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Apple Takes Swift Programming Language to Open Source Community

Once Apple-only, Swift is now released to the world.

by Arik Hesseldahl
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Making good on a plan it announced earlier this year, Apple said today it has released its Swift programming language for building software on iOS, the Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV to the open source community.

Apple unveiled a site devoted to the language, Swift.org, and has created a repository containing Swift’s public source code on the software code-sharing site Github.

The plans calls for Apple to turn Swift loose to the worldwide community of software developers who will improve it, add new features and capabilities and push its use toward new platforms. One key participant in the effort is computing giant IBM, which as an Apple partner on the enterprise software front is already well acquainted with Swift.

Developers will be able to work in Swift on a Mac, but the Swift.org website will also offer a version of the developer tools that run on Linux.

Apple first unveiled Swift last year at its Worldwide Developers Conference. Since that time, its use has grown at such a pace that it is considered the fastest-growing programming language in the world. That claim comes from RedMonk, an analysis firm which tracks the activity of software developers, which pegged Swift as 18th most popular programming language as of June, an improvement from 68th place a year ago.

LinkedIn, Yahoo and Hipmunk are examples of companies who have built iOS apps in Swift.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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