[swift-evolution] [swift-evolution-announce] [Review] SE-0067: Enhanced Floating Point Protocols

[Dave Abrahams]

on Tue Apr 26 2016, Chris Lattner <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:

> On Apr 26, 2016, at 7:34 PM, Tony Allevato via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>> Would something like this be possible? Imagine protocols defined like this:
>> 
>>   public protocol Equatable {
>>       static func == (lhs: Self, rhs: Self) -> Self
>>   }
>
> The problem is that every type that conforms to Equatable has to
> provide an overload of == in order to conform.  This is exactly what
> having named methods as requirements solves.

Note that Tony is proposing to make the requirement static.  Whether
it's actually called “==” or isEqual is almost immaterial, because the
fact that it is static makes it less likely that anyone will try to call
it directly.  

However, if we allowed static operators to be defined, and called using
the syntax “T.==(x,y)”, as Tony has suggested, IMO it would further
discourage direct use, and it would avoid growing the number of
truly distinct spellings for the same operation.

That would also remove many instances of “formXXX” methods that
currently cause many people discomfort.  Whether that's a win or not
depends on whether you view widespread discomfort with “formXXX” as a
nuisance or a beneficial forcing function for finding something better
;-)

-- 
Dave