Apple introduces new Swift features including AttributedString and JSON support

Apple has introduced several updates to the Swift programming language, including a new first-class AttributedString type. Unlike the previous Objective-C NSAttributedString, the new Swift version is a value type, allowing it to be passed, copied, and mutated using Swift’s value semantics. This change helps developers manage mutable state more safely by ensuring local state is handled automatically.

Additionally, Swift has enhanced its native support for encoding and decoding data, specifically for the JSON format. Through the use of the Encodable and Encoder protocols, developers can now more easily convert Swift structs and enums into various representations. This development coincides with the announced deprecation of NSArchiver, as NSKeyedArchiver remains the standard for data archiving.