CODEWITHSUNDEEP
objective-cswiftoptimization
Black Magic
Black Magic

Reputation: 2766

Swift optimization not working?

I am trying to decide between Swift and Objective-C for my app. Currently I am testing performance for operations that will happen a lot in the app.

I have written a testapp that downloads a json file and puts it in a NSDictionary like this:

    var err: NSError
    var jsonResult: NSDictionary = NSJSONSerialization.JSONObjectWithData(JSONData, options: NSJSONReadingOptions.MutableContainers, error: nil) as NSDictionary
    println(jsonResult)

And when I test it, Objective-C seems to be faster everytime. But there's no difference in using the optmization (-Ounchecked) and no optmization(-Onone). I know the println is the biggest slowdown in both Objective-C and Swift.

Does the lack of optimization have anything to do with the fact that it's barely possible to optimize that line?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 151

Answers (1)

Rob Napier
Rob Napier

Reputation: 299345

As you say, there's nothing in the above program to optimize. You can check for yourself by looking at the assembly output, but I would expect them to be almost identical.

In general, things heavily involving Cocoa are going to be as fast or faster in ObjC today than Swift. The ObjC compiler has decades of work behind it, and Cocoa has decades of ObjC-specific optimization. There is nothing Swift can do to make a call to an existing Cocoa method faster. NSJSONSerialization is the same class in ObjC and Swift.

It is possible for Swift to be faster than pure ObjC in things that you would traditionally use C or C++ for anyway. It is possible for an [Int] to be faster than an NSArray of NSNumber for certain operations (but see this question before you assume that NSArray is slow), just like it's possible for vector<int> or int[] to be faster for those same operations (and for roughly the same reasons). But that's a poor reason to choose Swift. If numerical calculations are your major problem, and performance is at a premium, then C and C++ have decades of optimization behind them. Swift might beat them here and there, but C and C++ are known quantities.

But micro-benchmarks like these are useless in working out performance questions. They're not going to tell you much about your app's total performance. That comes from profiling real code, and then optimizing your bottleneck. And in some cases that might mean moving some piece of Swift code into ObjC (or C or C++), just like we've long converted pieces of ObjC to C or C++ when we needed to improve certain kinds of performance.

Swift is neither easier to read nor understand than ObjC. It is in certain cases easier to write (though often it is much harder). It is much easier to write correct code with fewer bugs because of better typing, and that's why I think it's going to be a great language. But not because it's "easier."

Swift appears easier because its syntax is slightly closer to Java and JavaScript and many people who are evaluating it have a Java and JavaScript background, but Swift's dramatically more complex features and rough edges when working with Cocoa make understanding much more difficult. Why do you need as NSDictionary in the above code? How is a new programmer supposed to know that? The equivalent ObjC has no such weirdness. When you start doing more work, you'll discover many very confusing compiler errors any time AnyObject shows up (and it shows up all the time with Cocoa). Don't be fooled by the parentheses versus square brackets. ObjC is a much simpler language with years of tutorials, StackOverflow Q&A, books, and training available. (Also the ObjC compiler almost never crashes.)

IMO, if you are uncertain, then use ObjC. ObjC is what Cocoa is designed for. ObjC has a well-established compiler. ObjC is easier to learn (it's harder to just dive into and start hacking at things, but it's easier to actually learn).

As Swift settles down (and it's quickly settling down), you can convert parts of your app to Swift. Swift was designed to allow you to mix it this way, and it's getting easier to do that in practice (particularly with the new ObjC annotations). But if you have any serious deadlines ahead of you, I strongly recommend ObjC.

On the other hand, if you don't have a serious deadline, and you like Swift better, go for it. I think it's going to be a great language some day.

Upvotes: 3

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