[swift-evolution] mutating/non-mutating suggestion from a Rubyist

[Vladimir.S]

On 24.04.2016 17:49, Tim Vermeulen via swift-evolution wrote:
> Can’t we do this for every mutating method? i.e.
>
> var numbers = [1,3,2]
> let sorted = numbers.sort()
> // sorted is [1,2,3], numbers is [1,3,2]
> numbers.sort()
> // numbers is [1,2,3]
>
> I suppose this would require that the mutating version doesn’t return anything, and I don’t know if that’s ever a problem.

Well, right now(Swift 2) we can have such code (yes, it will raise 
warnings, but will compile and run without errors. i.e. this is a valid code):

var a = [1,2,3]
let a1 = a.sortInPlace(>) // a1 == ()
let a2 = a.sort(>) // a2 == [3,2,1]

Note, how sortInPlace is explicit. Now, change to sort/sorted:

var a = [1,2,3]
let a1 = a.sorted(>) // IMO not explicit about the result
let a2 = a.sort(>)

For your proposal we need to disallow assignment of Void to variable, 
otherwise compiller can't choose which one to use. Or, in case of your 
proposal, documentation should explicitly say(and compiler implemented in 
this way) that non-mutating function should be selected if result is used.