I was asked whether a person with no iOS experience should learn Swift or Objective-C. After talking to a few people at the school, I’ve come to a simple conclusion.

Some Observations about Swift

In a couple days of playing with Swift, I’ve noticed that I could pick it up pretty easily. The frameworks are the same, but there’s some cool new syntax that will save a lot of typing (closures come to mind). I’ve also found that similar to learning Spanish and French at the same time, learning Swift will confuse your Objective-C syntax.

Learn Objective-C if you plan to be a professional iOS developer within the next year

For professional iOS developers, most companies are still in Objective-C and you will be expected to read and write it. Simple as that.

Learn Swift if you want to just work on your own side projects

Especially if you’re working on iOS development on the side, by the time you’re familiar enough with iOS frameworks, Swift will be more mature, more usable by then.