[swift-evolution] [swift-evolution-announce] [Review] SE-0119: Remove access modifiers from extensions

[Jordan Rose]

[Proposal: https://github.com/apple/swift-evolution/blob/master/proposals/0119-extensions-access-modifiers.md ]

Hi, Adrian. I have to agree with everyone else that the proposal is unclear. “Remove access modifiers from extensions” sounds like you just aren’t allowed to write them at all, but your proposal seems to be more “access modifiers on extensions set a maximum level of access for members, like they do for types, and do not change the default”. (Plus a bit about conformances.)

I am against the latter proposal because I don’t think people should think of extensions as first-class entities. There is really no such thing as a “public extension” or a “private extension” because extensions cannot be referred to in the language and do not have any run-time representation. The access control that really matters is that of the original type, and I wouldn’t want to force people to repeat it here.

I am personally all right with the idea of removing access modifiers from extensions altogether, but I know several people like that feature a lot, and I don’t think it passes the criterion of being “a significant enough problem to warrant a change in Swift”.

Jordan