[swift-evolution] Proposal: Add .times method to Integer type

[Cihat Gündüz]

As far as I can remember it was never a goal of Swift to be a purely object-oriented language. Instead I can find expressiveness stated explicitly amongst the three main goals behind the language here: https://swift.org/about/#platform-support <https://swift.org/about/#platform-support>

Therefore I feel it is okay if the language becomes more expressive in a way that is less object-oriented. I see the suggested method as a functional construct.

– Cihat


> Am 18.12.2015 um 23:22 schrieb Kenny Leung <kenny_leung at pobox.com>:
> 
> I don’t agree with this on the grounds that it isn’t very object-oriented. That is, it does not conform with what one usually associates with an integer. A number has certain intrinsic properties: 5 is greater than 4 but less than 6. If you’re a synesthete, it may have the color blue. But I never think of there being a big number 5 that takes something and repeats it 5 times. I think of a person taking something and doing it over 5 times.
> 
> -Kenny
> 
>> On Dec 18, 2015, at 10:25 AM, Cihat Gündüz via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Dear Swift-Community,
>> 
>> I’d like to propose an addition of a useful method, especially for beginners that also makes Swift much more readable in some situations: The addition of a .times method to Integer type(s).
>> 
>> For example recently in one of my projects I wanted to test the scalability of an important piece of code and wrote this method:
>> 
>>    func testPerfQualityInPercentWithoutQualityImprovements() {
>>        self.measureBlock {
>>            let expectedQuality = 33.33
>>            0.stride(to: 5_000, by: 1).forEach { _ in
>>                XCTAssertEqualWithAccuracy(self.crossword.qualityInPercent, expectedQuality, accuracy: 0.1)   
>>            }   
>>        }
>>    }
>> 
>> As you can see what I basically wanted was to repeat the test some thousand times. I also like to use the Ruby language and one thing I love about it is that it has some really handy methods integrated to the language in situations like this which make the code very readable and therefore fun to use.
>> 
>> I’m an even bigger fan of Swift so I’d love to see such useful methods appear in Swift, too and this is the first I came across that I really missed. So I’m asking myself, what if I could write the same code above like this:
>> 
>>    func testPerfQualityInPercentWithoutQualityImprovements() {
>>        self.measureBlock {
>>            let expectedQuality = 33.33
>>            5_000.times {
>>                XCTAssertEqualWithAccuracy(self.crossword.qualityInPercent, expectedQuality, accuracy: 0.1)   
>>            }   
>>        }
>>    }
>> 
>> I think it could be added to the Swift standard library very easily (for example by using the .stride method like I used) without any side effects and has enough advantages to be part of Swift itself. What do you think?
>> 
>> I wish you all the best,
>> Cihat
>> 
>> 
>> P.S.: This is my very first mail in such a mailing list so I did everything correctly. ^.^
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> swift-evolution mailing list
>> swift-evolution at swift.org
>> https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution
> 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.swift.org/pipermail/swift-evolution/attachments/20151218/f714681e/attachment.html>