[swift-evolution] [Review] SE-0018 Flexible Memberwise Initialization

[Brent Royal-Gordon]

> 	* What is your evaluation of the proposal?

I am generally in favor. I enjoy the current memberwise initializer feature and would like to see it become useful in more cases.

One thing I don't like (and was intending to discuss—the review snuck up on me) is the keyword `memberwise`. This is the name of the current feature, but I don't think it's very well-chosen. "Member" refers to all of the things attached to a type: properties, subscripts, methods, initializers, etc. But a "memberwise" initializer only initializes the stored properties, not any of these other things. Perhaps instead of `memberwise`, the keyword should be `property` or `propertywise`.

I'm not precisely sure what would be best, and keyword bikeshedding might be best left for a separate proposal. In any case, this defect is not nearly severe enough to make me want to scuttle the feature.

> 	* Is the problem being addressed significant enough to warrant a change to Swift?

Yes. The current memberwise initializers are unavailable in any situation with even the slightest complications. I think this proposal vastly improves the feature.

> 	* Does this proposal fit well with the feel and direction of Swift?

I think it does. It makes something that was previously implicit explicit instead, reducing boilerplate while still providing plenty of flexibility.

> 	* If you have you used other languages or libraries with a similar feature, how do you feel that this proposal compares to those?

I haven't, unless you count highly dynamic languages where you can easily build a constructor that initializes from a dictionary. This proposal is *far* more explicit than that sort of solution, which seems like an improvement to me.

> 	* How much effort did you put into your review? A glance, a quick reading, or an in-depth study?

I've participated in discussions about this feature since before it was formally proposed; I think I may have been the first person to bring up memberwise initializers as a target for improvement on this list. I've dug around in the Swift compiler and took a vague stab at implementing some related features, although I didn't get very far. I think my understanding of this issue is pretty in-depth.

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Brent Royal-Gordon
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