The bigger news here is that for the first time in 20+ years, all platforms are using the same codebase and that includes iOS, Android, Mac and Windows.
Looks interesting PoC. I have written multiple extensions for PostgreSQL in Go. The hardest part is not "glueing" together the tools to make it work. Most of the time it's much more easier and faster to just write in C (C++ with wrapper).
There are many cases you should consider, like returning rows (composite types) and implementing trigger functions.
I disagree that it is easier or faster to just write it in C. But C still makes a lot more sense for many other reasons. And yes, this demos only the very basics, nothing fancy.
Anyways, a nice feature of Swift in this context is that Swift can directly access C APIs w/o any "wrapping". So while PL/Swift can add convenience APIs (like the ones it has to convert String's and Int's into Datum's), it can already do almost everything C can do due to that.
I worked at BAO 6 years ago, it was my first job as a software engineer. I was working on 1m Schmidt telescope and even though we had many problems (due to insufficient funding) we were excited and motivated. Nowadays, BAO is mainly about "art stuff". I'm not against using outdated equipments for artistic use, but it's a research center/observatory and not a museum.
I see the HAYP art organization is mostly made up (at the top, i.e. the curators) of people who were brought up in Western Europe/North America. Whether what they are bringing is really valuable must be difficult to determine.
Entrepreneurial artworld thinking can be more about trendiness and superficial experience of insight/events, a coat of 'cool' paint on reality. It's definitely a very different activity from scientific research.
