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

[Ian Ynda-Hummel]

I think I'm -1 for this. It feels like something that should exist in a
utility library rather than in the standard one.

I do have an honest question that comes from ignorance rather than malice:
has anyone actually used .times in ruby outside of the context of learning
or testing? I've written a fair amount of ruby and I don't think I've ever
seen it in production code. It is definitely a cleaner construct for what
it's trying to do, but I'm having trouble convincing myself it's a common
enough pattern to justify it being standard.
On Fri, Dec 18, 2015 at 6:20 PM Cihat Gündüz <swift-evolution at swift.org>
wrote:

> By the way and/or for all of you who like the idea of a .times method:
>
> I’ve just setup a library for features like this `times` method and
> implemented the suggested method there. Feel free to contribute code /
> provide feedback via that third party library (as suggested by Chris) here:
>
> https://github.com/Flinesoft/HandySwift
>
> – Cihat
>
> Am 18.12.2015 um 23:42 schrieb Cihat Gündüz via swift-evolution <
> swift-evolution at swift.org>:
>
> 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
>
> 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. ^.^
>
>
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