The Server-Side Swift 2024 conference, held at the London Science Museum, brought together hundreds of Swift developers for an enlightening two-day event focused on backend development using Swift.
This gathering, reminiscent of a miniature WWDC in London, featured five Apple employee speakers who shared insights into their contributions to open-source projects related to the Swift language and the Server-Side ecosystem.
And that's a wrap! ServerSide.swift 2024 - it's been an incredible conference #serverSideSwift2024 pic.twitter.com/wrEJHkUyrY
— ServerSide.swift (@SwiftServerConf) September 27, 2024
Keynote: Swift & Interoperability
Speakers: Tony Parker and Ben Cohen (Apple)
Foundation in Swift: A Strategic Rewrite
The keynote delved into the incremental strategy employed to rewrite the Foundation framework in Swift while maintaining compatibility with legacy Objective-C and C code. This approach involved a three-step process:
- Building Swift Foundation on top of Foundation in Objective-C and C
- Reversing the dependency chain, making Foundation Objective-C dependent on Foundation Swift and Foundation C
- Establishing Foundation Objective-C's dependency on Foundation C, which in turn depends on Foundation Swift
This methodical approach avoided a disruptive rewrite while keeping the code stable, usable, and significantly faster. The key to this success was the introduction of Swift interoperability with Objective-C, C, and C++.
Expanding Interoperability with Java
The success of the Foundation framework rewrite has demonstrated substantial performance improvements for applications using Swift, both on the frontend and backend. Building on this success, Apple has introduced the Swift-Java interoperability open-source project (github.com/swiftlang/swift-java) to support Java interoperability.
Swift Everywhere: A Clear Strategy
Apple's strategy has become evident: leveraging interoperability frameworks to transition legacy code to Swift, positioning it as the de facto standard to replace languages such as Objective-C, C, C++, Java, and Python. This strategy provides the building block to allow incremantal adoption on Server Side.
Swift Language Insights
When to make a Macro
Daniel Steinberg delivered an insightful talk on the art of writing Swift macros, complete with practical examples and implementation tips.
So You Think You Know Swift?
Nick Lockwood (Bloomberg) provided a deep dive into lesser-known Swift features, expanding attendees' understanding of the language's capabilities.
Server-Side Swift Tools and Frameworks
The conference featured numerous talks focused on tools and frameworks for Server-Side Swift development:
Swift, Server-Side, Serverless
Sebastien Stormacq (AWS) presented a comprehensive journey on utilizing AWS Lambda with SAM and Swift, highlighting key resources:
- AWS Lambda Runtime: github.com/swift-server/swift-aws-lambda-runtime
- VS Code plugin: github.com/swift-server-community/vscode-aws-lambda-swift-sam
- SAM Deployer plugin: github.com/swift-server-community/swift-aws-lambda-sam-dsl
Swift to the cloud in a single step
Euan Harris (Apple) demonstrated how to generate Docker images without Docker using Swift, showcasing:
- Swift SDK Generator: github.com/apple/swift-sdk-generator
- Static Linux SDK: www.swift.org/documentation/articles/static-linux-getting-started.html
- Swift Container Plugin: github.com/apple/swift-container-plugin
Leveraging structured concurrency in your applications
Franz Busch (Apple) introduced the Swift Service Lifecycle package for improved resource management:
Introduction to Hummingbird 2
Joannis Orlandos previewed Hummingbird 2, highlighting its integration with Swift 6 Structured Concurrency:
Generating static websites using Swift on the server
Tibor Bödecs presented Toucan, a CMS built with Swift using Hummingbird:
Swift for WebAssembly
Steven Van Impe showcased practical examples of Swift on WebAssembly:
- SwiftWasm: swiftwasm.org
- Examples: github.com/pwsacademy/swiftwasm-examples/
- Programming with Swift Academy: pwsacademy.org/
Stop worrying about routes with OpenAPI Generator
Babeth Velgh introduced the Swift OpenAPI Generator:
Real-World Server-Side Swift Applications
The conference featured numerous presentations on production applications and experiences with Server-Side Swift:
- Cory Benfield (Apple) discussed the complexities of using Swift for Private Cloud Compute.
- Leo Dion (gBeat) shared challenges in developing a real-time heart rate monitor using Vapor.
- Thomas Durand offered practical tips for production-ready Vapor applications.
- Vojtech Rylko presented Cultured Code's success story with Things, powered by Server-Side Swift.
- Mikaela Caron (Fruitful) recounted adventures with Heroku, Vapor, and AWS S3.
- Adegboyega Olusunmade shared lessons learned from building a trivia app backend.
- Petr Pavlik discussed shipping a SaaS backend using Vapor and AWS.
Conclusion
Server-Side Swift 2024 showcased the growing momentum behind Swift as a backend language. The strong presence of Apple developers and the quality of presentations demonstrated the commitment of the open-source community to Server-Side Swift. While backend development requires specialized skills, iOS developers can leverage their Swift expertise in this domain.
Server-Side Swift Resources
- Swift Server Workgroup (SSWG) https://www.swift.org/sswg/
- All SwiftServerConf Videos https://www.youtube.com/@swiftserverconf
- Server-Side Swift Conference https://www.Server-Sideswift.info
- Swift Server Side Swift Stream https://www.youtube.com/@SwiftServerSide/streams
One More Thing!
Introducing Breeze: Simplifying Serverless Swift
As a side project, I'm developing Breeze (github.com/swift-serverless/Breeze) to streamline the process of starting with Serverless on AWS. Breeze provides customizable templates to set up the essentials for creating a mobile app backend using Serverless on AWS. Give it a try, leave feedback, and get involved in shaping the future of Server-Side Swift development!
Thanks for reading!