[swift-evolution] Allowing trailing commas in argument lists

Ted F.A. van Gaalen tedvgiosdev at gmail.com
Thu Mar 10 15:16:51 CST 2016


H Erica.

In working with many programming languages since
ca. 1980, there was not even one language offering this, 
and I am an experienced programmer. 

What do you mean with “reordering”  in this context? 
   1. only with manually editing  ?
 or
   2.  With some form of source automation ?
 or 
   3. reason(s) unknown to me? 


Btw. please note that Swift should also be accessible and usable for less experienced programmers.

Sorry, Erica, another topic, but if in what you wrote here you'd replace “trailing commas”  with    “for ; ;”  you would have described exactly
my opinion about the for ;;  statement. a bit contradicting, i think. 

> For those of us who prefer trailing commas, it will be both a convenience and an asset. For those against, there's no harm
> done. I find it unlikely that trailing commas will naturally lead to any unsafe code or produce a net negative effect on the
> language or the code-base it supports.


Please note, not meant unfriendly. 

Kind regards
Ted




> On 10.03.2016, at 21:27, Erica Sadun <erica at ericasadun.com> wrote:
> 
>>>> On 10 Mar 2016, at 17:28, Radosław Pietruszewski <radexpl at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Trailing comma is not nonsensical, there is a specific purpose in allowing it (unlike your examples), and there’s precedent in Swift already.
>>>> 
> 
> Trailing commas enable easier re-ordering of arguments, simplify growing or compacting argument lists, and do no harm.
> 
> Their use in arrays and dictionaries are conventional enough that experienced programmers will not be surprised by their
> presence. No one will force their use and one's internal style guide (and linters) can direct whether any individual group
> adopts or ignores the addition.
> 
> For those of us who prefer trailing commas, it will be both a convenience and an asset. For those against, there's no harm
> done. I find it unlikely that trailing commas will naturally lead to any unsafe code or produce a net negative effect on the
> language or the code-base it supports.
> 
> -- Erica
> 
> 



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