what is concurrency
Asked on 04/22/2025
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Concurrency, in the context of programming, refers to the ability of a system to execute multiple tasks or processes simultaneously. This is particularly important in modern software development to improve performance and responsiveness, especially in applications that require handling multiple operations at once, such as user interfaces or network requests.
At WWDC, Apple has emphasized the importance of concurrency in Swift, particularly with the introduction of Swift concurrency features. Swift concurrency is designed to help developers write safe and efficient concurrent code. It includes mechanisms like actors for protecting mutable state, and the async/await syntax for handling asynchronous operations. Swift 6, in particular, has introduced data race safety by default, turning potential data race issues into compile-time errors, which significantly enhances the security and reliability of applications.
For more detailed information on Swift concurrency, you can refer to the session Migrate your app to Swift 6 (03:20) which discusses Swift 6 and data-race safety, or What’s new in Swift (26:07) which covers Swift 6 language mode and data-race safety.
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