[swift-evolution] [Pitch] Add overrides with UnsafePointer sources to non-destructive copying methods on UnsafeMutablePointer

[Guillaume Lessard]

> On 2 févr. 2016, at 16:06, Janosch Hildebrand via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
> 
> func assignBackwardFrom(source: UnsafeMutablePointer<Pointee>, count: Int)
> func assignFrom(source: UnsafeMutablePointer<Pointee>, count: Int)
> func initializeFrom(source: UnsafeMutablePointer<Pointee>, count: Int)
> 
> Basically my proposal boils down to adding overloads for these methods to `UnsafeMutablePointer` that take `UnsafePointer` source arguments instead.

I agree with these; I have run into this situation as well.

> 
> Related:
> I also have a few related items that might make sense to discuss in tandem while we're talking about `UnsafePointer` and friends.
> 
> * func distanceTo(x: Unsafe(Mutable)Pointer<Memory>) -> Int
> This is the only other method on `UnsafePointer` and `UnsafeMutablePointer` for which similar overloads might make sense. However, I cannot really see enough of a use case to justify adding overloads here. Also the current methods match protocol requirements whereas the overloads would not.

I don’t think this would makes sense. This method exists to support indexing within a single block of memory; overloading across types might encourage recklessness.

This being said, I’ve come to think the indexing operations should only exist on the Buffer wrappers to the UnsafePointer family.

Guillaume Lessard