[swift-evolution] SE-0025: Scoped Access Level, next steps

[Ross O'Brien]

The specific meaning of 'public' and 'private' in programming languages
refers to type-based symbol visibility. I'm thinking of C++, C#, Java and
Objective C; their 'public' is Swift's 'internal'. They have no equivalent
to Swift's 'public'. Swift has no equivalent to their 'private'.

Possibly my familiarity with other languages isn't broad enough, but this
is why I haven't understood the idea that Swift's use of 'private' is
"right" or "obvious". You learn Swift's meanings of these terms by coding
in Swift, you don't learn these meanings anywhere else first.

To use a hopefully recognised example: an American who wants 'chips' wants
what a Brit calls crisps; a Brit who wants chips wants what an American
calls french fries. Which meaning of 'chips' is more intuitive? Answer: the
one you grew up with.

On Sat, Mar 26, 2016 at 1:10 AM, Brent Royal-Gordon via swift-evolution <
swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:

> > all of these names (public, internal, private, local) have specific
> meaning in the context of computer languages.
>
> Yes, `local` has a meaning, but that meaning is generally *not* that it's
> an access level. It usually has something to do with declaring variables
> inside a function.
>
> For instance, Perl uses it to back up and restore a global variable. ML
> uses it to create a scope (roughly). Lua and Julia use it to declare
> lexical variables which are visible in enclosed scopes, which SE-0025's new
> access level is specifically *not* supposed to allow.
>
> I don't know of any language where `local` is used as an access level. If
> you're aware of an analogous use in another language, I'd be interested to
> see it. But the examples I've found if anything *undermine* the suggestion
> that `local` would be a good keyword choice.
>
> --
> Brent Royal-Gordon
> Architechies
>
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