Apple’s Swift announces version 5.2 release process

Are you a fan of Swift? Version 5.2 is on its way. Recently, Swift released a blog detailing its release process. The motivation and goals of Swift 5.2 include quality and performance improvements. Do you have an idea for a change? Make sure you are familiar with the process and the language’s philosophy, scope, and goals.
The Swift programming language moves towards version 5.2. Originally developed by Apple and released in 2014, Swift uses the Objective-C runtime library and is intended to be used as a replacement for C-based languages, such as C, C++, and Objective-C.
Version 5.2 aims to significantly improve the language’s quality and performance. Let’s take a look into the release process, what’s planned, what repositories will be impacted, and what the release managers are considering for inclusion.
Awaiting 5.2
Mark your calendars. According to the release process blog:
On November 5, 2019 the
swift-5.2-branch
branch will be cut, and this will contain the changes that will be released in Swift 5.2. After the branch is cut, changes can be landed on the branch via pull request if the meet the criteria for the release.
Cutoff dates for the indexstore-db, sourcekit-lsp, swift-llbuild, and swift-package-manager to be announced in the future. (They extend beyond November 5th.)
Keep track of the development’s build queue. Downloadable snapshots of the release branch will be posted regularly, and once 5.2 is released, the final builds will be posted along with the downloadable snapshots.
Making changes
Have an idea for a change? How do you go about making a proposal?
Don’t be too hasty. Before you submit a PR, view the commonly rejected changes and familiarize yourself with the list. These include commonly suggested changes that are unlikely to be accepted, along with an explanation of why/why not.
SEE ALSO: DevOpsCon 2019 Opening Keynote: Silos are dead. Long live Silos
You should also read about the evolution process, including the scope, direction, and future goals of the language.
Pull requests for the release branch must include some well-researched information including:
- an explanation of the fix or ehnancement
- assessment of the change’s impact or its importance
- potential risks
- SR issue if the change fixes an issue on bugs.swift.org
- information regarding testing and if further testing needs to be done
- technical code review by one or more code owner regarding the impacted components.