Introducing a Memory-Safe Successor Language in Large C++ Code Bases - John McCall - CppNow 2023
What it is
John McCall of Apple's Swift team presents at CppNow 2023 on introducing a memory-safe successor language into large C++ code bases. He argues incremental improvement of C++ hits hard limits and explains Swift's C++ interoperability for gradual migration.
Why Hacker News recommends it
Used as the primary source for Apple's stated plan to make Swift its successor to C++ and for how interop supports gradual transition.
- 3 people recommended it
- 3 different months
- 0 strong recommendations
- first 2023, last 2025
What HN commenters said
“Finaly a recent gem from CppNow 2023”
Recent talk on Swift as a memory-safe successor to C++
pjmlp, 2023-09 · Recommendation · in “Show HN: C-ocoa, Write iOS/macOS apps in any language, with a generated C API”
“There’s a couple great talks on this by folks on the Swift team.”
One of a couple great talks on Swift's C++ migration story
mannuch, 2023-12 · Recommendation · in “Memory safety is necessary, not sufficient”
“A few hopefully relevant resources, first a couple of videos”
Listed among relevant resources on Swift C++ interop
glhaynes, 2024-06 · Recommendation · in “Swift Static Linux SDK”
Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.
Topics: swift, c++, memory safety, language interop, apple
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