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Not even enough interest for anyone on here to say they want it.Of course there's interest. But not enough of it for a full port to come to fruition.
Not even enough interest for anyone on here to say they want it.Of course there's interest. But not enough of it for a full port to come to fruition.
Already wrong assumption.If the people most interested in FreeBSD (those who read this forum)
BECAUSE YOU WANT TO HAVE IT. Simple as that.why would anyone bother to do a port?
The Swift CoCI don't understand the snide attitude here.
This is a special case of the general case why I'm not interested in vendor-specific "open" platforms like Dart, Kotlin, or Swift.It should be noted that Swift on non-Apple platforms will not have access to Cocoa or any of those "batteries included" systems that Swift leverages. This likely contributes to a lack of interest.
There seems to be a disconnect between what you are discussing and Swift's use on the Server.It should be noted that Swift on non-Apple platforms will not have access to Cocoa or any of those "batteries included" systems that Swift leverages. This likely contributes to a lack of interest.
When was the last time you developed a server side application in Swift or even looked at its use for server side development? To which particular language bindings are you referring?This means that even if we did have Swift support, we would need to put in so much work for language bindings. We couldn't even use many existing ones either because they do drag in (and are encouraged to do so) Cocoa systems in one way or another.
IBM does a large amount of Swift development, they just stopped development of Kitura, their own server side framework. That happened mostly because they got there too early. Apple had not yet produced the Linux tools needed to have it be a first class development platform. Since then, Apple has added much better tooling, and third parties (including Microsoft) have added LSP support for Swift.IBM originally expressed interest in Swift but quickly backtracked for this reason.
You say this based on what? Apple is an active participant in the Server Side Swift Working Group, and has steadily added open functionality for this market.In general I would recommend against Swift; not because the language is bad but simply because its upstream developers don't offer any real support on 3rd party platforms. Maybe it is why Objective-C never made much headway outside of Apple either.
Foundation, SwiftNIO, libdispatch are all part of the open release. No one tried to promote Objective-C as a server side language. People wrote runtimes that were supposed to be compatible with Apple's but they were not from Apple, and given that even many macOS/iOS developers only used Obj-C for UI code (with C/C++ for most other stuff), not much of a surprise that there was not substantial adoption.i.e imagine C-Sharp without .NET or Java without JRE/Swing.
Swift's use on the server has nothing to do with Apple's platforms, so I am not how it is "vendor-specific".This is a special case of the general case why I'm not interested in vendor-specific "open" platforms like Dart, Kotlin, or Swift.
The Server Side Swift Working Group has the following members:Big decisions in community-driven open projects are made in the open and driven by the members of that community. I may not always like the results, but I know they won't be splash damage from idiot Harvard MBAs reading the latest trendy business book.
Swift is an open source project, and the use of Swift on the server is driven by a large community with Apple being only a small part. Were Apple to suddenly change the language in a fundamental way, nothing would stop the community from forking it.Swift is and will be whatever Apple execs decide. The community may get some input, but its consideration will be secondary at best. I'm not going to waste my precious free time working for Apple for free.
You certainly did. The first person on the thread that did.I'm not interested in Swift on Freebsd or any other platform. There. I answered the question.
Swift is already on that list, …
Again, mainly from the information gathered by IBM pulling out of server-side Swift (and not just Kitura it seems).You say this based on what?
No one tried to promote Objective-C as a server side language
I would agree with you.Unfortunately, what's listed (the link within the table) is a demonstration of disinterest, with no indication of how many people are interested.
Again, mainly from the information gathered by IBM pulling out of server-side Swift (and not just Kitura it seems).
This article mentions a few challenges cited by IBM.
https://www.infoq.com/news/2020/01/ibm-stop-work-swift-server/
All of which have borne fruit. Since those decisions were made, the open source Swift Package Manager was released with solid build support for Linux, and Apple released SourceKit-LSP enabling third party IDE support for Swift (of which there are now several). Adopting SPM in Xcode makes cross development for Linux much easier, as does the substantially improved Docker support. Amazon jointly developed an AWS Lambda Swift runtime and their Prime Video team built their core system on Smoke, a server side swift framework they have since released publicly as another open source, server side swift framework. In other words, in the two years since that article was written, the issues that made IBM drop its own server side Swift framework, have been resolved.Apple is working hard to address these issues, to make Swift more open, and to help build the server ecosystem — and this has recently stared to pick up pace. Tom Doron has been a driving force from Apple in promoting the server ecosystem through the Swift Server Work Group and leading Apple's efforts in the server space. Additionally Ted Kremenek has recently posted On the road to Swift 6, which describes a strong statement of intent on steps to expand the ecosystem and make it more open — including driving more focus around the fledgling Language Server Protocol (LSP) project, which will enable other IDEs to better support Swift development.
