[swift-evolution] [swift-evolution-announce] [Review] SE-0055 Make unsafe pointer nullability explicit using Optional

[Brent Royal-Gordon]

> 	* What is your evaluation of the proposal?

I'm in favor. The ability of UnsafePointer to represent nil pointers has always been an odd duck, introducing an unmarked (and undocumented!) implicit trap in `memory` (now `pointee`), preventing the use of Optional constructs, and making Swift pointer types less expressive than C, which is just *wrong*. Making nullability explicit is a good move.

> 	* Is the problem being addressed significant enough to warrant a change to Swift?

Yes.

> 	* Does this proposal fit well with the feel and direction of Swift?

Yes.

> 	* If you have you used other languages or libraries with a similar feature, how do you feel that this proposal compares to those?

The nullability specifiers introduced recently in clang have markedly removed my Objective-C code, both by better documenting system APIs and by forcing me to improve my own calls.

> 	* How much effort did you put into your review? A glance, a quick reading, or an in-depth study?

Read the proposal, participated in discussion.

-- 
Brent Royal-Gordon
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