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D (Programming Language) VS Apple Swift

Compare D (Programming Language) VS Apple Swift and see what are their differences

D (Programming Language) logo D (Programming Language)

D is a language with C-like syntax and static typing.

Apple Swift logo Apple Swift

Swift is a programming language for iOS, OS X, watchOS and tvOS apps that builds on the best of C...
  • D (Programming Language) Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-09
  • Apple Swift Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-23

D (Programming Language) features and specs

  • Performance
    D is designed to be a high-performance systems programming language, offering performance comparable to C and C++ through native machine code compilation.
  • Expressiveness
    D features a rich standard library and modern language constructs, such as garbage collection, first-class arrays, and advanced templating, making it easier to write expressive and maintainable code.
  • Memory Safety
    D offers optional garbage collection along with manual memory management. This hybrid approach can help in developing safer applications by reducing memory-related errors.
  • Interoperability
    D can easily interoperate with C API, enabling seamless integration with existing C libraries and systems. It also supports better C++ interoperability compared to other languages.
  • Built-in Unit Testing
    D has built-in support for unit tests, allowing developers to write and run tests as part of the language itself, facilitating test-driven development.
  • Concurrency
    D offers built-in concurrency support with message passing, similar to the actor model found in languages like Erlang, making it easier to write concurrent and parallel programs.

Possible disadvantages of D (Programming Language)

  • Adoption
    D is not as widely adopted as other languages like C, C++, or Java. This limited adoption means fewer libraries, frameworks, and community support.
  • Toolchain Maturity
    While D's compilers and tools have improved over the years, they may still lack the maturity and feature set of more established languages, which can affect developer productivity.
  • Learning Curve
    D's richness and combination of paradigms (such as imperative, object-oriented, and functional programming) can present a steep learning curve for new developers.
  • Garbage Collection
    Although D offers optional garbage collection, its reliance on it for memory safety might be seen as a drawback for real-time system development where deterministic memory management is crucial.
  • Ecosystem
    The ecosystem for D is less vibrant compared to more popular languages, leading to potentially fewer third-party libraries, tools, and resources.
  • Standard Library Documentation
    The standard library documentation can be inconsistent or less comprehensive compared to other languages, making it difficult for developers to fully utilize all features of the language.

Apple Swift features and specs

  • Performance
    Swift is designed to be fast and efficient, often outperforming older languages such as Objective-C. This is due to its modern architecture and LLVM compiler, which optimizes code during the compile time.
  • Safety
    Swift provides safety features like optional types and automatic memory management, which help developers avoid common programming errors. This reduces the risk of runtime crashes and enhances code stability.
  • Syntax
    Swift has a clean and expressive syntax, making it easy to read and write. This simplicity reduces the learning curve for new developers and improves code maintainability.
  • Interoperability with Objective-C
    Swift is designed to easily coexist with Objective-C. Developers can integrate Swift code into existing Objective-C projects seamlessly, facilitating gradual transitions to modern Swift codebases.
  • Active Community and Support
    Swift benefits from Apple's strong backing and a growing community of developers. This provides extensive resources, community support, and continuous updates to improve the language.

Possible disadvantages of Apple Swift

  • ABI Stability
    Swift's ABI (Application Binary Interface) was only stabilized in Swift 5, which means applications built with prior versions are not binary compatible. This could lead to challenges in maintaining older projects.
  • Limited Language Maturity
    Although Swift has grown rapidly since its release, it's still a relatively young language compared to Objective-C or C++. This immaturity can result in fewer third-party libraries and tools being available.
  • Ecosystem
    Despite recent advancements, Swift lags behind some established languages regarding package management and deployment tools, which can hinder the development experience.
  • Learning Curve for Objective-C Developers
    For developers accustomed to Objective-C, switching to Swift requires learning new paradigms and idioms, which might temporarily slow down productivity.
  • iOS-Centric
    While efforts are being made to use Swift for server-side development and other platforms, its primary adoption and optimization remain focused on Apple's ecosystem, limiting cross-platform capabilities.

D (Programming Language) videos

D Language Tutorial

Apple Swift videos

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to D (Programming Language) and Apple Swift)
Programming Language
85 85%
15% 15
OOP
86 86%
14% 14
Software Development
0 0%
100% 100
Generic Programming Language

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, D (Programming Language) should be more popular than Apple Swift. It has been mentiond 56 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

D (Programming Language) mentions (56)

  • Koto Programming Language
    >For me the biggest gap in programming languages is a rust like language with a garbage collector, instead of a borrow checker. I cannot agree more that's the much needed sweet spot/Goldilock/etc. Personally I have been advocating this approach for some times. Apparently the language is already widely available and currently has stable and wide compiler support including the venerable GNU compiler suite (GDC). It... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
  • Apple didn't fix Swift's biggest flaw
    Those languages are definitely with us, https://dlang.org/ https://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi https://www.mikroe.com/mikropascal-arm https://www.eiffel.com/ https://www.ptc.com/en/products/developer-tools/objectada. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • Berry is a ultra-lightweight dynamically typed embedded scripting language
    Show examples on the main web page. Try and find an AngelScript example. It's stupidly hard. Compare it to these web sites: https://dlang.org/ https://koka-lang.github.io/koka/doc/index.html https://vale.dev/ http://mu-script.org/ https://go.dev/ https://www.hylo-lang.org/ Sadly Rust fails this too but at least the Playground is only one click away. And Rust is mainstream anyway so it doesn't matter as much. I... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Small Joys with Odin
    >and D The D language, that is. https://dlang.org. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Red Programming Language
    You are both right it seems. GP seems to have omitted withour GC. Number one on your list could be Dlang no? Not affiliated. https://dlang.org/. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
View more

Apple Swift mentions (23)

  • macOS Sequoia is certified to Unix 03
    - And the Swift Language - https://swift.org. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Learning Swift: The Basics of iOS Development
    Open Source: Swift is open source, meaning it's free to use and has a growing community. You can find the source code, as well as many resources and discussions on Swift.org. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Differentiable Swift
    So is differentiable Swift a package for Swift or is it part of the Swift standard library? The video says go to swift.org but I can't find any info about differentiable Swift on that site. Source: over 1 year ago
  • How far can you get with Swift and iOS development on Linux?
    You can learn the Swift language, but not iOS development. So after you're done with basics from swift.org, you need to switch to macOS. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Is there a web site I can go to if I want to find the SwiftUI roadmap?
    Like someone mentioned swift.org is a start. Source: almost 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing D (Programming Language) and Apple Swift, you can also consider the following products

Nim (programming language) - The Nim programming language is a concise, fast programming language that compiles to C, C++ and JavaScript.

Elixir - Dynamic, functional language designed for building scalable and maintainable applications

Go Programming Language - Go, also called golang, is a programming language initially developed at Google in 2007 by Robert...

Kotlin - Statically typed Programming Language targeting JVM and JavaScript

V (programming language) - Simple, fast, safe, compiled language for developing maintainable software.

VS Code - Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft