An archived experiment integrating TensorFlow's machine learning capabilities directly into the Swift programming language with first-class differentiable programming.
Swift for TensorFlow was an experimental platform that integrated TensorFlow's machine learning capabilities directly into the Swift programming language. It provided first-class support for differentiable programming, allowing developers to compute derivatives of Swift functions and use them for gradient-based optimization. The project aimed to create a next-generation ML development environment with seamless Python interoperability and interactive notebook support.
Machine learning researchers and developers familiar with Swift who want to build ML models with native language support for differentiation and TensorFlow integration.
It offered a unique approach by baking differentiable programming directly into the Swift language and compiler, rather than as a separate library, providing more natural syntax and better tooling for ML development compared to traditional Python-based workflows.
Swift for TensorFlow
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Built-in support for automatic differentiation via the Differentiable protocol, allowing gradient computation on custom types like structs, as shown in the code example with Model.
Direct calling of Python libraries like NumPy from Swift code with familiar syntax, enabling easy migration and library use, as demonstrated in the numpy integration snippet.
Jupyter notebook integration via swift-jupyter, allowing for exploratory ML development in Swift, with tutorials available in Google Colab.
API familiar to Keras users for building and training models, supported by a model garden with over 30 pre-built examples.
The project was archived in February 2021 with no further updates, making it obsolete for new development and lacking bug fixes or security patches.
The README warns that some documents are 'slightly out of date' or 'outdated,' hindering effective learning and implementation.
Compared to Python-based ML frameworks, it has a smaller model garden and reduced third-party library support, with discussions now inactive on the mailing list.
Installation requires downloading pre-built packages or compiling from source, which can be cumbersome and error-prone without active support.