Swift Evolution Monthly: May-November 2024

Discover the latest Swift updates, from Objective-C compatibility improvements to metatype keypaths, trailing commas, and new compiler controls — plus a must-have app for tracking proposals!

Swift’s GitHub repositories have officially moved from the Apple organization to the new swiftlang organization during the summer, signaling a significant step in Swift’s evolution as a community-driven language. Meanwhile, Swift 6 brought major advances in concurrency and data-race safety. But since those changes are already well-documented in other places, I will skip the concurrency topic and focus on other improvements to Swift that are around the corner.

Looking ahead, Swift’s evolution isn’t just about concurrency. Ongoing efforts, such as the proposed Vision document for Strictly-Safe Swift, are expanding the language’s capabilities beyond app development, particularly in embedded systems or system-level programming. That said, this newsletter remains grounded in what matters most to app developers. So let’s dive in!

Accepted Proposal Summaries

SE-0436: Objective-C implementations in Swift

Links: 📝 Proposal | 💬 Review | ✅ Acceptance