Bringing Swift to the Apple ][

2 days ago

SwiftII is a Swift-flavored mini development environment for the Apple II series, designed to bring a subset of Swift to vintage hardware.
The project uses a bytecode interpreter and virtual machine approach, inspired by Apple Pascal's UCSD p-System, to run Swift-like code on the 6502 CPU.
SwiftII includes a REPL, file browser, text editor, and compiler, all fitting within the 40,704-byte memory constraint of the Apple II under ProDOS.
The language supports core Swift features like let/var, if/else, loops, functions, optionals, arrays, and strings, but with limitations such as 16-bit Ints and ASCII strings.
Memory banking is used to extend functionality, with different disk images for machines like the Apple II Plus, IIe, and those with Saturn 128K or auxiliary RAM upgrades.
Development involved heavy AI assistance (Claude and Codex) over two months, with phased design documents and testing across multiple emulators and hardware configurations.
The project emphasizes user experience, with adaptations for pre-IIe keyboard and display limitations, including digraphs and case markers for typing Swift code.
It ships as nine disk images, catering to different hardware setups and feature sets, with automated testing to ensure compatibility across various Apple II models.
SwiftII demonstrates the feasibility of porting modern programming language concepts to vintage systems, honoring the legacy of the Apple II and its open architecture.

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