Swift: Swift has a more modern and concise syntax compared to Objective-C. It’s influenced by languages like Python and Ruby and is designed to be easier to read and write.
Objective-C: Objective-C has a more verbose syntax with the extensive use of square brackets for method calls. It’s influenced by C and Smalltalk.
Memory Management:
Swift: Uses Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) for memory management, where memory is automatically managed by the compiler. Developers rarely need to deal with manual memory management.
Objective-C: Uses manual memory management with reference counting and retains/releases. Developers need to manage memory manually by adding and removing object ownership.
Safety:
Swift: Designed with safety in mind, providing features like optionals, type inference, and type safety, which help prevent common programming errors like null pointer dereferences and type mismatches.
Objective-C: Lacks some of the safety features present in Swift. Developers need to be more cautious with memory management and handling nil values.
Interoperability:
Swift: Fully interoperable with Objective-C. Developers can use Swift and Objective-C code in the same project seamlessly, allowing gradual migration from Objective-C to Swift.
Objective-C: Can call Swift code and vice versa. Objective-C code can directly call Swift code by importing the Swift header into Objective-C files.
Performance:
Swift: Generally considered to be faster than Objective-C due to its modern design, optimizations, and better memory management.
Objective-C: Slightly slower than Swift due to its dynamic nature and the overhead of message passing.
Community and Ecosystem:
Swift: Growing rapidly with a large and active community. Continuously evolving with regular updates and improvements from Apple.
Objective-C: Mature language with an extensive library and a vast amount of existing code. However, its growth has slowed down in favor of Swift.
