[swift-evolution] Immutable Structures

[Félix Cloutier]

No, this is a consequence of structures being passed by value to property accessors. The getter doesn't return a reference to the frame, it returns a copy of it, so it is accompanied by a hidden set operation where it replaces the whole thing.

Félix

> Le 23 déc. 2015 à 11:09:43, Kevin Lundberg via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> a écrit :
> 
> I believe Ian is correct in that changing any struct's value in any way creates a whole new struct.
> See http://swiftstub.com/635749345 <http://swiftstub.com/635749345> for proof (the didSet property observer fires every time a change happens to the struct).
> 
>> On Dec 23, 2015, at 11:00 AM, Lino Rosa via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution at swift.org>> wrote:
>> 
>> Reassigning structures will create new ones. Mutating functions and reassigning its properties won't: they mutate it.
>> On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 10:51 AM Ian Ynda-Hummel <ianynda at gmail.com <mailto:ianynda at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> I thought structures were immutable and mutating functions actually just created new structures, thus maintaining the by value semantics.
>> On Wed, Dec 23, 2015 at 10:45 AM Lino Rosa via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution at swift.org>> wrote:
>> I believe the language would be improved by making structures immutable.
>> 
>> 1) The choice between classes and structures isn’t clear right now. If structures were immutable it would be natural to use them as value objects.
>> 
>> 2) Refactoring a mutable structure into a class when it’s being passed around multiple threads removes the by-value semantics seamlessly. The resulting mutable class isn’t thread-safe.
>> 
>> 2.1) Even when passed around a single thread, the resulting class would be passed by reference, so any mutations would have unintended consequences.
>> 
>> 3) We could probably remove some syntax: `mutating` keyword and variable parameters. Also the `var` keyword before a structure could be used to denote reassignment (not mutability), just as it does with classes.
>> 
>> Of corse I might not be seeing the whole picture, so please weigh in.
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