Apple’s Swift 3.1 to improve the programming experience on Linux

Apple has announced the next version of its open source programming language, Swift 3.1, which will include some hidden but worthy improvements to the Linux platform.

The Swift programming language has already been a breakthrough introduction for developers as well as a fruitful move by Apple to reach out to the open source community. But to influence Linux users, its upcoming version will include certain positive tweaks. Apple is also considering the source compatibility with Swift 3.0 as the top priority for developers.

“It is a strong goal that the vast majority of sources that built with the Swift 3.0 compiler continue to build with the Swift 3.1 compiler.

The exception will be bug fixes to the compiler that cause it to reject code that should never have been accepted in the first place,” said Ted Kremenek, senior manager for languages and runtimes, Apple, in a blog post.

In addition to the improvements on Linux, Apple has improved the Swift package manager, compiler and standard library within Switch 3.1. There are also quite a few major additions to upgrade the development experience.

Apple has not yet declared any definite release schedule. However, the next Swift update is expected to be rolled out some time between March to June in 2017. The Cupertino giant is planning to deploy considerable efforts for Switch 4.0 that will be out a few months after the Swift 3.1 release.