The Swift Compiler

Including: WTF is LLVM!?

The Swift language was created by Chris Lattner. Before he ran the Xcode and compiler teams at Apple, he built LLVM at age 23.

That’s right. Chris is pretty much Impostor Syndrome: The Movie.

Life is full of parallels. When I was 23, I applied for a job at an up-and-coming medical app startup. In the interview, I was asked to describe Swift, and I choked. I was unable to explain whether it was compiled or interpreted. “The compiler is the best thing about Swift!” my interviewer guffawed.

I had the last laugh, because that startup collapsed years ago.

Let’s cathartically relieve ourselves on the grave of this startup together and learn about the Swift compiler.