[swift-evolution] [Review] SE-0089: Renaming String.init<T>(_: T)

[Kevin Ballard]

On Tue, May 17, 2016, at 08:32 PM, Chris Lattner via swift-evolution wrote:
> 	* What is your evaluation of the proposal?

I'm a little nervous about this change, because converting things to strings is a fairly basic operation and it should be immediately obvious how to do that. That said, the described issues are pretty bad, and I know I've had to carefully triple-check sometimes to make sure I was calling the right initializer. So I'm +1 on the idea.

That said, I don't like the name String(printing:). As others have pointed out, it sounds like this is related to print(), but this initializer does not actually print anything, it just converts any value into a string. I also don't like String(describing:) because it's too long. This initializer should be easier to call than String(reflecting:). Also, in my experience this initializer is particularly useful with code of the form `someOpt.map(String.init)`, and saying `someOpt.map(String.init(describing:))` is annoyingly long.

Given this, I'd like to suggest the simpler `String(from:)`. It's short and generic, and it makes sense as it creates a String from any value.

I'm also not a fan of Dave's suggestion of removing this initializer entirely in favor of "\(foo)".  This feels weird, and it also can't be turned into a first-class function value. I also think that this approach may encourage people to start using the .description property instead, even though accessing this property is discouraged.

> 	* 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. Initializers that take one unlabeled argument are typically used for full-width conversions, and I don't think this initializer qualifies as a full-width conversion.

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

Some languages have a global function that does this, such as Python's str(foo) or Haskell's `show`. Some languages have a method/property, such as Obj-C (-description) and Ruby (foo.to_s(), though I believe you can also say String(foo)). I'm not aware of any languages that require string interpolation for this functionality. Keeping the initializer and just giving it a label is similar to a global function or to Ruby's String(foo). Removing the initializer in favor of just just string interpolation does not compare to any language I know of.

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

A quick reading of the proposal, and a reading of the review thread to date.

-Kevin Ballard