[swift-evolution] [Draft] Rationalizing Sequence end-operation names

[David Hart]

Most of your proposal look great to me! Comments inline:

> On 23 Jun 2016, at 09:19, Brent Royal-Gordon via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org <mailto:swift-evolution at swift.org>> wrote:
> 
> As previously threatened mentioned, I've written a draft proposal to fix a number of naming issues with APIs operating on the beginning and end of Sequences and Collections:
> 
> • Inconsistent use of `prefix`/`suffix` vs. `first`/`last`
> • Confusing naming of `drop` methods
> • Ambiguous naming of `index(of:/where:)` and `drop(while:)`
> • `prefix(upTo:)`, `prefix(through:)`, and `suffix(from:)` shouldn't be part of this family at all
> 
> To fix this, I propose:
> 
> • Renaming all methods which operate on more than one element at the beginning/end to use "prefix" or "suffix", not "first" or "last"
> • Renaming `index(of:/where:)` to `earliestIndex(…)` and `first(where:)` to `earliest(where:)`
> • Renaming the `drop` methods to use `removing`

+! Everything above, I strongly agree with!

> • Redesigning `prefix(upTo:)`, `prefix(through:)` and `suffix(from:)` as subscripts with "partial" ranges, like `people[..<idx]` or perhaps `people[nil..<idx]`.

I’m not a fan of the subscript solutions. They both introduce new types which seems very heavyweight for such a small use case. I’d vote for keeping the current functions.

> Since that last point requires significant redesign, including the introduction of new types, I have also included an alternative design which uses `people[to: idx]` instead.
> 
> This proposal does not seek to add new functionality; it merely renames or (in the case of the "aggressive" subscript option) redesigns existing functionality. I do, however, discuss (without making many judgements about their wisdom) how these changes might affect the naming of functionality we might add in future versions of Swift.
> 
> I would mainly like feedback on the two most open questions left in this proposal:
> 
> • The choice of `removing` to replace `drop`

Yep, heavily agree with you on `removing`.

> • The decision about whether to use `people[..<idx]`, `people[nil..<idx]`, or `people[to: idx]`.

None of the above, as stated previously :)

> But I'd also like comments on the rest of the proposal, and on whether I should split the prefix(upTo:/through:)/suffix(from:) changes into a separate proposal from the rest.
> 
> I suspect this will cause a firestorm of bikeshedding, so please try to keep your suggestions grounded. Don't just suggest a name; articulate why it's a better choice than what we already have or what this proposal suggests. Only you can prevent our first *three*-hundred-message bikeshedding thread.
> 
> Thanks for your attention!
> 
> (P.S. The proposal below includes several huge tables which may cause some mail clients to become very pouty and refuse to eat their supper. You may want to read the proposal at <https://gist.github.com/brentdax/024d26c2b68b88323989540c06261430 <https://gist.github.com/brentdax/024d26c2b68b88323989540c06261430>> instead.)
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