Swift, Apple’s new in-house programming language, just reached version 1.0. That’s a big deal, because it means apps written in Swift are now eligible for the Apple App Store.
See also: Apple Wants Devs To Love Swift, Its Shiny New Language—But There’s A Catch
“Swift version 1.0 is now GM,” the Apple Developer blog reported Tuesday. GM refers to “golden master,” a term Apple has historically used to refer to the final version of a piece of software that’s ready to be shipped.
For developers, this means anyone who has been messing around with the developer trial of Swift is now welcome to submit apps that use Swift to the App Store. In other words, Swift is now in a final enough state that apps running on it are ready to be released to the public.
You wouldn’t think people would care about whether a programming language is in version 0.5 or 2.5 when our apps and software are updated on a near constant basis. But in the programming world, version numbers still matter a lot.
For example, there’s Node.js, a development framework that has been around since 2009. Even though large companies like Walmart and LinkedIn have adopted it, Node is still considered a risk because it’s still in version 0.10. There are a lot of reasons Node’s overseers are reluctant to take the 1.0 plunge, among them that they’re still undecided which of its features they want to commit to in a “formal” release.
See also: Why The JavaScript World Is Still Waiting For Node.js 1.0
Just because Swift has achieved 1.0 doesn’t mean the team is finished, though. The announcement concludes that Swift will continue to be a work in progress:
You’ll notice we’re using the word “GM”, not “final”. That’s because Swift will continue to advance with new features, improved performance, and refined syntax.
Screenshot by Stephanie Chan for ReadWrite
