[swift-evolution] [Pitch] Make `return` optional in computed properties for a single case

[Brian Christensen]

On May 27, 2016, at 13:57, Adrian Zubarev via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:

> The idea is simple:
> 
> 	• Can we make return keyword optional in cases like this?
> 	• Shouldn’t this behave like @autoclosure or @noescape?
> type A {
>     var characters: [Character] = …
>     var string: String { String(self.characters) }
>     var count: Int { 42 }
> }
> 
> Is this worth a proposal or Swifty enough, what do you think?
> 
> Sure I could write return, but why do we allow this behavior for @noescape functions like map!?

While I am not necessarily against this idea, I do wonder if it’s worth making what’s going on here less obvious simply for the sake of being able to omit a six character keyword. As I understand it, one of the reasons ++/-- were removed was due to the increased "burden to learn Swift as a first programming language.” This is the sort of thing that becomes another one of those special cases that has to be explained to someone new to Swift.

/brian