The cross-platform tool SwiftWasm has apparently been released as a stable version 5.3. This allows developers to make code from the Apple programming language Swift suitable for the web by translating it into bytecode. The project team has been working on a connection between WebAssembly (Wasm) and Swift for a long time.

Swift apps for the browser SwiftWasm is an Apple-independent project that works with a fork of the programming language operated by Apple, as project founder Max Desiatov explains in the announcement of the release in the Swift forum . The project uses patches that appear to be slightly different from Swift 5.3 to ensure Wasm support.

Under the hood, SwiftWasm 5.3 compiles the Swift code in a binary format and interacts with the WebAssembly host environment through project-created and maintained libraries. All common browsers support the format. Therefore, with the stable release of the tool, according to the publishers, it should now be possible for apps written purely in Swift to also run in the browser. Without a bit of “JavaScript glue” here and there it doesn’t seem to work, as can be seen from the blog entry. However, the JavaScript parts should be invisible to end users. SwiftWasm also supports ecosystems such as Node.js, Wasmer and all hosts compatible with WASI (the modular system interface of WebAssembly).

Installation paths and further information If you want to try SwiftWasm 5.3, you can choose from a number of installation options: The prerequisite is that your own operating system uses an Intel processor. A signed .pkg installer is available on GitHub for macOS (with Intel), a version for Apple Silicon, the switch from Intel to ARM Mac, is in the works according to the development team. For Ubuntu 18. 04 and 20. 04 (with Intel) SwiftWasm can be accessed via the swiftev – Install archives, but Docker images are also available for these Ubuntu versions.

Alternatively, the release can be installed as part of the more comprehensive carton developer tool, which, according to the SwiftWasm team, can handle other toolchain functions such as building, testing and packaging SwiftApps for the browser. A guide is available for creating browser apps with Swift. More information can be found in the entry in the Swift forum. Interested parties can follow the development of the fork on GitHub.

(sih)