C++ vs Swift

Overview

Swift

Stacks21.9K

Followers13.6K

Votes1.3K

C++

Stacks18.2K

Followers9.4K

Votes866

C++ vs Swift: What are the differences?

Key Differences between C++ and Swift

1. Type System:

C++ has a static typing system, which means variables need to be declared with a specific type and the compiler checks type compatibility during compilation. Swift, on the other hand, has a strong static typing system with type inference, allowing developers to omit type declarations in many cases.

2. Memory Management:

C++ requires manual memory management, where the programmer needs to explicitly allocate and deallocate memory using new and delete keywords. In contrast, Swift uses automatic memory management with Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) to track and manage memory allocation and deallocation, reducing the chances of memory leaks.

3. Optionals and Null Safety:

Swift has a built-in feature called optionals, which allows variables to be either a value or nil. This ensures null safety and helps to avoid null pointer errors. C++ does not have a native support for optionals, and developers often need to use pointers or sentinel values to handle nullability.

4. Syntax and Expressiveness:

C++ follows a more verbose and complex syntax compared to Swift. Swift has a more expressive and concise syntax with features like closures, generics, and pattern matching, which allow developers to write code in a more readable and maintainable way.

5. Concurrency:

C++ provides various concurrency models like threads, thread pools, and libraries for parallel processing. Swift, on the other hand, has built-in language-level support for concurrency with features like async/await, actors, and structured concurrency, making it easier to write scalable and efficient concurrent code.

6. Compatibility and Platform Support:

C++ is a cross-platform language that can be compiled and run on different operating systems, making it highly compatible. Swift, although open-source, was primarily designed for iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS platforms, and its compatibility with other platforms is still evolving.

In summary, C++ is a statically typed language with manual memory management, while Swift has a strong static typing system with automatic memory management. Swift provides features like optionals, expressive syntax, and built-in support for concurrency, which sets it apart from C++.

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Advice on Swift, C++

Alexandre

Founder & Developper at Finance D

Jul 1, 2021

Decided

I had a goal to create the simplest accounting software for Mac and Windows to help small businesses in Canada.

This led me to a long 2 years of exploration of the best language that could provide these features:

Great overall productivity
International wide-spread usage for long-term sustainability and easy to find documentation
Versatility for creating websites and desktop softwares
Enjoyable developper experience
Ability to create good looking modern UIs
Job openings with this language

I tried Python, Java, C# and C++ without finding what I was looking for.

When I discovered Javascript, I really knew it was the right language to use. Thinking of this today makes me realize even more how great a decision this has been to learn, use and master Javascript. It has been a fun, challenging and productive road on which I am still satisfied.

Obviously, when I refer to Javascript, it is not without implying the vast ecosystem around it. For me, JS is a whole universe in which almost every imaginable tools exist. It's awesome - for real. Thanks to all the contributors which have made it possible.

To be even clearer about how intense I am with Javascript, let's just say that my first passion was music. Until, I find coding with Javascript! Yep, I know!

So in conclusion, I chose Javascript because it is versatile, enjoyable, widely used, productive for both desktop softwares and websites with ability to create modern great looking user interfaces (assuming HTML and CSS are involved) and finally there are job openings.

399k views399k

Comments

Rachel

Nov 24, 2020

Needs adviceon

JavaScript

Python

C++

Hi, I'm just starting to learn code, and I stumbled upon this website. I think I should learn JavaScript, Python, and C++ to begin with. I'm a quick learner so I am only worried about what would be more useful. Suppose my goal is to build an online clothing store or something. Then what languages would be best? I need advice. Please help me out. I'm 13 and just beginning and it's hard to understand when people use technical terms so please keep it simple. Thanks a lot.

292k views292k

Comments

Xiang

Feb 23, 2021

Decided

Python has become the most popular language for machine learning right now since almost all machine learning tools provide service for this language, and it is really to use since it has many build-in objects like Hashtable. In C, you need to implement everything by yourself.

C++ is one of the most popular programming languages in graphics. It has many fancy libraries like eigen to help us process matrix. I have many previous projects about graphics based on C++ and this time, we also need to deal with graphics since we need to analyze movements of the human body. C++ has much more advantages than Java. C++ uses only compiler, whereas Java uses compiler and interpreter in both. C++ supports both operator overloading and method overloading whereas Java only supports method overloading. C++ supports manual object management with the help of new and delete keywords whereas Java has built-in automatic garbage collection.

381k views381k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Swift	C++
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.	C++ compiles directly to a machine's native code, allowing it to be one of the fastest languages in the world, if optimized.
Statistics
Stacks 21.9K	Stacks 18.2K
Followers 13.6K	Followers 9.4K
Votes 1.3K	Votes 866
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 Very irritatingly picky about things that’s 1 Is a lot more effort than lua to make simple functions	Pros 205 Performance 108 Control over memory allocation 99 Cross-platform 98 Fast 85 Object oriented Cons 8 Unsafe 8 Slow compilation 6 Over-complicated 6 Fragile ABI 5 No standard/mainstream dependency management
Integrations
Cocoa Touch (iOS)	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Swift, C++?

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 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

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

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 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

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 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# (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 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 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.

Related Comparisons

C++ vs Swift

Overview

C++ vs Swift: What are the differences?

Key Differences between C++ and Swift

1. Type System:

2. Memory Management:

3. Optionals and Null Safety:

4. Syntax and Expressiveness:

5. Concurrency: