[swift-evolution] Colon vs. equals

[Nate Cook]

> On Feb 6, 2016, at 10:11 AM, Dave Abrahams via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
> 
> 
>> on Sat Feb 06 2016, Haravikk <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>> 
>> +1 for changing attributes to using colons, as it would make them read
>> more like a function call (albeit one with slightly different rules).
>> 
>> -1 though for changing dictionary literals; personally I think the
>> colon syntax is a lot clearer, especially when the literal is being
>> assigned, as it means there is only a single, clear assignment.
>> 
>> Regarding assigning new values to a dictionary though, I wonder if we
>> might extend the literal syntax to modifying an existing dictionary?
>> For example, I might do something like:
>> 
>>    myDictionary[“foo”: 1, “bar”: 2]    // Add/set new values for foo and bar
>> 
>> As this could be a neater way to replace:
>> 
>>    myDictionary[“foo”] = 1
>>    myDictionary[“bar”] = 2
> 
> This should be spelled
> 
>     myDictionary.updateValues([“foo”: 1, “bar”: 2])
> 
> or maybe
> 
>     myDictionary.update([“foo”: 1, “bar”: 2])

There's a proposal for updating a dictionary in place using a dictionary literal, among other things: https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/pull/125

Nate