Swift Tooling: Windows Edition

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Swift on Windows: Tooling and Port Status

  • Strong appreciation for the work to bring Swift compiler and tooling to Windows, especially driven by a browser vendor using Swift for a production Windows app.
  • Some originally assumed this effort was unrealistic “vaporware”; successful shipping changed that perception.
  • Non‑UI frameworks: comments suggest cross‑platform Foundation is available; networking via Swift‑NIO and reactive pieces via OpenCombine. One reply simply states the core/foundation porting is “done,” but details remain sparse.
  • Windows Swift development still feels less polished than on macOS; IDE and editor support (e.g., VS Code) are called out as lagging.

UI: SwiftUI vs Native Windows Stacks

  • Clarification that reported “SwiftUI on Windows” is really Swift interop with Windows native APIs (WinRT/Win32), not Apple’s SwiftUI framework.
  • A thin Swift wrapper over Win32 exists; it’s largely a single‑author effort and seen as early‑stage.
  • Discussion that fully reimplementing SwiftUI cross‑platform is an enormous task; prior open‑source attempts stalled.

Microsoft’s UI Strategy (WinRT, WinUI 3, MAUI)

  • Several comments criticize Microsoft’s churn in UI stacks: WinRT → WinUI 3 → MAUI, with some considering WinRT and even WinUI 3 effectively abandoned or “mothballed.”
  • Others counter with links indicating WinUI 3 and WPF are still strategic.
  • General sentiment: Windows UI ecosystem feels unstable and confusing for app developers.

Should Google/Microsoft Embrace Swift?

  • One side: supporting Swift “properly” on Android/Windows could attract iOS‑first teams, reduce porting cost, and yield more apps and revenue.
  • Counterpoints:
    • Swift developers are relatively few, and most are “iOS developers who use Swift,” not language‑agnostic Swift fans.
    • Platform owners already have successful languages (C#, Kotlin, Dart, Go) and would risk fragmenting their ecosystems.
    • It’s seen as Apple’s responsibility to make Swift genuinely cross‑platform, not competing platforms’ job to carry Apple’s tech.

Swift’s Position vs Other Languages

  • Some view Swift as overlapping heavily with C#, making it hard to justify outside Apple platforms where C# already has mature tooling and broad reach.
  • Others argue Swift has a cleaner modern design (value semantics, ARC, strong generics) and can be preferable to Kotlin/C# in ergonomics.
  • Consensus: Swift is highly relevant for Apple platforms and server‑side Apple shops, but still feels a few years away from broad, general‑purpose adoption off Apple’s ecosystem.

Windows as a Target

  • One commenter dismisses Windows entirely; others respond that Windows still holds the majority desktop share and is economically important, with reasonable dev experience.