What does swift do that other languages don’t?

Swift offers several unique features and advantages that set it apart from other programming languages:

1. Safety and Speed: Swift is designed to be safe and fast. It includes features that help prevent common programming errors, such as null pointer dereferencing and buffer overflows, while also being optimized for performance. This makes it suitable for both high-level app development and low-level system programming.

2. Interoperability with C and C++: Swift has built-in interoperability with C and C++, allowing developers to use existing libraries and codebases seamlessly. This is particularly useful for integrating Swift into existing projects or leveraging performance-critical code written in these languages.

3. Expressive Syntax: Swift's syntax is designed to be concise and expressive, making it easier to read and write. This helps improve developer productivity and reduces the likelihood of errors.

4. Concurrency Model: Swift introduced a modern concurrency model with features like async/await, actors, and structured concurrency. These features make it easier to write concurrent and parallel code, which is crucial for modern applications that need to perform multiple tasks simultaneously.

5. Cross-Platform Capabilities: While Swift is best known for developing apps for Apple's ecosystem, it is also a cross-platform language. It can be used for server-side development, and there are efforts to bring Swift to more platforms, including Windows and embedded systems.

6. Embedded Swift: Swift can scale down to resource-constrained environments, such as the chips powering smart home devices. This makes it a versatile language that can be used for a wide range of applications, from mobile apps to embedded systems.

7. SwiftUI: SwiftUI leverages Swift's unique features to build user interfaces more efficiently. It allows developers to share more code across different devices and provides a declarative syntax for defining UI components.

8. Community and Ecosystem: Swift has a vibrant open-source community and a rich ecosystem of tools and libraries. This includes support for cross-platform development environments like Visual Studio Code and a growing number of packages and frameworks.

For more detailed information, you can refer to the following sessions from WWDC 2024:

• Platforms State of the Union
• A Swift Tour: Explore Swift’s features and design
• What’s new in Swift
• Go small with Embedded Swift

These sessions provide a comprehensive overview of Swift's capabilities and the latest advancements in the language.