differences?

<Scala Native and Swift are both modern programming languages used for developing native applications. Scala Native is designed to generate code that can run without a JVM, whereas Swift is primarily used for developing applications for Apple devices.>

  1. Compilation Process: Scala Native compiles to machine code directly, eliminating the need for a virtual machine like the JVM, resulting in faster execution. In contrast, Swift code needs to be compiled using Xcode and relies on the LLVM compiler for generating native code.

  2. Platform Compatibility: Swift is mainly limited to developing applications for Apple's iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS platforms, whereas Scala Native can be used to target different platforms such as Windows, Linux, and macOS.

  3. Memory Management: Scala Native leverages automatic memory management through the use of a garbage collector, while Swift relies on Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) for managing memory allocation and deallocation.

  4. Interoperability: Swift has good interoperability with Objective-C, making it easy to work with existing Apple frameworks, whereas Scala Native allows seamless interoperability with existing C libraries, enhancing its compatibility with low-level system programming.

  5. Syntax and Language Features: Swift has a more expressive and concise syntax compared to Scala Native, providing features like optionals, closures, and generics that facilitate writing clean and readable code. Scala Native, on the other hand, features strong static typing and functional programming capabilities, enabling developers to write robust and scalable applications.

  6. Community and Ecosystem: Swift has a larger community and extensive support from Apple, resulting in a rich ecosystem of libraries, tools, and resources for iOS and macOS developers. Scala Native, although backed by an active community, may have a smaller ecosystem in comparison.

In Summary, Scala Native and Swift differ in the compilation process, platform compatibility, memory management, interoperability, syntax and language features, and community support and ecosystem.

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Advice on Swift, Scala Native

vargamatyas
vargamatyas

Nov 22, 2020

Needs adviceonPythonPythonSwiftSwiftReact NativeReact Native

Hey guys, I learned the basics (OOP, data structures & some algorithms) with Python, but now I want to learn iOS development. I am considering to learn Swift, but I am afraid how the native mobile development will die out because of the cross-platform frameworks and reviews. My idea is to learn web development first and then learn React Native, and after all of that, finally Swift. What do you think about this roadmap? Should I just learn Swift first due to the pros of the native apps?

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Comments

Detailed Comparison

Swift
Swift
Scala Native
Scala Native

Writing code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and apps run lightning-fast. Swift is ready for your next iOS and OS X project — or for addition into your current app — because Swift code works side-by-side with Objective-C.

Scala Native is a new ahead-of-time compiler and lightweight managed runtime designed specifically for Scala. Project is currently in pre-release stage.

Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
4.6K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
380
Stacks
21.9K
Stacks
25
Followers
13.6K
Followers
67
Votes
1.3K
Votes
3
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 259
    Ios
  • 180
    Elegant
  • 126
    Not Objective-C
  • 107
    Backed by apple
  • 93
    Type inference
Cons
  • 6
    Must own a mac
  • 2
    Memory leaks are not uncommon
  • 1
    Its classes compile to roughly 300 lines of assembly
  • 1
    Is a lot more effort than lua to make simple functions
  • 1
    Very irritatingly picky about things that’s
Pros
  • 1
    Scala is just much easier to program in than Rust
  • 1
    Scala Native is fast and lightweight
  • 1
    Interop with C libraries
Integrations
Cocoa Touch (iOS)
Cocoa Touch (iOS)
Scala
Scala

What are some alternatives to Swift, Scala Native?

JavaScript

JavaScript

JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

Python

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

PHP

PHP

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Ruby

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

Java

Java

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

Golang

Golang

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

HTML5

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

C#

C#

C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.

Scala

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Elixir

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.

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