Fatbobman's Swift Weekly #046
Warning-Free Compilation is Not the Ultimate Goal of Swift 6
Weekly Comment
Warning-Free Compilation is Not the Ultimate Goal of Swift 6
Recently, I began refactoring one of my apps, with full Swift 6 support being a key consideration. During this process, I first attempted to achieve perfect compilation for my self-built third-party libraries in Swift 6 mode.
The code in these libraries isn't complex, and after some adjustments, most could compile without warnings in Swift 6 mode. However, this result didn't particularly please me. Reviewing the modified code, I realized that the changes were more about appeasing the compiler rather than approaching concurrency safety challenges from a holistic design perspective with a fresh viewpoint.
Swift 6 attempts to preemptively mitigate risks in complex multi-threaded environments through stricter compiler checks. While the compiler can provide considerable assistance to developers, we shouldn't overly rely on these safety prompts. Instead, we should rethink how to construct code structures that not only meet compilation requirements but are truly safe and reliable, based on a deep understanding of Swift's new concurrency tools.
It's foreseeable that Swift 6 will bring additional troubles and burdens to developers for a considerable period, especially for beginners. As new frameworks and APIs extensively adopt new concurrency tools, Swift language newcomers may face these profound issues too early, potentially affecting Swift's promotion and application.
However, from another perspective, the rapid development of AI has both lowered the entry barrier in certain fields and demanded that developers master more skills and possess the ability to integrate knowledge to avoid being replaced by AI. The challenges brought by Swift 6, to some extent, also build a new line of defense for human developers. After all, for quite some time, AI will still lack excellent abstract thinking and overall planning abilities.
Therefore, to maintain our value in the AI era, we shouldn't set "code compiling without warnings in Swift 6 mode" as our sole goal. Instead, we should view it as an opportunity to deeply understand language evolution, enhance our system design capabilities, and truly master the essence of concurrent programming.
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肘子的话
无警告编译并非 Swift 6 的初衷
最近，我着手重构自己的一个 App，其中 Swift 6 的完整支持成为了一个重要考量。在这个过程中，我首先尝试让自己构建的第三方库在 Swift 6 模式下实现完美编译。
这些库的代码并不复杂，经过一番调整，大多数都能在 Swift 6 模式下实现无警告编译。然而，这个结果并没有让我感到特别欣喜。回顾修改过的代码，我意识到所做的改动更像是为了讨好编译器，而非从整体设计的角度出发，用全新的视角来应对并发安全的挑战。
Swift 6 通过更严格的编译器检查，试图在复杂的多线程环境中提前规避风险。虽然编译器能为开发者提供不少帮助，但我们不应过度依赖这些安全提示。相反，我们应该在深入理解 Swift 新并发工具的基础上，重新思考如何构建既符合编译需求又真正安全可靠的代码结构。
可以预见，Swift 6 会在不短的一段时间内会给开发者带来额外的困扰和负担，尤其是对初学者而言。随着新框架和 API 大量采用新的并发工具，Swift 语言的新手可能会过早地面对这些深奥问题，这或许会影响 Swift 的推广和应用。
然而，从另一个角度来看，AI 的快速发展既降低了某些领域的入门门槛，又要求开发者掌握更多技能并具备融会贯通的能力，以免被 AI 取代。Swift 6 带来的挑战，某种程度上也为人类开发者筑起了一道新的防线。毕竟，在相当长的一段时间内，AI 仍难以具备优秀的抽象思维和整体规划能力。
因此，为了在 AI 时代保持自身价值，我们不应将“代码在 Swift 6 模式下无警告编译”作为唯一目标。相反，我们应该将其视为一个契机，去深入理解语言的演进，提升自己的系统设计能力，真正掌握并发编程的精髓。
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