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Ladybird Browser Team Selects Swift as Preferred Language (linuxiac.com)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by warmaster@lemmy.world to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

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I would have preferred Rust, a language created by Mozilla instead of one with ties to Apple, but I'm not a dev so I can't really judge. What are your thoughts?

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[-] independantiste@sh.itjust.works 18 points 2 months ago

they explained that they chose it because it is interoperable with their existing C++ code base

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 31 points 2 months ago

But Rust is rather good at that, too, via cxx. Mozilla similarly had a C++ codebase where they wanted to integrate Rust.

Granted, this is raw theory. Maybe Swift is better in practice. But yeah, to me personally, it would need to be massively better to pretty much give up on open-source contributions.

[-] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 2 months ago

pretty much give up on open-source contributions.

You do realise that most major FOSS projects have an iOS app, right? The post I was looking at before this was for a new jellyfin app, small individual dev, has an iOS beta out. For a comparison, there are 9.1 million files on github in Swift, and 11.3 million in Rust.

As well, as far as contributions, Swift was designed from the getgo to be incredibly approachable for novices. While Rust is notorious for being unapproachable. Like I get the anti-Apple circlejerk is strong, but Swift is licensed under Apache 2.0, it's FOSS, so this argument is kind of ridiculous. Especially considering how much of Google's FOSS just gets a free pass.

[-] axat@mastodon.social 1 points 2 months ago

@princessnorah @Ephera
Just because a code is open does not make it FOSS. There is a spirit to it.
Its the same argument that will make a country democratic just because people vote.
Apple is knows for its notorious tricks against developers and consumers, does everything that is against core FOSS values. So no it’s not FOSS.