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Advent of Swift

a day ago
https://leahneukirchen.org/blog/archive/2025/12/advent-of-swift.html
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  • #Swift
  • #AdventOfCode
  • #Programming
  • Used Swift 6.2 on Void Linux, compiled from scratch due to lack of prebuilt binaries compatible with Python 3.13.
  • Swift tooling is user-friendly with an interpreter for quick scripts and a REPL, though backtraces on crashes were not useful.
  • Encountered performance issues with Regexp in Swift, leading to a 100x slowdown compared to Ruby initially, and 3x after optimization.
  • Swift's syntax is modern and inspired by the C family, with features like checked exceptions, Optional and Result types, and convenient syntactic shortcuts.
  • The standard library is well-documented and includes practical functions, though string processing can be inconvenient for Unicode-heavy tasks.
  • Experienced slow error reporting with type checking errors, but other error messages are helpful and clear.
  • Noted some missing features like Hashable tuples and pattern matching for arrays/sequences, indicating areas where Swift could improve.
  • Despite some downsides, using Swift for programming tasks was fun and straightforward, though library availability on non-MacOS systems remains a concern.
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