Swift is memory safe. It’s the better C++ I want, just out of reach because Apple. There is at least one memory safe alternative to Rust that doesn’t require a GC.

I’ve made this argument before but here we go again. GC is great and works better and faster than reference counting in most cases, but there are degenerate cases and they matter on phones. One degenerate case is memory pressure. A GC running out of memory will perform terribly. Another case is bounded latency. Most obvious with hard real-time, but also a problem for any system where a long GC pause will lead to failure modes or user dissatisfaction. RC allows for predictable (albeit slower) performance.

So if we can agree that “no GC” is preferable in a constrained environment like a phone, but you still want memory safety, then you are left with “is Swift or Rust better for productivity?” It’s pretty obvious that the answer is resoundingly “Swift”.