[rrishi]

Gotta hand it to The Browser Company for doing so much for Swift lang.

Though I haven't used Swift in production I have enjoyed its ergonomics in my tinkerings with it. So I'd be so glad if Swift is able to break out of its niche into broader usage.

[cube2222]

They supposedly also got SwiftUI working on windows. I’d be curious to hear more about that, cause I believe the article doesn’t touch on this one.

[iamkonstantin]

It’s not SwiftUI (which would require Apple’s AppKit or UIKit), but rather interop with the Windows native WinRT https://speakinginswift.substack.com/p/swift-meet-winrt

[lenkite]

WinRT was abandoned by Microsoft. They said the new hotness is now WinUI 3.

Well that was until late 2023. Then they realized nobody was writing pure Windows UI code in WinUI 3. (Probably because people were still playing catch up). So they have now have unofficially mothballed WinUI 3 and the new hotness is now MAUI - cross-platform UI! - in 2024. (But no Linux support ho-ho)

Not sure what it will be next year.

[SaulJLH]

ahem https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/micr...

[lenkite]

ahem https://github.com/microsoft/microsoft-ui-xaml/issues/9414

https://github.com/microsoft/microsoft-ui-xaml/issues/9410#i...

[felipefar]

I hope Microsoft would settle for one UI library instead of pushing a new one every five years. WinUI 3 is their most recent invention. Application developers can't keep up with the changing standards.

[pjmlp]

With all the mismanagement around WinRT, only the Windows team themselves and companies with sunken cost into UWP looking into a migration path, still care about WinUI 3.

Look no further than the Github repos for the general sentiment.

[lenkite]

Sorry bud, but its 2024 and MAUI is the new hotness. WinUI 3 is already (unofficial) abandonware.

[zer0zzz]

I thought folks like saleem already had been building up a UIKit-like layer for exactly this.

[newZWhoDis]

A properly motivated Apple would have been pushing cross platform Swift/SwiftUI and launched an App Store on both Android and Windows.

Imagine how many developers would just release to the App Store and re-release that on Android/etc to not need two codebase, and Apple would expand their 30% cut massively.

A lot of Android users would get apps from Apple’s store due to vetting/generally higher investment in App Store apps from major companies.

[copx]

But Apple does not want Android users to have the same apps people have on their iPhone. They want as much distinction as possible.

Apple is the iPhone company, everything else is just accessories.

[miffy900]

Nope - that would be a massive undertaking. Someone tried reimplementing SwiftUI but it was abandoned quickly after realising how much work it would entail: https://github.com/Cosmo/OpenSwiftUI