[swift-evolution] Colon vs. equals

[Andrew Bennett]

Interesting point, I guess ":" in dictionary literals is to make the syntax
unambiguous.

This is currently valid swift:

    let x = [a = b]

Its type is: Array<Void>. It seems like the syntax is clearer if the
delimiter isn't a valid operator.

Also there's a problem with default value syntax:

    func test(a: Int = 123)

This would be hard to read with only "=":

    func test(a = Int = 123)

Also if the default value was an operator:

    func test(a = Int -> Int = =)

Granted you could change the less commonly used default syntax, but it's
probably syntactically easier to differentiate user-controller delimiters
(assignment) and compiler-controller delimiters (:,). The example with
assignment in an array illustrates this.

I do agree '@available' though, it seems like it should be ":"

=)


On Sat, Feb 6, 2016 at 10:27 AM, Brent Royal-Gordon via swift-evolution <
swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:

> This is perhaps a bit nitpicky, but I've noticed that Swift sometimes uses
> colon to separate names and values, and sometimes uses equals. It's vaguely
> maddening.
>
> What do I mean? Well, our language has this:
>
>         myFunc(foo, bar: baz)
>
> But it also has:
>
>         @available(iOS, introduced=7.0, deprecated=8.0)
>
> You create a dictionary like this:
>
>         let dict = ["key": "value"]
>
> But you set it like this:
>
>         dict["key"] = "value"
>
> Is there some principle here? The @available case seems particularly
> strange to me, because those values read strongly like parameters to me.
>
> --
> Brent Royal-Gordon
> Architechies
>
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