Swift 5 is ABI stable, which gives direct compatibility with OS without additional layers and backward compatibility between different versions of Swift, beginning from 5.0 version.
Also the new version has a lot of improvements:
Flattened
try?with Optional type
No moredouble guard.
-
Raw strings
Gives one of the possibility to write a string without escaping characters inside. It's very feature for writing raw RegEx expressions in a clean way.
If you need to embed a variable inside a raw string, you must add hash symbol after backslash:
#"(\\|\#(variable))"# String interpolation
Declaration can be flexible and behave on your own.
For this, extend the protocolStringInterpolationwith own function:
No recursion inside computed properties
Avoid additional layer for computations, and have it inside a closure.
It was a part of described features, more is there: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode_release_notes/xcode_10_2_beta_release_notes/swift_5_release_notes_for_xcode_10_2_beta
Article on Medium: https://medium.com/@dimpiax/swift-5-what-is-new-examples-fbb64d525486
Top comments (3)
Swift 1.x to 2.0 was a major change. (I'd call 1.x alpha quality.)
Swift 2.0 to 3.0 was also a major change. (I'd call 2.0 beta quality.)
Swift 3.0 to 4.0 to 4.1 to 4.2 to 5 all seem like minor fit-and-finish changes. To me, this is a good thing. The language is settled, mature. Literature on 3.0 is probably entirely or nearly entirely applicable to 5.
I think there will be a lot to love about Swift 5, I am hoping that they stay true to the commitment to include the runtime in OS' so it is no longer part of app installs.
So be it! :)