[swift-evolution] [Review] SE-0111: Remove type system significance of function argument labels

[Austin Zheng]

> On Jul 3, 2016, at 11:50 PM, Tino Heth via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
> 
> Overall, -1.
> 
> I agree that labels should not affect the type, but imho the current status (Swift 2.3 — I haven't checked Version 3) is fine, and the proposal doesn't achieve what it says in the title:
> For me, that is no question of types at all, but only of names:
> 
> var a: (Int, z: Int) -> Void = t
> var b: (y: Int, z: Int) -> Void = t
> 
> a = b
> 
> This works, because a and b are both of type (Int, Int) -> Void, and the labels aren't significant.

The point of the behavior is to remove the subtyping relationships from the type system which make the above work, which is a very real change.

> 
> So the proposal merely disallows labels in the declaration of function variables, which I consider bad, because labels convey the meaning of parameters. Why should something that is widely seen as a good feature of functions be removed from function variables?

As has been discussed exhaustively in this thread, Swift 3 function labels don't convey the meaning of parameters, they are almost always prepositional phrases that don't make sense apart from the primary function name they are attached to.

> 
> If you share the opinion that labels are part of the name, the battleship example no good argument against labels:
> No one stops you from doing
> 
> let minimum: (Int, Int) -> Int = max
> Which is confusing as well.
> 
> Best regards,
> Tino
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