[swift-evolution] [DRAFT] Regularizing Where Grammar (was Re: Add a while clause to for loops)

[Christopher Kornher]

> On Jun 10, 2016, at 1:52 PM, Xiaodi Wu via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
> 
> On Fri, Jun 10, 2016 at 2:38 PM, Brandon Knope via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution at swift.org>> wrote:
> Thanks for the laugh!
> 
> The last week or so is actually stressing me out about the direction where swift is going…
> 
> I hope it is just a fleeting feeling but that remains to be seen. I am beginning to think my interests and taste are no longer aligning with the communities or core teams.
> 
> Brandon
> 
> I think, given the usage statistics, we'll find that these amount to small nips and tucks. I can't speak to whether things will be to your taste, but please rest assured that these proposals do not arise out of anyone's taste or distaste (outside that of the core team). If taste were the basis for proposals, I'd be proposing rather larger changes to the syntax, but I appreciate that my personal taste is of no import.

Language design is an art as much as a science. Expressiveness is an extremely important feature of a language to me (and of Swift). If we want to be scientific about it, character and line counts are very rough metrics for expressiveness. How many more characters does changing 'where’s to ‘guards' cost?  How many lines would be added by a sensibly formatted replacement?

Java is a great example of a language that did not put a high priority on expressiveness and consequently Java code has a very high fraction of boilerplate. I do not want to see Swift be “Javaized” in the name of “rationalization”. Rationalization does not require the language to be dumbed-down to a lowest common denominator syntax.

> 
> But as to interests, please do speak loudly and without reserve if any proposed changes are putting a stop to real-world (or even anticipated) uses you have. That's precisely what this process is about.
>  
> 
> > On Jun 10, 2016, at 3:25 PM, L. Mihalkovic via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution at swift.org>> wrote:
> >
> > Goodness... where is this language going.....
> >
> >> On Jun 10, 2016, at 9:08 PM, Erica Sadun via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution at swift.org>> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>> On Jun 10, 2016, at 1:06 PM, Rob Norback via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution at swift.org>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Following Brent's logic that the for-in where should mimic the switch statement functionality, then this example:
> >>>
> >>> for (eachKey, eachValue)
> >>> where eachValue > 5
> >>> in theKeyValuePairs {... }
> >>
> >> <squish>
> >>
> >> I finally convinced myself of which direction I wanted to go: https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/pull/362/files <https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/pull/362/files>
> >>
> >> Related blog post here: http://ericasadun.com/2016/06/10/swift-where-oh-where-can-my-where-clause-be/ <http://ericasadun.com/2016/06/10/swift-where-oh-where-can-my-where-clause-be/>
> >>
> >> Big thanks to Brent and Wux.
> >>
> >> -- E
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
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