[Swift/C++] User survey: how would you use C++ interoperability?

[CraigsOverItAll (Craig Phillips)]

@gribozavr

• How would you describe the C++ APIs that you are most interested in calling from Swift?

Our interest is completely the other way, I need to replace existing legacy C++ libraries with type safe performant implementations in Swift.

@gribozavr

• To what extent, if any, would you be able to change the C++ APIs to facilitate Swift/C++ interop?

N/A

@gribozavr

* To what extent do you care about the performance overhead added by the interoperability layer

This question is about C++ —> Swift, which isn't our focus, but to answer for Swift —> C++ I'd hope there would be no loss of performance.

@gribozavr

• How important is calling Swift from C++ for your use cases?

It's our primary need right now. We need to replace these legacy libraries across apps on Apple and Windows platforms.

@gribozavr

• Are you interested in just calling existing C++ code from Swift and vice versa, or are you also interested in migrating C++ code to Swift, using the Swift/C++ interop to facilitate an incremental rewrite?

An incremental approach would be great for stage two of our work which is the modernisation of core desktop applications.

How would you describe the C++ APIs that you are most interested in calling from Swift?

N/A

[jhihn]

I would use the C++/Swift interop to enable Qt use to Swift code. This is a major stumbling block for Qt/iOS developers, as a lot of the code examples are only available in Swift now. Currently, I have to use the Objective C versions - if I can figure them out.

[mrousavy]

I have a huge amount of C++ code responsible for augmented reality stuff. That includes scanning custom QR codes, scanning surfaces, detecting depth without depth sensors (AI), and more. This code is written in C++, and it's simply not possible to rewrite it to Swift. It currently works fine in our Android app (invoked through JNI), but forces us to use Objective-C++ for our iOS app (which, I'm pretty sure, made the development process for the iOS app a lot harder, and resulted in worse UI/UX since our developers are more comfortable in Swift)