Objective-C, even in the iOS/macOS world was primarily used for building user interfaces. Given that none of the tools nor any of the libraries that made it interesting on those platforms was open source, it should not surprise anyone that it did not receive adoption outside of those platforms.Honestly, a capable language shouldn't need "promoting". I am not saying Swift (or Objective-C) are not capable; it just seems that interest in these languages outside of Apple is lethargic at best.
Based on the response to this thread, I am not that surprised. The attitude towards Swift here seems to be characterized as somewhere between disinterest and genuine hostility.FreeBSD has loads of crazy niche languages supported that some guys care about. It is almost a little funny just how ignored Swift is. Even Brainfuck and ancient obsolete languages see more interest.
Apple won't maintain a FreeBSD port, never. What you could expect from them is to upstream changes necessary for correct building and execution on FreeBSD.
I was a bit curious why Apple wouldn't maintain a port. They have done a lot for FreeBSD's base. If I didn't see this response, I would say for the person who wants Swift to ask Apple to maintain a port, since he wants to see it there.And if hundreds would ask, Apple still wouldn't maintain a "FreeBSD port". That would require them to do/submit commits to FreeBSD's ports tree.
that responsibility falls on you
majortom 's responsibility to do something helpful to get Swift ported more than anyone else's. Instead of shaming and blaming, for something he wants, while others aren't very interested in it.What responsibility, exactly?
majortom 's responsibility to do something helpful
telling us it's our responsibility
Please show me anywhere in my posts I asked anyone to do anything other than express interest if they had any. Also, please show me where I blame anyone for not doing something I want done?Why are you blaming and shaming others, when you can't or don't want to do it yourself.
Your information from “a long time ago” is clearly up to date. I am pretty sure that Prime Video’s core services written in Smoke, run on “Apple and i-products”, so you must be right.I've bought a book on Swift a long time ago. It seems like it's for developing for Apple and i-products more than anything. So, I dropped interest in learning about it. That, and that I read, that the next version was so different, there was no point in spending time on a version so new, yet already so obsolete.
Again, please quote from any of my posts, where I asked you, anyone on this forum, or for that matter anyone from any part of the part of the FreeBSD organization to do anything other than express interest.Stop trying to shame us, when that responsibility falls on you. I would like to see a few ports, or things done a certain way, and while I may not be able to do it, I don't come in here and start blaming and shaming people for it.
I would say the reason that Apple has not done a port to FreeBSD, is that almost no one here, or on the Swift Forum has expressed any interest in having such a port. I came here to see if there was interest, and what I found was that there seems to be a great deal of hostility to even asking if people might want it.I was a bit curious why Apple wouldn't maintain a port. They have done a lot for FreeBSD's base. If I didn't see this response, I would say for the person who wants Swift to ask Apple to maintain a port, since he wants to see it there.
Swift is support on macOS, Linux (three distributions), Windows and Web Assembly. That seems pretty portable. Given that no one here seems to have any interest in it (“It’s only for i-products”, “I would recommend against any one using it”), why would anyone spend any energy doing anything to bring it to this platform?It seems to me that majortom needs to ask Apple to make Swift portable so it can be more easily maintained on FreeBSD's portstree.
Please show me where in any of my posts I said it was your responsibility to do anything other than express interest (or even lack there of) in having it on the platform.I understand some of the enthusiasm, but I don't understand the approach of telling us it's our responsibility for something that you want. This is not helpful at all, and it's a bit rude.
What demands have I made? Are you even reading my actual posts or just parroting the comments of others?Even if I were a master of using Julia, it's not my place to make demands.
Actually, other than your responses, there really have not been any that were helpful.Seeking expressions of interest was a good start. Some responses were less than helpful.
When Apple first open sourced Swift, someone ported it to FreeBSD. Then,…. Crickets.
Unfortunately, still nothing on FreeBSD.
Just wondering if there is something, philosophical or otherwise preventing it from happening?
Maybe that would answer the previous question of yours.I am not asking why the previous port was removed, or how a new port would be maintained, or even if there are people who could port Swift themselves.
Thanks for your help. I guess Linux it is.
Ports don't magically appear, and people politely told you, that someone has to do the work to have a port made. You don't want to hear how ports are made, yet someone has to know how ports are made for ports to be made. I'm sick of your attitude. Go use Linux. Please, do us a favor.You do not even express interest in using the result, just in suggesting that someone else do work.
Ports don't magically appear,
and people politely told you,