[swift-evolution] an observation on colons in variable type declarations

[Ilya Belenkiy]

+1 on all points made by Taras
On Wed, Feb 10, 2016 at 12:44 PM Taras Zakharko via swift-evolution <
swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:

> It really depends on what you are used to. Swift notation comes from
> mathematics and formal computer science. You seem to be more used to the
> Fortran/ALGOL/C syntax. Personally, I prefer the Swift way, its cleaner and
> less confusing to me.
>
> At any rate, I don’t think there is a valid reason to reconsider this
> design aspect of the language.
>
>
> On 09 Feb 2016, at 23:45, Oliver M via swift-evolution <
> swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>
>
>    - A brief observation regarding variable type declarations
>    -
>    - I find the colon in variable type declarations a little odd.
>    - Consider the following:
>    -
>    - var welcomeMessage: String
>    -
>    - wouldn't this be cleaner simply written as
>    -
>    - var welcomeMessage String
>    -
>    -
>    - the documentation says to read the colon ':' as "of type" in such
>    situations
>    -
>    - but does the type "String" itself not imply 'of type String'
>    -
>    -
>    -
>    - Consider the colon in a function declaration:
>    -
>    - func sayHello(personName: String) {}
>    -
>    - I would read the portion within the brackets as:
>    - parameter named personName takes value of type String (because you
>    input values when calling functions)
>    - with the colon reading 'takes value' and "String" again reading 'of
>    type String'
>    -
>    -
>    -
>    - I find the colon ':' strongly associated with function input values,
>    and with associations [key:value pairs etc]
>    - but variables…you don't input anything and they are not inherently
>    associations.
>    -
>    -
>    - When coding half asleep I find myself compelled to input a value
>    wherever I see a ':' and I can see myself typing something really really
>    silly
>    -
>    - var myIndex: "Int"
>    - myIndex = 0
>
> _______________________________________________
> swift-evolution mailing list
> swift-evolution at swift.org
> https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> swift-evolution mailing list
> swift-evolution at swift.org
> https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.swift.org/pipermail/swift-evolution/attachments/20160210/cadb9d13/attachment.html>